sin city Bob Tobin heard a loud banging at the bus door as he pulled up to a downtown corner. "It was cold as heck, 3 in the morning," he said. "I looked over and there was a naked man." The man held his hands together in the praying position, fingers extended straight out. He begged Tobin to let him on the bus, looking back at four women down the street pointing a gun his way. "They just robbed me and chased me up the street with no clothes on," the man told Tobin. "I told everybody, 'I'm going to bring a naked man on the bus. Look the other way'," said Tobin, who headed to the nearest police station.


That was years ago, but it's a story Tobin tells all new drivers. Expect anything. "I could write a book," said the driver who has logged 3 million miles zigzagging back and forth across Las Vegas over four decades. That's equivalent to 535 round trips from Los Angeles to New York City, or 378 times around the fat of the planet. Miles stack up quickly in a town that never sleeps because neither do the buses, which run 24/7. About 280 vehicles are rolling at a time, accumulating 38,000 miles every day. And buses travel all over the valley, not just taking tourists back and forth along the Strip, which used to be the case, according to Angela Torres, spokeswoman for the Regional Transportation System of Southern Nevada. The buses, currently operated by Veolia Transportation, have been focusing more and more on shuttling commuters to the business centers from all corners of town. For that reason, the plastic seats provide a glimpse of the Las Vegas nightlife that many tourists — and locals for that matter — never see.