Car City by Bus

by Megan Edwards

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

The 301 waits for passengers at
the Southside Transit Terminal

Everybody knows that Las Vegas is a city built for cars. Whether you’re driving your own, zipping around in a rental, peering out from the back of a cab, or relaxing in the bowels of a limo, the automobile has been the Vegas way to move for nigh on a hundred years. Cars and Vegas grew up together, and as they both enter their second century, the love affair is showing no signs of cooling down. The old ad slogan, “Life sucks without a car” was probably written by a Vegas local.

But even though most Las Vegas residents don’t care to notice, there is another way to get around in Sin City. There is The Bus, and I’m not talking about cushy chartered coaches. I’m talking about good old-fashioned public transportation, which in Las Vegas is known as Citizen’s Area Transit, or CAT for short.

Over 300 CAT buses currently run on 49 routes all over the valley, and more routes are added frequently as the city’s edges creep further into the desert. About 150,000 people a day ride on CAT buses, the 10% of the population whose life presumably sucks. As far as I can tell, the other 90% don’t give CAT buses a thought unless they’re hit by one.

Those car folks don’t know what they’re missing. CAT buses are clean and cheap to ride. Their air conditioning usually works, and their drivers are pleasant and helpful. You can get to all corners of the city, and there’s even a route that will take you all the way to Boulder City for the same $1.25 you’d pay for a short run. The Strip routes run every few minutes, and the Strip bus stops have sheltered benches. The Downtown Transportation Center is one of the nicest bus stations I’ve ever seen, and the new Southside Transit Terminal is even spiffier.

Waiting in the shade: Bus stop
on Las Vegas Boulevard

If the system is so lovely, I’m sure you’re wondering, why don’t more people ride the CATs? The answer is multifold. First off, some people will never ride a public bus, no matter how heavy the traffic gets or how scarce parking becomes. Secondly, even though there are routes to all corners of the valley, there are far too many places where you have to walk two miles to a bus stop. Try that once in 110-degree weather, and a perfectly good life comes remarkably close to sucking. Third, connections can be life threatening. When you get off a bus on Tropicana Avenue, say, and see the one you want to catch about to pull out across the street, you suddenly find yourself dodging eighteen-wheelers as you jaywalk—make that jayrun—across six lanes. Why take the risk? Because otherwise you’ll be baking in 110-degree heat until the next bus comes. In all too many cases, this can be as much as an hour.

Tall rider: A “stilt walker”climbs aboard
at the Paris Las Vegas stop

To sum up, it’s a pleasant cinch to ride a CAT bus up and down the Strip, and also easy to ride a single route beginning at one of the bus stations, where you can wait indoors. Trips involving transfers, however, can take inordinate amounts of time, and many bus stops do not have shelters or benches. Anyone planning to use CAT buses in place of owning a car must take routes and stops into consideration when choosing a place to live. Many neighborhoods, especially newer, less densely developed ones, are inadequately served by the bus system. But even with all its drawbacks, the CAT system works, and it offers a genuine, inexpensive alternative to driving a car in Las Vegas.

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