Planners Fighting Las Vegas Gridlock

"Stop-and-go traffic is in your future, but regional traffic planners are hoping to keep that daily aggravation to a minimum. The Southern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission unveiled three-year and 25-year plans that officials hope will cope with a growth boom that will continue for years. The cost in federal, state and local funding to keep the cars, buses and bicycles moving is a hefty bill: $3.5 billion for the next three years, $21 billion over the next 25 years. The growth boom -- in people, cars and visitors -- will continue to define transportation needs for decades, RTC planners and engineers say in documents. Both plans say that the need to keep up with the population increase will be the dominant factor in transportation planning. They call for more road construction, but also stress improvements to mass transit and more access to motoring alternatives -- walking and bicycling."