Tips to avoid CES’s annual traffic jam in Las Vegas
When 160,000 people converge on one place at one time, there’s bound to be more than a few traffic tie-ups.
Get ready.
Love ’em or hate ’em, the Consumer Electronics Show geek squad rolls into town this week. They’ll make our cash registers sing like a Christmas cantata and they’ll draw international attention to Las Vegas as the temporary center of the technology universe for a few days, but they’ll also use our infrastructure, and that means busy roads, sidewalks and transportation.
Some Road Warriors will want to find the best way into the madness, while others will look to stay as far away from it as possible.
For attendees on either side of the street, here are a few tips — a CES Survival Guide:
PARKING
If you’re attending the show, whether you’re a local or an out-of-towner, don’t drive to the convention venue if you can avoid it. You’ll save money and you’ll avoid the frustration of not being able to find a place to park.
CES is being staged this year at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Sands Expo and Convention Center and the Aria.
Ray Suppe, senior director of security for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, who will be a part of his 23rd CES this year, said there will be 3,000 parking spaces available at lots surrounding the convention center. That’s far fewer than the usual convention parking allotment because CES organizers erect tents and displays in many of the parking lots because there isn’t enough space inside.
The largest of the convention authority lots is the Gold Parking Lot, on the northwest corner of Paradise Road and Convention Center Drive, the site of the old Landmark hotel.
Three-thousand spaces is a lot, but if just a quarter of the people attending CES took cars, there would still be about 37,000 in need of places to park.
The convention authority charges $10 to park, but private entrepreneurs have discovered how lucrative the parking business can be.
There are lots at the Westgate Resort, at several nearby Marriott hotel properties, the Riviera, the Clarion (the old Debbie Reynolds Hotel), at Piero’s Italian Cuisine restaurant, on the east side of the Peppermill and at several nearby apartment complexes. Those private lots generally charge between $20 and $50 a day to park.
DROPPING FRIENDS OFF
If you have a friend you’re dropping off at the convention center, there’s a place to do that — at the above-mentioned Gold Parking Lot. There’s a driveway off Convention Center Drive where a motorist can pull in, drop off passengers and then move on without paying for parking.
It’s convenient for the pedestrian because the drop-off is near the entrance to the pedestrian overpass of Paradise leading directly to the convention center and shuttles to the other venues.
MOVING AROUND
At the pedestrian drop-off point is a stop on a looped route used by a 28-passenger mini-shuttle designed to move delegates around the 3.2 million-square-foot convention center.
CES is calling the route the Convention Center Shuttle Loop and it runs every 10 minutes between five stops at the Gold Lot, the Central Hall, the southeast corner of the South Hall, on Joe W. Brown Drive on the east side of the center and on the north side of the center near the entrance to the Westgate Resort. It’s free to delegates.
There’s also a golf cart shuttle that runs between the Central Hall entrance and the southeast corner of the South Hall during show hours.
SHUTTLE BUSES
Most of the people attending CES will be staying at resort hotels.
The organizers of the show have contracted with companies that are providing more than 275 shuttle buses. Transportation managers have organized 10 routes between hotels and the convention center. Some routes serve multiple hotels.
The shuttles are free to CES attendees and run about every half hour. They’re inbound to the convention center and the Sands Expo Center from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and outbound to the hotels from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
INTERVENUE BUSES
Because CES exhibits are on show floors at three venues, CES has arranged for buses that run between them.
The Tech Express bus will run every 10 minutes between the convention center and the Sands Expo Center while the C Space Shuttle will run every 15 minutes between the convention center and Sands Expo to Aria.
TAXIS, LIMOS AND SUPERSHUTTLES
The Las Vegas taxi industry gears up for CES every year and the Nevada Taxicab Authority authorized up to 40 extra cabs per company, 20 each for two 12-hour shifts, through most of the convention.
There are two CES cab staging areas at the convention center — one in front of the North Hall and one in front of the South Hall — and one in front of the Sands Expo Center.
Leave it to CES to come up with a special app to assist people who take cabs. Organizers are encouraging cab riders to download Bandwagon, an app that will help riders standing in line to locate others going to the same location so that they can split a cab fare.
Nevada Transportation Authority-regulated limousine services and the new SuperShuttle service is available for hire for larger groups seeking transportation. Several limo companies offer rides through the Ride Genie app that can be downloaded for free.
RTC BUSES
The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada buses will run on regular schedules during CES. Visitors and locals can use the Strip and Downtown Express (SDX) bus and the Route 108-Paradise bus, which provides direct transit service to the convention center.
The RTC is providing an additional two hours of service on the SDX route during CES with service beginning at 7 a.m. The SDX runs every 15 minutes and Route 108-Paradise goes every half hour.
LAS VEGAS MONORAIL
It might be the least expensive and easiest way to get to the convention center for CES. Park at a hotel along the monorail route, find the station, buy a ticket and take the train to the convention center station.
The Las Vegas Monorail Co. will add a train for CES so there will be nine running, each with a capacity of about 250 riders with departures every four minutes. The company is limiting admission at each stop so that trains leaving the ends of the line won’t be full by the second stop.
Locals get a discount to ride the monorail and tickets can be purchased at booths, desks or vending machines at each of the seven stations.
IF YOU DON’T GO
Motorists can do themselves a favor by staying away from the convention center and the Sands Expo Center, particularly just before and after opening and closing hours, 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday, 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Friday.
Streets to avoid: Paradise Road, Desert Inn Road, Twain Avenue, Sands Avenue, Convention Center Drive, and Sierra Vista Drive between Las Vegas Boulevard and Maryland Parkway. If you get on any of those streets around the open or close of the trade-show floor, be prepared to be sucked into the CES vortex.
The Mandalay Bay would be another location to avoid on Monday when a series of CES press conferences occur.
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