Las Vegas (RTC) Transit Planning Services

In 2014, Jarrett Walker + Associates was retained to provide a range of transit planning and policy advice to the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) of Southern Nevada, which operates the entire Las Vegas area transit network. Interestingly, RTC operates some of the most productive transit routes in the country.

Specific tasks included:

  • SWOT analysis of transit services, including briefings of executive staff
  • Advice on network design policies
  • Performance analysis of the Resort Corridor
  • Advice on public information, branding, and marketing

The Resort Corridor consists of two lines – one rapid and one local – that run along the Las Vegas Strip, connecting the Strip to downtown, the Convention Center, and two major outlet malls. The lines are both extremely frequent and jointly produce a 50% profit that RTC invests in the rest of the network.

JWA conducted a thorough analysis of the Resort Corridor services, with special attention to issues of speed and reliability. Our work suggested new ways to think about and measure reliability, and explored the range of causes of reliability problems. We put reliability issues in a more realistic context, developed reliability measures that reflect customer experience, and laid out realistic steps that can be taken to improve reliability in a mixed-traffic environment. We also advised the agency on service design questions for the Resort Corridor, and on how public information and marketing of services could be improved.