The Las Vegas bus company wants to hear from you

Here is a link to a site asking for your opinion and giving you a vehicle for responding.
Please tell them something. They badly need to know we tourists exist.

https://www.rtcsouthernnevada.com/transit/fareadjustment/adjustment2012.cfm

here is my answer to their request:
The most frustrating part of these changes is that tourists are so little valued that there is no language to address the rules for them.
I can't tell you how long it took to get a definitive answer on the 5 day pass as to whether it was all access for tourists or not. Phone calls, emails, Facebook all disagreed until finally I went to the BTC and had it spelled out. Then just last week a fellow made three calls to your office. Two said the 30 day pass was all access for tourists and one said he would be put off the strip buses. I write for 5 Vegas discussion boards and promote buses. Cabs are hated for the long hauling, and buses would be a logical answer, but all this confusion makes people nervous, so they just take a cab. Couldn't you make clear in this new proposal whether tourists who buy 15 day passes for the residential coridor also can use them on the strip? We don't miss the move to make two classes of bus riders pay two sorts of fees. We got it when the reduced fares were eliminated on tourist routes and we get it that eliminating the 5 day pass slaps short term tourist in the face. And it irks us because we know that while you are hurting for local money, the federal stimulus (all our tax dollars) allowed for an amazing renovation of routes, buses, transfer stations. Since the money came from all of us, we think that the fares should be the same for all of us. But at least include us somewhere in the proposal. It is like we don't exist. We don't have local ID's. What passes at what prices are available to us? And especially seniors.
I also think that reporting in the news that the rate increases are to be shared by all interested parties and then raising the 30 day pass 40% for the old, handicapped, and the children while raising it just 7% for the rest of the riders reeks of insensitivity.
I'll post your answer where a few hundred tourists can read it.

Always good to hear from another RTC enthusiast, Dewey.

I'm certain that the 15 day pass will only accepted on the strip routes with a local Nevada ID. In fact, RTC's website currently says "Residential fares and passes are acceptable on the Strip routes with local Nevada ID." And since the 15 day pass is listed as a "Residential Fare", there you go.

So, under the proposal, tourists won't be permitted use the 15 day pass on the strip routes. I expect that's what RTC's going to tell you, do let us know what they say.

Don't believe the website. You can't trust it for accuracy.

Note that the 5 day was in that same category on the website, and still is in the category. It was an error that somehow no one addressed. Probably on purpose. The 5 day is currently all access without Nevada ID.
I'm hoping the 15 day which replaces it will be in the same category. But you won't find that information out on the website. They won't want to advertise it anymore than they advertised back when the 24 hour residential was also all access.

The 5 day is all access now. The 24 hour residential is not. I think they figured that by making it inconvenient for tourists to buy the 5 day they did not have to worry about us getting any deals, like senior discounts. Now I think they figure they were wrong and that a 15 day pass will cut out enough tourists.

I have yet to hear from anyone actually being asked for a Nevada ID by a driver or SDX inspector. But that is an enforcement issue. It seems clear to me that the Deuce drivers don't want to hold up the line to check each person's ID. However, I like to be within the rules.

Please don't wait for me to define this for you. Write to them, express your opinion, and ask the questions you have. Keep names and email answers. One person cannot get accurate information from the BTC. make three calls and you will get two or three contradictory answers. And certainly one person cannot push them to rethink their policies.

Writing to them on the site listed is not any harder than writing here on this board.

Why spend so much time to try and change a business that doesn't act like they want your money? At least the overpriced monorail wants your tourist dollars. And the monorail has no hidden resort fees.

Well, if you want to pay twice as much to go to a very limited number of places, then perhaps the monorail is your ride of pleasure.

However, don't wait for it at the airport. It might take a long, long while before it picks you up.

Don't expect to visit every casino down Boulder Highway and to the Sunset Station.

Don't expect to head out to Texas Station and Fiesta Rancho.

Don't expect to catch the poker action at Suncoast.

Don't expect to go downtown and back unless you want to change for a bus at that wonderful stop left ghostly and vacant across from the shuttered Sahara.

All these things and more are done on the RTC bus.

And generally where it drops us we don't have to walk a mile just to get to the strip.

We are not looking to throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Just to express complaints and ask for clarification. But even at full strip fare the bus beats the monorail which has come out as one of the saddest experiments in Vegas transportation.