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Traffic headaches mar Navy air show

CORONADO — When it comes to command of air and sea, the U.S. Navy is tops. When it comes to managing the traffic when it throws a party on land? Maybe not so good.

Some county residents spent three and four hours in their vehicles trying to leave the North Island Navy base after the 100th anniversary air parade on Saturday – after spending nearly as many hours trying to get onto the base earlier in the day.

“It was a terrific air show and the open house was great, but for traffic control,” says on e-mail writer. “We left my house in Rancho Penasquitos at 07:30 and arrived at a parking space on the flight line at 10:00 hours. The same held true when departing the base, another three hours to exit the base.“

Read the entire Union Tribune article here.

Tags: events, military, navy

0 members like this

Comment by jef on February 15, 2011 at 8:31am: Darn!! If we only had a tunnel.

Comment by Coronado Nomad on February 15, 2011 at 9:01am: I guess we can kiss that idea goodbye.Maybe if we took the bus stops off third and fourth it would have run alot smoother.

Comment by Vicky Lambert on February 15, 2011 at 9:11am: Guess we have another 100 years to figure it out...

Comment by Karen on February 15, 2011 at 9:29am: A tunnel wouldn't help without GOOD traffic control on base. The EXIT process was horrendous and definitely marred the 100 Years of Flight celebration! GREAT SHOW but Not enough attention to the seeming lesser activities; eg: traffic control!

Comment by Aleene Sexton Queen on February 15, 2011 at 9:40am: ...or, off-island parking w/shuttle buses like they do w/the Del Mar Fair. Hmm. Maybe we could do that daily for the normal base traffic year-round. Nah...that makes too much sense.

Comment by carolyn moorhouse on February 15, 2011 at 10:56am: we live in the town of CORONADO ----not a village!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by Kathy Schafer on February 15, 2011 at 4:03pm: The ocean gate was open and there was no traffic at all. I went on and off base twice that morning before driving on with my kids at 10:30AM to go to the show. There was no traffic at all. I ended up parking right outside of the event gate. After the show we left through the ocean gate which I was told was for DoD only. It took less than 15 minutes to get off base. I don't think people realized they could go that way. Knowing my way around the base made all the difference. It probably would have made things a lot easier if they diverted some of the traffic through that gate and then onto the strand.

Comment by Karen on February 15, 2011 at 6:17pm: You had to be able to get out of the 'morass' of cars to get to that gate...this was the 'impossible' task!

Comment by Deanna Latendresse on February 16, 2011 at 8:58pm: I had no idea that the Ocean Ave gate was open. We rode our bikes and cruised right on down. It was a fun family bike ride. I'm told that some people waited over 2 hours to get over the bridge. What a bummer :( I agree with Kathy who said that most didn't realize how far the show was after you entered the base. I warned everyone who asked. Well, lesson learned for the 200 years of Naval Aviation show :0) It was a wonderful show!