County to study recommendations to ease pedestrian bottlenecks on Las Vegas Strip

By Joe Schoenmann

Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012 | 1:59 p.m.

Clark County commissioners on Tuesday formally accepted a report about pedestrian traffic on the Las Vegas Strip, but county staff said it would take a few months to develop a plan, program and budget to address the report’s recommendations.

Those recommendations include making obstruction restrictions in certain areas on certain days and times.

Released Nov. 21, the study was ordered last spring as part of a long-term campaign to “clean up” the Strip, which commissioners had characterized as becoming chaotic in recent years. The Strip is in an unincorporated area of Clark County and falls under the purview of the County Commission.

The area of highest pedestrian traffic detailed in the study occurred around 9:30 p.m. on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend when 2,633 people were counted over a 15-minute period.

“This location was categorized as having an unacceptable ‘level of service,’” said a county summary.

The study also talked frequently about “non-permanent” obstructions, which could mean street performers. Or it could mean employees of outcalls services, who stand for hours trying to get tourists to take one of their “girls direct to your room” cards.

Due to the cards littering the sidewalks, commissioners months ago enacted an ordinance that requires the card-slappers to pick up cards that tourists toss onto the sidewalk.

It is believed the study could lead to an ordinance forcing them either to be limited in number or to be more spaced out along the Strip. Or, as the study suggests numerous times, the county might simply have to depend more on a “non-obstructive use” ordinance already on the books.

The roughly 200-page study was conducted by Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. and points to many other locations, including:

• In front of Harrah’s hotel/casino, where the study says nonpermanent obstructions were “averaging as many as 15.”

• Near Caesars Palace.

• In front of Margaritaville, where nonpermanent obstructions averaged “as many as 10.”

• At the north end of Planet Hollywood, where the same kind of obstructions also averaged “as many as 10.”