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CityStories / City Profiles / Large Cities / Las Vegas, Nevada

City to Watch

Population: 478,434


 

Photo Credit: adamjackson1984/Flickr


Las Vegas, Nevada

Map showing this city's location

To keep Nevada's clean air clean, Las Vegas has an urban forestry initiative, continues to develop trails for non-motorized transportation, has an alternative fuels program that has converted nearly all non-emergency city vehicles—1,350—to run on cleaner fuel, is improving public transit, and has committed to ICLEI's goal of emission reductions.

Early in 2009 the city announced that more than $6 million in federal and state funds would go to affordable housing, for three projects for seniors and one redevelopment project. The city's Redevelopment Agency is bringing jobs to Las Vegas even during hard economic times; in February 2009 it disclosed a tentative agreement with TELUS, which will establish a new call center in the city and create 1,000 jobs.

Photo Credit: Megapolis2024/FlickrIt feels a bit strange to be sitting in the middle of one of the world’s wealthiest neighborhoods, and to be so thoroughly engrossed in...
No Cars But Plenty of Life on Broadway. Credit: Paul McRandleThe Natural Resources Defense Council's Smarter Cities project has named fifteen U.S. metropolitan regions...
A recumbent cycle on Martin Olav Sabo Bridge Credit: Livewombat/FlickrDuring the recent bicycle tour of Minneapolis, Mayor R.T. Rybak stressed that in these lean economic...
The nation’s first major bikesharing program hit the streets in Minneapolis in June 2010, quickly followed by Denver, Washington, D.C. Boston and Toronto—with Seattle, Chicago,...
Credit:Courtesy of the City of BostonIn fall 2009 Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino established the city’s Complete Streets program with the words, “The car is no longer the...
Credit:DMFK/FlickrContrary to common perception, Boulder is not a bedroom community to Denver; it actually serves as a regional subcenter for surrounding cities such as...
Credit:NonsequitorlassBremerton lies in Kitsap County, Washington, just a ferry ride across the Puget Sound from Seattle. With its semirural population, the region is an...
Credit:Wikipedia CommunityIn the Champaign-Urbana metro region in Illinois, the focus of the transit district is on getting people out of their cars by offering a full...
Credit:Chicago Tourism BureauHome to one of the largest and oldest transit systems in the country, the Chicago metropolitan region has long been a national transportation...
Kids getting ready to bike home at this primary school in Utrecht, Netherlands. Ninety-five percent of the older kids bike to school at least some of the time. Credit:...
With the growing popularity of cycling in the Netherlands, finding a parking place for your bike is becoming more difficult, as seen here in the Hague. Credit: Jay...
San Francisco board of supervisors president David Chiu looks out on Java Island, a new neighborhood in Amsterdam where bikes and pedestrians (and boats) take priority...
Credit: Recompose/FlickrCourts have handed defeat after defeat to New York City in its effort to replace gas-chugging cabs with fuel-efficient hybrids. The latest blow...
Credit:FHKE/FlickrThe Pacific island of Oahu, Hawaii, boasts towering mountains, gorgeous ocean views, and a dense metropolitan region that keeps on growing. Oahu Transit...
Credit:AreaRapidTransitThe Lincoln metropolitan region can thank the unique characteristics of its central City of Lincoln for its place among NRDC’s top 15 Smarter...
Credit:Mary Logan BarmeyerFamous for urban sprawl, bumper-to-bumper traffic and seasonal smog, the Los Angeles region still has many challenges for integrating...
Credit:New HavenMore commuters walk or bike to work in New Haven, Connecticut, than in anywhere else in New England. One of the first planned cities in the country, New...
Credit:Wikipedia CommunityThe New York metropolitan region has one clear historic advantage when it comes to efficient transportation—population density like nowhere else...
Credit:Kyle Gradinger/FlickrDon’t see the link between transit and food? Philly does. The City of Philadelphia and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority...
Credit:Portland Bureau of Transportation“In Portland it’s almost like cars don’t exist, right? They ride bikes! They ride double-decker bikes! They ride unicycles! They...
Credit: Oconomowoc Transport Co.The 11 new school buses in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin don’t look particularly special. They’re painted the same yellow, carry the same kids and...
Lighter colored strata revealed by the decline in Lake Mead's water levels. For more on Las Vegas, read the city profile. Credit: Loop_oh/FlickrFor recent visitors to...
Credit:Courtesy of the City of San FranciscoIn San Francisco, “we put transit first, ahead of the passenger car,” says Bridget Smith, acting principal engineer and...
Flooding and sewer overflow in West Haven, Connecticut. Credit: Christopher ZurcherThe impervious paving with which we are so familiar—the asphalt and concrete that...
People across the country were surprised last year when Bicycling magazine named Minneapolis America’s “#1 Bike City”, beating out Portland, Oregon, which had claimed the honor...
Credit: Kevin H/FlickrRecently ranked the most tightly packed metropolitan region in the nation, the National Capital Region (4,000 square miles in the District of...
Credit: Edgar Zuniga Jr./FlickrSalt Lake City has the ignominious distinction of ranking as the country’s seventh most polluted city by short-term particle pollution,...
Credit: Oconomowoc Transport Co.Partly rural, partly urban, and close to Sacramento without being under city jurisdiction, the Yolo metropolitan region (which encompasses...
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Porous Paving

The EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System site provides information about applicability, siting and design criteria.

Georgia's Department of Community Affairs has a page on best practices for porous paving.
Portland, Oregon's Bureau of Environmental Service pervious paving projects page.
City of Chicago's permeable paving site with many local examples.
San Francisco Parks Trust permeable landscape page.

Environmental Health Perspectives provides a good overview in "Paving Paradise: The Peril of Impermeable Surfaces."

NRDC's report Stormwater Strategies: Community Responses to Runoff Pollution considers a variety of responses implemented across the country.

Water Conservation

US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation: with a mission to "manage, develop, and protect water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public" the bureau provides information about water levels in reservoirs throughout the West, updates on dams, powerplants and related projects and a library of water reclamation materials.

Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART program: Information on WaterSMART grants for water and energy conservation projects, basin studies with integrated management plans and water supply reviews and details on the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in the Southwest.

In Hot Water: Water Management Strategies to Weather the Effects of Global Warming (NRDC report)

Water Efficiency Saves Energy (NRDC report)

Las Vegas Water District conservation pages

Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNVA) conservation and rebates

SNVA landscaping information

 

Transportation: Bicycling

Cities for Cycling: National Association of City Transportation Officials project to catalog, promote and implement the world's best bicycle transportation practices in American municipalities. Includes several best practices sheets.

Cycling in the Netherlands: Guide to bicycling policies in the Netherlands (pdf)

Fietsberaad: Dutch cycling knowledge center

Bikeability: UK Cycling Proficiency Test

"At the Frontiers of Cycling: Policy Innovations in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany." World Transport Policy and Practice, Vol. 13, No. 3, December 2007, pp. 8-57 

"How to Get More Bicyclists on the Road: To Boost Urban Bicycling, Figure Out What Women Want." Linda Baker. Scientific American, October 2009.

Bikes Belong: Research Resources

 

Designing Cities for Bicycle Transportation

Chicago Bike Lane Design Guide (pdf)

Los Angeles Bike Plan Draft, Chapter 5: Technical Design Handbook (pdf)

Minneapolis Bicycle Facility Manual (pdf)

New City York Street Design Manual

New York City's Ninth Avenue Bicycle Path and Complete Street, for ITE (pdf)

Portland Bikeway Design Best Practices, Appendix D

San Francisco Bicycle Plan Update: Supplemental Design Guidelines (pdf)

San Francisco Shared Markings Study (pdf)

London Cycling Design Standards, Transport for London (UK)

Cycling Guidelines and Practical Details Issue 2, Sustrans (UK)

Collection of Cycle Concepts, Danish Road Directorate (Denmark)

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