Any great expectations of Elon Musk’s Boring Company plans were probably undone by him announcing that it’s just a car tunnel because that’s easy. A new report from TechCrunch, though, finds that even this is probably undone because it runs afoul of Las Vegas’ fire safety regulations.
TechCrunch outlines how Las Vegas went in on the Boring Company plan because it promised to be cheap and it promised to move a bunch of people for CES, an annual traffic jam masquerading as a consumer electronics trade show. The Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) wanted something to move 4,400 people per hour.
A new problem, per TechCrunch, is that Musk’s plan involves loading people through an area that can only safely handle 800 per hour. This is a problem:
The LVCC Loop would transport attendees through two 0.8-mile underground tunnels in Tesla vehicles, four or five at a time.
But planning files reviewed by TechCrunch seem to show that the Loop system will not be able to move anywhere near the number of people LVCC wants, and that TBC agreed to.
Fire regulations peg the occupant capacity in the load and unload zones of one of the Loop’s three stations at just 800 passengers an hour. If the other stations have similar limitations, the system might only be able to transport 1,200 people an hour — around a quarter of its promised capacity.
In a follow-up story, The Verge notes it’s not exactly clear what might be holding people back at Elon’s Vegas Loop:
It’s unclear what might be enforcing that limit of 800 passengers, as the plans don’t include any turnstiles or barriers that could help control the flow of passengers.
The Verge does go on to note that only 16 people can be in the system at a time because, well, it’s just a tunnel that Teslas drive through. How this is worth dropping millions on as opposed to, say, blocking out a dedicated bus lane, I do not know.
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