Boulder Highway and pedestrian deaths
The Boulder Highway was not built to “zip between Henderson and downtown Las Vegas,” as Review-Journal reporter Art Marroquin writes in his Thursday story, “Making Boulder Highway safe for all.” The Basic magnesium plants and townsite didn’t exist until the mid-1940s, and the city of Henderson until the 1950s. Rather, the Boulder Highway was built expressly for the construction of its namesake, the Boulder Dam.
Today, the Boulder Highway links the Las Vegas Valley to the surrounding region and is an important evacuation route as we prepare for disasters natural or man-made. Reducing its width or travel lanes in a vain attempt to save drunks from playing “frogger,” as they will continue to do, would be to sacrifice the safety of the many for the few who don’t value their own lives enough to patiently access the many crosswalks and pedestrian crossings that are ignored today, as will be the safety features of tomorrow.