HIGH-TR AFFIC GENER ATORS BRING NEED FOR UPGRADE ON CORRIDOR

the RTC.

Community members can submit comments or questions on the project website, via email to onboardsnv@rtcsnv.com, by fax at 702-676-1589 or by mail to: ATTN: Maryland Parkway transportation project, RTC of Southern Nevada, 600 S. Grand Central Parkway, Suite 350, Las Vegas, NV 89106.

The three alternatives for the Maryland Parkway corridor would bring different anticipated changes in ridership and travel time for public transportation along Maryland Parkway. The options also differ significantly in cost.

Funding is fully available for the enhanced route option, Swallow said, and construction could begin in the next few years. Enhancements to the 109 route might include reducing the number of bus stops to increase travel efficiency, replacing bus shelters with new ones and increasing the frequency of bus service.

But average travel time would only go down from 45 to 44 minutes with that option, the RTC estimates, and ridership would only increase from 9,000 to 10,000 riders in the first year.

By comparison, a bus rapid-transit alternative would yield an average travel time of 38 minutes and an estimated ridership jump to 13,000 riders in the first year.

Light rail would reduce average travel times to 32 minutes and increase ridership to an estimated 16,100 in the first year.

To cover the full cost of light rail or bus rapid transit, the RTC would likely pursue a grant from the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts program, which funds light rail, bus rapid transit and similar transportation systems with fixed lanes.

The grant, if obtained, would be enough to finish funding bus rapid transit construction, Swallow said, but not the full costs of the light rail option.

“There’s still a little bit of a gap there we’d need to make up,” Swallow said.

A possible additional source for the light rail option would be a sales tax hike that could be approved by ballot measure. If voters supported the hike, the RTC could use those funds for any number of transit expansions and enhancements, including along Maryland Parkway.

“We have not identified a specific amount we would like to increase or if we’re going to pursue that, but that is something that has been enabled legislatively that could be an option for projects like this,” Swallow said.

The RTC considers Maryland Parkway to be a priority for transit improvements because of the large amount of traffic, both vehicular and on the 109 bus route, that traverses the corridor every day.

In addition to connecting Mccarran Airport to downtown, the long-anticipated improvements to the corridor would increase the transit accessibility of the Las Vegas medical district and connect UNLV’S two campuses to one another and to downtown.

“When we look at transit usage, high generators of transit use are typically airports, universities, malls, hospitals and downtown, and we have all of those elements on the proposed route for Maryland Parkway,” Swallow said.

The significance of the project is a big part of why the RTC hopes to gather as much feedback as possible. “The most important part is we want to hear from the public,” he said.