Traffic on Main Street was expected to be bad in early January, even after the busy holiday stretch. But at some points, the backups were apparently even worse than they should have been.
The Park City Police Department logged a series of cases along the shopping, dining and entertainment strip involving drivers that stopped to let people out of the vehicle or to wait for passengers to get inside. When a vehicle stops in a travel lane on a road as busy as Main Street, a backup is a likely result.
The traffic during the first week of January appeared to be lighter than it was between Christmas and New Year’s, traditionally one of the busiest stretches on the tourism calendar, but there were issues nonetheless.
It is unusual for the Police Department to report so many cases involving vehicles stopped in a travel lane during a concentrated period. Public police logs generally did not provide details about any enforcement action taken against the drivers, but the agency is believed to issue warnings in many traffic-related cases unless they are egregious violations or the person involved is a repeat offender. The recent cases were reported over the course of days and at differing times of day.
The Police Department regularly conducts traffic patrols that net drivers for a variety of traffic offenses like speeding and turning violations, and there were cases like those reported in early January as well.
Vehicles stopping in a travel lane, though, create a different sort of issues for traffic, particularly on Main Street, as drivers attempt to navigate around them into the oncoming lane of travel. There is also the additional issue of pedestrians crossing Main Street.
The vehicles that are seen stopped in a travel lane sometimes are part of the transportation industry, rideshares or cars driven by family or friends of people who are being dropped off or picked up.
Some of the cases reported by the Police Department:
- On Saturday, Jan. 6, at 11:08 p.m., an officer saw a northbound driver stop on the 500 block of Main Street, outside a restaurant. The driver was picking up family members, the police said.
- On Jan. 6 at 5:38 p.m., an officer observed a driver “stopping to let family out” in the area of the Main Street-Heber Avenue intersection. The officer issued a warning.
- On Jan. 6 at 1:36 a.m., an officer watched a vehicle stop on the 400 block of Main Street “to load friends.”
- On Friday, Jan. 5, at 7:58 p.m., an officer saw a northbound vehicle stop on Main Street to let people inside on the 500 block of the street. The passengers were leaving a restaurant, the police said.
- On Thursday, Jan. 4, at 6:55 p.m., an officer found a vehicle that was stopped on the 300 block of Main Street. Public police logs indicated the “driver had exited the vehicle to let passengers out” at the Egyptian Theatre.
- On Wednesday, Jan. 3, at 11:01 p.m., a police officer who was driving uphill saw a truck on the 400 block of Main Street “stopped in the middle of traffic to load passengers.”
The traffic along Main Street will likely temporarily drop through the middle of January before the sharp increase expected with the Sundance Film Festival. The traffic during Sundance in the Main Street core and elsewhere in Park City is usually some of the worst of the year. The festival opens Jan. 18 and runs through Jan. 28. The traffic is usually worst during the first days.