Ever bump into someone who proclaims love for his occupation simply because it allows him to help the helpless without charging a nickel?
Road Warrior
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.
Included in a flurry of tax increases approved by lawmakers during the 2009 legislative session was a boost that resulted in higher fees when motorists register their vehicles. That hike might have briefly escaped drivers’ memories; but Sept. 1, the date it went into effect, has arrived. Now motorists’ experience at the Department of Motor Vehicles might be more agonizing than anticipated.
Like many Las Vegas commuters, I fly frequently and dream of the day when public transportation provides a simple, convenient and timely ride to McCarran International Airport.
Brian Hoeft is the leader of the red light district in Las Vegas. OK, not really, but he does have control of when traffic signals turn red, or green, in his role as assistant director of the Regional Transportation Commission’s Freeway & Arterial System of Transportation (FAST).
Go ahead and whine about lane closures on Harmon Avenue at the Las Vegas Strip. About the backups and congestion caused by motorists turned away and forced to find an alternate route. About how every effort to maneuver around Harmon is greeted only by more construction.
One reader wanted me to advise motorists with handicap placards that they can park in regular spaces without feeding the meter, and another wondered whether cars with the placards may park in spaces designated for side-loading vans for the handicapped.
Just east of the Fremont Street Experience, ragged women in short skirts sashay along cracked sidewalks. Homeless people in search of shade crouch against a concrete wall protecting a low-rent RV park. Weeds grow in empty lots. Once-prosperous businesses are shuttered.
This week, readers want to know about Metropolitan Police Department policies and Nevada laws related to crosswalks, fender-benders, pulling motorists over and drivers who tool around town without license plates.
Don’t ask why, but whenever the DesertXpress high-speed train proposal in mentioned, the Talking Heads song “Road to Nowhere” comes to mind.
This week, a reader wants to know what recourse she has if her car is damaged by a road hazard, an Arizona resident wonders why it is taking so long to improve the stretch between state Route 163 and Railroad Pass; and a man wants to know when the heck Eastern Avenue will be repaved.
I’m the fourth Road Warrior to pen this column since its inception. And the first woman.
And now the end is here. This is my last column as your Road Warrior.
This week readers want to know whether there is any news regarding extending Silverado Ranch Boulevard to Decatur Boulevard in the southern Las Vegas Valley; what are the DMV rules if you split time as a resident in Nevada and another state; and are there any upcoming closures on the Summerlin Parkway.
Holy nearly completed interstate construction projects, Batman!
This week readers want to know what is happening on Rampart Boulevard at Alta Drive; if you’re turning left from a double left-turn lane onto a three-lane street, which lane should you enter; and who is going to be allowed to drive over the Hoover Dam Bypass bridge when it is completed.