I've spent some time in Las Vegas this past week. I didn't get to go for a bike ride, but I was really hoping to rent a bike and ride out to Lake Mead. The plane flew over it on the way in, and I thought it would have been cool to see up close. Unfortunately the only rental place was far away and my schedule was too tight with work.

Las Vegas, probably the strangest city in North America, is entirely designed around getting cars from place to place. The cars will unload tourists in front of one of those places, where they will hopefully go inside and lose lots of money. And it looks like this is working, sort of. People are obviously losing a lot of money judging by all the high end cars cruising up and down the street. The cars are getting from place to place, but often at speeds slower than those motorized scooter-chairs that are so popular there.

Cyclists do exist in Las Vegas. It's not like downtown Toronto, but I saw them. They would usually ride on a side street, almost always on the sidewalk. Sidewalk cycling must be treated differently there since it was common for police and security guards to ride bikes on the sidewalk. One big difference is that sometimes the sidewalk would be extremely wide, and fully separated and elevated from the road, so riding on the road might feel like being on a slow expressway.

Also, Vegas cyclists like lights. Every cyclist I saw at night was using lights, and usually a headlight and taillight. This is an obviously good idea in a city where there's a well established rush hour at 1:00 AM.

If you're planning on visiting Las Vegas, my first bit of advice is: don't go for the cycling. And second: if you want to know a guaranteed system for winning at roulette, send me $39.99 + tax and a return address. That is a small investment with potentially limitless returns!

Happy to be back.

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