Charleston & Nellis

I grew up on the intersection of Charleston & Nellis on the East Side of Las Vegas. I loved growing up around there as it was a quick walk to many stores, restaurants, and two very useful (relatively speaking) bus routes to get around the city. Around the intersection were several pedestrian bridges (some of the only in Las Vegas) that made it easy to skip past the dreadfully long stoplights and provide a beautiful view of the cars below and the mountains beyond. However Charleston & Nellis is known to locals for a more depressing reason. It is known for being dangerous to pedestrians and cars alike as the crowded roads and constant construction make it crowded at all hours of the day; packed with aggressive and impatient drivers looking to take whatever chance needed to not have to wait another light cycle. The section of Charleston in front of my house was closed not too rarely for car accidents or an unfortunate incident with a pedestrian. It was often to see people jaywalking around Vegas, but this intersection was a beast many dared not to chance. Car accidents blocked the intersection for a little while before being carried away to let the frenzy keep chugging along- the city desperate not to let this artery clog even for a moment. The most infamous part for people in my apartments and the one across the street, were the people who just kept driving into the walls. I know this sounds far fetched but during my time of high school, I had seen at least 10 times a new suspiciously car shaped hole had appeared over at the Villas East and once had seen the aftermath of a truck that barreled through the side gate of my apartments, partially tearing someone’s balcony off of their unit. We often used these new holes as a form of convenience for getting home just a bit quicker or to shave a few minutes on a walk to nowhere in particular. Often I would just be reminded of them on my drives through the intersection or my walks home from school. A possible reason for these holes could be the giant curve (which I have unofficially dubbed ‘The Charleston Bend’ due to several streets having a similarly shaped curve around Charleston all across the city), however I believe some more unfortunate factors are at play. The East Side (and much of Las Vegas as a whole) raises some rough drivers who were made to drive at an early age to support family and as a result more or less just ‘wing it’. Many people are not made aware of many of the risks that come from this aggressive form of driving and will take a chance on a yellow light or ‘mistake’ a stop sign for a yield. Some will drink and drive thinking ‘the media just exaggerates it’ or ‘I can make it’. Some people are far too drowsy to be making the drive but don’t know the dangers. Still others don’t know how to tell their car is in a dangerous state and will fix it tomorrow, they promise they will…
Las Vegas also has the greatest case of ‘they can’t catch all of us’ you have ever seen. If we all go 15 mph over the speed limit, then they can’t single any of us out. Alone on Desert Inn we may fear the lands beyond 45 mph, but if we all fly past at once, we are unstoppable. Given almost all of our roads are long wide boulevards with seldom lights, its difficult to not fall into line with the crowd and go the 60 in a 45, or if you have to take a detour from your standard 45 road onto a 35, I guarantee almost no driver follows the law unless there is a cop nearby. This of course is incredibly dangerous, but so can going the actual speed limit in many of these roads as you can be the only car not following the flow of traffic and could encourage other vehicles to travel much more dangerously or they won’t expect the drastic change between you and the next driver and may find themselves misjudging the situation. To fix an issue like this requires a much greater impact on the zeitgeist to inform and convince drivers that these speeds are dangerous and are not worth the risk. Especially by inexperienced drivers who are running the red light, through an area as heavily traveled as good old Nellis and Charleston- crashing straight into that wall to be fixed again.