2022 Crown Communities Award Winner: The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada

When the pandemic descended, public transportation organizations across the United States had to adjust overnight to decreased ridership and health safety concerns. At the same time, essential workers had to be able to make it to work.

The difficulties didn’t stop when businesses reopened and the economy started back up.

“How do you come back from the pandemic? How do you rebound?” says Angela Castro, deputy CEO for the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, noting that ridership has returned to about 85 percent of its pre-pandemic levels. “Even now, we’re slowly coming back.”

Unlike other transit systems, Castro says Las Vegas’ economy reengaged earlier than other communities, and all at once, when casinos reopened. This presented unique challenges.

Administrators had to balance rapidly changing ridership needs with safety protocols. Notably, an estimated 80 percent of the transit service’s ridership uses it to get to work.

“Most people have the center part of the city being the main economic driver. For us, our main economic driver is the resort corridor,” Castro says. “While we shut down for a brief moment, we opened sooner than everyone else.”

Adapting to these needs required a lot of organizational flexibility. To meet the challenge, the Nevada transit system reduced the frequency of some bus trips instead of canceling routes altogether and relied on microtransit services to fill in the gaps.

For its resilience and adaptation under extraordinary circumstances, the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada has been selected as a recipient of this year’s American City & County 2022 Crown Communities Award, an annual merit-based award that recognizes innovative city- and county-level initiatives that have a substantial positive impact on constituents.

Beyond surviving, the transportation commission leveraged $6.9 million in federal money to reduce inequity in services that had existed in parts of the Las Vegas Valley by restoring, enhancing, adding two completely new routes and launching a microtransit service in the valley’s southwestern region. Castro likens the on-demand microtransit service to “Uber and Lyft. I book my ride, and a smaller-sized bus or van will show up and take me to the ‘M’ resort, and it may have additional stops along the way on that route.”

Residents have taken more than 27,000 trips on the service in its first year. The added services expanded equity to an estimated 185,000 residents, approximately 8 percent of Clark County’s population.

Microtransit is “really a way to fill in the gaps,” Castro continues, describing it as an efficient “cost savings measure, and eventually, you’ll get a full route.”

Coinciding with the structural investments, the transit service launched a seven-day promotional campaign called Reconnecting to Community.

The transit service offered free access to points of interest in the community— like restaurants, museums, outdoor destinations, and health and wellness businesses.

Each day brought participating riders to a new, interesting local destination, where they received free admission. In total, more than 700 people participated.

“We gave them a reason to come out and reconnect to life,” Castro says, noting that one of her personal highlights was watching children visit the Las Vegas DISCOVERY Children’s Museum via public transit.

“One or two families followed us all seven days. We saw them from the first day, up to the seventh day.”

Along with $73,350 spent on radio, social media and direct mail marketing, the transit organization garnered $10,000 in sponsorships associated with event venues, advertising, food and prizes.

Administrators worked with community organizations and local businesses to help with community buyin, offset expenses, and market promotions.

As the transit organization continues facing pandemic-era hurdles, Castro said the biggest challenge today is “retaining our workforce,” she says, noting “hiring and maintaining drivers has been a challenge.”

Additionally, supply chain disruptions are an issue that have caused administrators to turn to “a hodgepodge of solutions.” Before the pandemic, Castro estimates that it would take about two years from the time a new bus was ordered to the day it arrived in Las Vegas. Now, it takes about three to four years, “whether it’s a paratransit bus and you’re trying to find a part, or ordering a new bus,” Castro says. “It’s everything.”

Hot temperatures shorten the lifespan of buses under normal circumstances. The delays have forced Castro’s team to think even further ahead.

“Those two realities cause us to have a more aggressive maintenance and fleet plan,” she says. “I’m really proud of our team and our transit operations team, which is able to future-cast.”