What can be done to make Vegas bus stops safer?

Las Vegans were stunned again last week when a sport utility vehicle barreled into a bus stop, injuring a mother and her two children.

The driver and a passenger in the vehicle also were hurt.

The miracle of this tragedy was that no one was killed.

Privacy laws prohibit the hospital from giving an update on the victims’ condition, but last week Metro indicated the injuries to those involved were not fatal.

It got Road Warrior readers to thinking and writing about what could be done to keep those waiting at bus stops safer.

Road Warrior reader Don wrote: “When reading the Jan. 11 Review-Journal article “Bus stop crash hospitalizes five,” I can’t help but think someone is surely doing something to prevent vehicles from crashing into bus stops and more importantly people, especially children. As an example, we put vehicle barriers in front of buildings such as the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse. Why can’t they be put in the sidewalks leading to bus stops?

“Who is responsible for installing and maintaining the bus stops and how may they be contacted to express our concerns?”

The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada is responsible for local bus routes and stops, and representatives responded immediately to inquiries about the incident.

The commission has wrestled with the matter of making bus stops safer for years. Awareness of the issue always rises with each tragedy.

Carl Scarbrough, the commission’s manager of transit amenities, said the RTC first became involved in making stops safer in 2007 after a fatal accident on Boulder Highway. That accident resulted in a study conducted by the commission’s Transportation Resource Board to determine the best way to protect people waiting for the bus to arrive.

Like Don, I thought an increase in sturdy barriers was the answer. The RTC calls them “bollards,” the thick low posts normally made of iron or steel, usually found planted on wharves.

The commission’s study determined that the best way to protect bus stoppers is to move any bus stop bench farther from the street. The report said 90 percent of accidents are contained by the curb of the street within 6 feet of the stop. That’s one of the reasons that objects that must be close to the road, such as streetlights, are designed to snap off and give the driver a better chance of surviving the collision.

On average, a bus stop area gets hit by a motorist about two or three times a month, but because these collisions usually occur late at night or early in the morning, there’s property damage but little public endangerment.

Scarbrough said bollards can produce a higher risk to both those at the bus stop and in the vehicle, depending on the speed of the car at the time of the collision. Speeding cars that strike an object can produce shrapnel that is just as deadly as an out-of-control vehicle.

The problem with having a bus stop shelter 5 feet or more away from the stop is that the right of way doesn’t always exist, and some business owners are reluctant to give it up if it does.

It’s also expensive.

In the case of the Jan. 10 accident near Rainbow Boulevard and Balzar Avenue, near Smoke Ranch Road in northwest Las Vegas, Scarborough said the bus shelter was totaled — a $15,000 loss.

Before 2005, city and county governments were responsible for building and maintaining shelters at bus stops. The Legislature cleared the way for the RTC to take over them, and one of the agency’s first moves was to bring bus stops into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and make them safer by moving the shelters away from the streets.

You can tell which bus shelters have been designed by the RTC — they’re the ones with the wavy roof lines along the tops.

Scarborough said there are 3,200 active bus stops, 1,900 of which have benches and shelters. Of those 1,900, about 650 already are more than 5 feet away from the street.

About 300 stops will be upgraded this year at a cost of about $15,000 apiece, or $4.5 million, with 800 more planned. Improvements to bus stops are prioritized based on the number of people they serve.

Another 800 stops won’t be improved because there’s not enough available right of way or property owners are reluctant to cede the land.

The stop where last week’s accident occurred falls in that category. There isn’t enough room to move facilities away from the street so it isn’t on the list of those that will see improvements.

“Some companies like Wells Fargo and Home Depot have been really good about helping us through some of these right-of-way issues,” Scarbrough said. “But some property owners don’t even want a bus stop near their places.”

HEAVY TRAFFIC

A 15-block portion of Fourth Street in downtown Las Vegas will be closed for eight hours Monday for the city’s 33rd Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade.

The parade begins at 10 a.m., but closures on several streets will occur from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Fourth Street will be closed from Imperial Avenue to just north of Stewart Avenue, the disbanding area.

Streets that will serve as five staging areas for the parade also will be closed. They include Fourth Street, south of Charleston Boulevard; Coolidge, Hoover and Gass avenues, between Casino Center Boulevard and Fourth Street; and Third Street, between Charleston Boulevard and Garces Avenue.

A parade review stand will be set up on the east side of Fourth Street at Clark Avenue.

This is also a big convention week for Las Vegas with six shows of more than 24,000 apiece hitting the city Sunday through Saturday.

The World Market Center’s Winter Market runs Sunday through Thursday with 50,000 people downtown; the Kitchen and Bath Show (24,000) and the International Builders Show (49,000) run concurrently at the Las Vegas Convention Center from Tuesday through Thursday; the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show, aka SHOT Show, with 67,000 people, runs Tuesday through Friday at the Sands Expo and Convention Center; Surfaces 2015 surfaces at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center with 25,000 people Wednesday through Friday; and the Adult Entertainment Expo and its 25,000 participants hit the Hard Rock Hotel from Wednesday through Saturday.

Expect the streets around those facilities and McCarran International Airport to fill up all week.

ROAD TRIP

The Road Warrior is going on a little road trip next month.

Beginning in February, the weekly Road Warrior column will move to Mondays in the print edition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Questions and comments should be sent to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com. Please include your phone number. Find the Road Warrior on Twitter: @RJroadwarrior.