Extra cabs OK’d for Super Bowl, fashion convention

Cabs wait in line to pick up passengers coming into McCarran Airport Monday, November 8, 2010.

Vegas Inc. coverage

The Nevada Taxicab Authority is finding that it’s getting more difficult to gauge just how many additional taxis it needs to allocate for special events as the economy improves.

The board today approved more cabs for the days leading up to the Super Bowl and for the Magic Marketplace fashion convention but not as many as cab companies asked for.

The board, which regulates and oversees the 16 cab companies operating in Clark County, is trying to balance the need for more cabs while convention traffic is steadily improving against the gridlock that occurs with the addition of more cars to the city’s streets.

In separate votes, the board unanimously approved two sets of six additional cabs over 12-hour shifts for Magic Marketplace Feb. 13-15 and two sets of four additional cabs over 12-hour shifts on the Friday and Saturday preceding Super Bowl Sunday on Feb. 5.

The industry had requested two sets of 12 additional cabs for Magic and two sets of six for three days, Feb. 3-5 for the Super Bowl.

Because the allocation order enables companies the option of operating through overlapping shifts, it’s possible for each cab company to run 12 extra cabs during peak hours of the Magic show and six extra on the approved Super Bowl dates, or 192 total cabs for Magic and 96 for the Super Bowl.

Board members said they’re having a harder time determining how many cabs they should add because recent conventions have been stronger than they’ve been in recent years.

This month’s International Consumer Electronics Show, which taxi industry leaders and convention officials said was the biggest CES ever staged, brought an estimated 160,000 people to the city after convention officials had projected 140,000.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority estimates Magic attendance at 75,000.

Estimating cab allocations has gotten even more complicated in the last few months because the authority has allowed each company to add one new permanent cab to their fleets at the beginning of each month for the past five months. A sixth permanent allocation is scheduled to take effect Feb. 1.

The authority board also struggled with how Super Bowl fans will move around when they’re here for the National Football League’s biggest game.

Cab company officials said fans would move from sports book to sports book placing bets in the hours leading up to the kickoff.

But board members said they suspected that fans would do most of their moving on Friday, from the airport to their hotels, and on Saturday, to various parties and activities, before settling in to one location for the Sunday game.

Board member Dean Collins also suggested that most fans would be leaving Las Vegas Monday, not Sunday, because the game will be played late in the afternoon.

In another matter, Taxicab Authority Administrator Charles Harvey said he would brief the board next month on an increase in complaints his office has received from cab customers about drivers who are demanding tips and, in some cases, locking their passengers in their vehicles until they get one.

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