The Nevada Taxicab Authority will allow cab companies to put additional cars on the road during June’s Electric Daisy Carnival, but not as many as they had asked for.
With drivers holding signs pleading with the board not to allocate additional cabs, the board voted unanimously to allow eight additional cabs per shift, per company on the Friday and Saturday of the event — June 21 and 22 — and five additional cabs per shift, per company on Sunday, June 23.
Taxi companies had asked for 10 cabs on Friday and Saturday.
The action means the potential of 128 additional taxis on the road that Friday and Saturday and 80 on that Sunday.
While the board voted to allow additional cabs for the music festival, which is expected to draw 100,000 people per night to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it denied additional cabs during the peak of the NCAA basketball tournament in March, the NASCAR race in Las Vegas in March and the National Association of Broadcasters convention in April.
Several cab companies sought five additional vehicles per shift for the four biggest days of the NCAA basketball tournament when 48 games are played, whittling a field of 68 teams to the “Sweet 16.” Representatives of the cab companies said the March Madness tournament has grown to be a bigger event than the Super Bowl because there is team interest nationwide and the beginning of the tournament spans four days.
But the authority board said there was no hard data on how many people would be in Las Vegas for the tournament and how many of them would take cabs from casino sports books to restaurants. The board split the vote 2-1 to oppose any additional cabs.
The board unanimously opposed a request for additional cabs for NASCAR races March 8-10 at the speedway.
Qualifying pole runs are scheduled March 8, the Nationwide Series Sam's Town 300 is March 9 and the main event, the Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 400, is March 10.
Cab companies made a case for more cabs because it takes 45 minutes to get to the track in traffic, limiting the number of multiple runs a taxi could make in a short period of time.
The board also unanimously rejected additional cabs for the National Association of Broadcasters convention April 6-11 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The board noted there was no extra allocation for the convention last year and since then, the board authorized additional vehicles for each company.
Cab companies argued that the NAB show, expected to attract 85,000 people, is one of the city’s top shows and the industry needs to be prepared to deliver the best service possible.
Taxicab Authority board chairwoman Ileana Drobkin said the agency opted to hear the multiple allocation requests calendared through June because the Nevada Legislature is in session and it’s possible the agency’s administrator, Charles Harvey, would be asked to testify on some measures in the next three months.