Originally Posted by
Oldairhead
A local shop owner said "That shoulder on the side of that highway is wide enough to fit three cars." While that may be true if you count the gravel shoulder, the paved portion is less wide. Still, it is wide enough to ride to the right of the rumble strip safely, but the safety vehicle was likely at least partly in the travel lane. It was quite windy that day so the riders behind were probably drafting the car which would put some of them in the travel lane also.
I have been on that road many times. It is a high speed rural highway with much of the traffic travelling in excess of 70 mph. I personally don't like to ride on roads like this for that reason, but in this part of the southwest once you get out of a city this is what you have. For longer rides you will end up on roads like this, or you won't get anywhere. The link below shows what the road looks like in that area. It is pretty consistent from Boulder City to Searchlight (40 miles) where they would have made a right turn towards Nipton. Their return route would have eventually had them on Interstate 15 northbound for perhaps 20 miles. I-15 is a very heavily travelled route with even faster traffic. It has a wider shoulder which is quite dirty and would be unpleasant to ride on. Somewhere north of Primm they would have been able to access a paved frontage road by jumping the highway fence. This is the south end of Las Vegas Blvd and is the old Las Vegas Hwy that would take them back to LV. Not my idea of a great ride but if you want to do long distance around LV this is what you have. They would have been legally using all of the roads that they were riding on. Riding on the State Hwy or the Interstate is legal if there is no viable alternate route.
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.8637...4!8i8192?hl=en
That road is so straight with no view obstruction. I can't imagine how there could be an accident there unless the drive dozed off, played with his phone, radio etc.. right when he was passing all those bicyclist.
