The NFL draft shut down the Las Vegas Strip to car traffic. Some people liked the change so much that a new law proposes to permanently block cars from the street. Yes, you read that correctly.
Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom is following the lead of the National Football League and proposing a law that would permanently block cars from Las Vegas Boulevard where it passes through the unincorporated part of Clark County known, famously, as the Las Vegas Strip. Commissioner announced the proposed law in a Tweet on April 28.
The National Football League recently shut down the street as part of the festivities surrounding the 2022 Draft. The draft isn’t the only precedent for car-free streets in Las Vegas—Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas (in the actual city of Las Vegas) has been car-free since 1994.
Multiple Fox affiliates picked up the news of the proposed Strip closure, including Fox11 in Los Angeles and Fox5 in Las Vegas. Both articles are short on the details of the proposed law that would close the Las Vegas strip to automobile traffic.
Anyone who has been to Las Vegas knows that the strip is infamously hostile to pedestrians. Las Vegas Boulevard is wide, unsafe for pedestrians and vehicles alike, and oppressively congested. Moreover, the surrounding built environment is designed to keep visitors inside, spending money. The Las Vegas Strip is also the most visited tourist location in the world. A car-free Strip would be perhaps the most complete (symbolic) setback for the car-centric planning status after several years of changes in the public realm.
FULL STORY: Bill would permanently ban vehicle traffic on Las Vegas Strip
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