LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Flashing casino lights and marquees aren’t distracting Clark County commissioners and their concerns that mobile billboards are causing too much traffic and safety issues on the Las Vegas Strip.
Tuesday, the Clark County Board of Commissioners reviewed a 2022 study that examined traffic on the strip from Tropicana to Elvis Presley. The county hired Kimley-Horn Consultants for the 2.6-mile stretch of boulevard study over multiple holiday and non-holiday weekdays and weekends.
Vincent Queano, director of Clark County’s business license department, and Kaizad Yazdani, assistant director of Clark County Public Works, presented findings and observations that mobile billboards on the Las Vegas Strip:
– travel 10-15 miles per hour slower than typical vehicles
– are five times brighter on average than ambient light levels on the strip
– typically drive in the middle travel lane
– leave larger than average vehicle spacing when stopped at intersections
“These have no business on the strip. I didn’t like them before, I don’t like them now,” Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick said while addressing the board. “It seems like we’re stuck with them, so how can we figure out the safest way to go?”
When Clark County began regulating mobile billboards in 2020, a cap was set at 100 decals (or mobile billboard permits) in unincorporated county. After the one-month application window closed in February 2020, twelve businesses were awarded licenses to own these decals.
The 100 decals were dispersed between these 12, each one receiving an amount “based upon the number of vehicles they had when they applied,” a Clark County representative said in a text.
As of Tuesday, only five businesses retain their licenses, representing 86 remaining decals.
The county representative added one business holds 63 of these decals, or roughly three-quarters of all those still in operation.
Flo Advertising was awarded one decal. Owner and mobile billboard operator Mike Foland has been unable to secure two more for his other mobile billboards since a county moratorium placed after the application window has prevented any repossessed decals to be awarded.
“I don’t know where we go from here,” Foland said after the meeting Tuesday. “They’re not allowing competition into the market. Even people who are already in the market, they’re not allowing them to expand their fleet to be in the market.”
Now, county staff are drafting new rules to address how the repossessed 14 decals will return to circulation, along with other regulations to address safety and traffic concerns noted in the 2022 study.
County Commissioners directed the draft ordinance to address how to enforce lighting levels, establish spacing in-between mobile billboards, a set path for them to travel, and eliminate audio levels from those that make sound.
It is unclear when the draft ordinance will return to commissioners before workshopping and final approval.
