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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
Good morning Clark County Commissioners:
My name is Alan Snel and I live in Clark County. I am a bicyclist, author and journalist who publishes LVSportsBiz.com, a news website covering the convergence of politics, sports, business, development and stadiums in Las Vegas. I have lived in the metropolitan areas of New York City, South Florida, Denver, Seattle and Tampa Bay before moving to Las Vegas in Nov. 2012 to work for the local newspaper to report on this news topic.
In 2006, I took a six-year break from journalism in Tampa, where I left the Tampa Tribune to create a consortium of Tampa Bay area bicycle shops committed to growing the profile of bicycling and creating public roads that would be safer for non car-users like bicyclists and walkers. I left daily newspapers because I could no longer sit on the sidelines and watch bicyclists and walkers getting killed, injured and maimed by reckless motorists in a road system that prioritized motorist speed and convenience over bicyclist/pedestrian safety and health.
Our bicycle store group made bicycling resources and safety on public right-of-ways a public policy transportation and health issue. I worked fulltime for six years on this public safety issue. I like to think our organization made a difference.
When I moved to Las Vegas in late 2012 to return to daily journalism, I thought I had retired from that line of work. Although, I have to admit, I was taken aback at the frequency of traffic violence on Las Vegas roads and highways, and more stunningly, amazed at how local and state government officials and elected representatives took the road crashes in stride as business as usual in Las Vegas.
During my 13 years of living here in Las Vegas I have been horrified at some of the most brutal killings of bicyclists in the U.S. We are approaching the five-year anniversary of a truck driver on meth killing five bicyclists south of Boulder City in Clark County in Dec. 2020. Then in Aug. 2023, two teenagers mowed down a 64-year-old bicyclist with a stolen car in the northwest Las Vegas Valley.
And now in 2025 kids — students — are getting killed going to and leaving schools.
As Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson put it recently, there is talk ad nauseum about all the road deaths but no action like stiffer punishments for people who kill other people with their cars.
You, county commissioners, are in position to do more than just say words. You can make a difference.
Here is my plan for you. It’s necessary to do all five of these initiatives. Otherwise the road deaths will continue.
LOWER SPEED LIMIT — Why is the speed limit 65 miles per hour on Blue Diamond Road just west of Fort Apache Road in the southwest valley? Speed kills and our speed limits validate speed.
BUILD ROADS FOR BICYCLISTS AND WALKERS NOT JUST MOTORISTS — I was driving on Blue Diamond Road between Fort Apache Road and Durango Drive and pedestrians were walking on the side of the road with no sidewalks and no lights. Blue Diamond Road is eight lanes wide between Decatur Boulevard and Jones Boulevard and it looks like a Four Wide Drag Racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is the height of hypocrisy to hear county commissioners lament about traffic crashes, road violence and lost lives when they oversee a county public works department that has systematically built roads encouraging high speeds and motorist convenience at the cost of dead pedestrians and bicyclists.
MANDATORY STUDENT AND DRIVER EDUCATION — Our schools must hammer home road safety in required street and driver safety classes. It has to become part of every school’s curriculum. This has to be part of building a new road safety culture in Las Vegas. Plus, parents must stop buying these e-scooters for kids who are irresponsibly using them, riding them against traffic and hitting people on sidewalks.
DOUBLE TRAFFIC POLICE PATROLS AND BEEF UP ENFORCEMENT — Drivers running red lights has become routine. When was the last time you saw a motorist come to a complete stop when making a red turn on a red light? There needs to be a new crackdown on speeders and red light runners, plus tickets to people who park in bike lanes at schools waiting to pick up their kids. County commissioners, your friends will be complaining to you about their speeding and red light tickets and you need to tell all your pals to stop the crying to obey the rules of the road. Making illegal turns like this one is commonplace.
INCREASE PUNISHMENTS FOR DRIVERS WHO KILL PEOPLE: DA Wolfson shared a panel with three state legislators at a recent state traffic safety event. Wolfson urged state lawmakers to pass harsher penalties for drivers who kill people. Wolfson said the 8-20 year prison sentence is not deterring motorists from their reckless road behavior. Wolfson told the audience he had to tell the mother of a 12-year-old boy recently killed by an impaired motorist while the child walked to school that the driver would realistically face six to seven years in prison as a potential sentence. “You should have seen her face,” Wolfson told road safety summit attendees. “She said, ‘The man who murdered my son will be out in six or seven years.’ ” Wolfson, seeking a fourth term as county DA in 2026, said he’s “hearing his constituents are saying, ‘Enough is enough.’ ”
I have bad news for you, commissioners.
It hurts and pains me to say this, but the road tragedies will continue without drastic action. There is no magic answer. The Strip and Las Vegas are built on suspending reality and for too long elected representatives at local and state levels have been all talk and no action. DA Wolfson, himself a former Las Vegas city councilman, knows the state lawmakers he shared the panel with at the traffic safety summit will not do anything to stop the carnage on Las Vegas roads.
T-shirts, billboards and newsletters with nice sayings will not cut it.
To local and state lawmakers, grow a backbone and step up and take action. Enacting big brother tactics like red light cameras and speeding detection devices sucks, but too many innocent people are getting killed on Las Vegas streets.
Enough is enough.
PSA
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