Editorial: Tanking transit plans

Tuesday, June 13, 2006 | 7:38 a.m.

There is something about public transit that Henderson residents just don't like.

According to a story Monday by the Las Vegas Sun, they have twice in the past 16 months blocked the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada's efforts to build bus transfer stations to meet current and future transit needs in the Las Vegas Valley. Members of this community of 249,200 residents also were among the most vocal opponents of a proposed light rail system.

Residents fear that bus transfer stations - where riders choose from buses serving several routes and that also could provide park-and-ride lots and other amenities to serve commuters - would attract crime and transients to their neighborhoods.

The RTC scrapped one transfer station plan in February 2005 after the Henderson City Council sided with residents of a condominium complex who feared such a facility would create noise and crime.

Working with Henderson officials, the RTC located an alternate site in April along Boulder Highway near U.S. 95. Boulder Highway is an established north-south transit corridor. But the RTC pulled the proposal from the city council's agenda after residents of a neighborhood more than a quarter-mile away opposed it.

Members of a state task force charged with addressing transportation issues recently told the Sun that the state will need $13 billion for road improvements by 2015. Even then, it will be impossible to build our way out of gridlock. Public transit must be more accessible and attractive.

It might help if the RTC hosts meetings with Henderson residents where they could discuss realistic expectations for the mass transit options that accompany life in an urban region.

Contrary to what some mass transit critics say, public transit can improve property values and the quality of life. Pockets of residents whose expectations of a small-town, rural lifestyle are unrealistic in one of the nation's fastest-growing urban areas should not be allowed to commandeer transportation decisions that affect 1.7 million residents.

Ultimately, the Henderson City Council and other local governments need to have more backbone in approving regional projects that provide the public transit the Las Vegas Valley most certainly will need in the future.