As more people are getting their COVID vaccinations, and especially with the CDC saying it’s safe to travel if you’ve gotten your shots, more and more people are traveling. After over a year of staying home, this is wonderful for both travelers and the places they travel to.
Case in point – Las Vegas. In November, when our country’s COVID numbers were so high, hotels stayed closed on weekdays because of a lack of tourists. With shots in arms and the number of cases going down, Vegas is allowing more capacity in a lot of their public places. That, on top of more travel means more people going to Vegas.
Unfortunately, with more people wanting rides, wait times for ride-sharing and taxis have gone through the roof. Recent waits for Ubers and Lyfts at popular locations such as Fremont Street on a Saturday night can be as high as 2 hours.
A big part of the problem is that the amount of drivers hasn’t kept up with the recent influx of tourists. As an example, according to casino.org, there were 36,482 active ride-hailing drivers in Nevada on March 13, 2020. A year later, on March 30, 2021, there were only 13,723.
Ride-hailing companies are blaming Nevada’s regulations, which are that surge pricing can’t be used when there’s a state of emergency (Nevada is still under a state of emergency due to COVID). Surge pricing would allow drivers to make more money, incentivizing them to go back to work (surge pricing is where the money is for drivers).
A Nevada state senator has recently introduced SB 279. If passed, that law would let ride-sharing companies use surge pricing even during state emergencies.
What about renting a car?
You’d think that would be the solution, right? Nope.
Because of the pandemic, cash-strapped car rental companies sold off their older cars earlier than they normally would, and then didn’t buy new ones to replace them. So car rental companies across the nation, including Las Vegas, have had shortages of vehicles.
Granted, we’re still in the middle of Spring Break season. Once that ends, crowds in Las Vegas might decrease a little. But without ride-sharing drivers having incentives to drive, it might not be the panacea for the problem.
Feature Photo: Public Domain
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands #wearamask #getyourCOVIDvaccine
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and get emailed notifications of when we post. Or maybe you’d like to join our Facebook group – we have 20,000+ members and we talk and ask questions about travel (including Disney parks), creative ways to earn frequent flyer miles and hotel points, how to save money on or for your trips, get access to travel articles you may not see otherwise, etc. Whether you’ve read our posts before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
1 comment
Was in Vegas over Easter weekend. Tried Lyft first – timed out trying to find a driver. Wait was a bit long at times, but Uber came through for a few rides. One driver also pointed to the unemployment benefits being better than Uber earnings as shrinking the driver pool.