An iconic city has banned tourists from taking photos on bridges to try and stop overcrowding. Las Vegas, Nevada, has banned people from stopping and standing on certain bridges to take photos of the local sites and sounds.
The city, which is a mecca for tourism, entertainment, and sport, has said people who break the new law could be fined up to £789 ($1,000) and face six months in prison after the new laws came into force on Tuesday.
Commissioners from the local Clark County voted unanimously at the start of the year to bring in the measure. They said the aim of the new law was to stop people from “stopping, standing, or engaging in an activity that causes another person to stop” on the bridges.
This new rule includes an area of around six metres around stairs, escalators, and lifts and applies to pedestrian bridges around the city. While wide-ranging, the ban does not apply to everyone.
Exceptions are being made for people waiting for a lift, the stairs, or one of the escalators around the bridges. In a statement, Clark County described the measures as a “pedestrian flow zone ordinance”.
When the new rules came in, there were fears that street performers would be adversely affected, but Clark County said these individuals were not their target and neither, they claim, were people taking photos.
The justification for these new measures has been to improve safety on the busy bridges by ensuring foot traffic keeps flowing.
In a statement, the authorities said the new rules will “help to ensure our world-class tourism destination remains a safe place for people to visit and transverse”.
To help people understand when the rule does and does not apply signs and warnings will be put up identifying where standing is banned or allowed.
The new measure has not been positively received by everyone with opponents claiming that the rule violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution. The First Amendment protects a citizen’s right to free speech.
Athar Haseebullah told ABC News: “That might mean the right to protest. That might mean someone who’s sharing expressions of their faith. That might mean a street performer.”
