Blog | Myrtle Beach Bikefest traffic loop necessary or sly attempt to dissuade participants? Both?
Related: How we talk about Bikefest today will shape reaction to event in May
Related: Myrtle Beach area officials agree on a 23-mile Memorial Day loop
When Myrtle Beach unveiled a proposed 40-mile traffic loop to be implemented during the 2015 Atlantic Beach Memorial Day Bikefest, I thought it was a bit heavy-handed - but also potentially necessary, given that the foundation of the problems during that event is the combination of heavy traffic and highly-congested crowds.
The loop, pared down to 23 miles over a new route, combined with the return of the one-way traffic route on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach, will go a long way in properly dealing with the highly concentrated crowds while keeping traffic moving.
If you accomplish those two things, you’ve gone a long way in eliminating what at times has become an out-of-control street party, the kind of environment that provides the fuel for the awfulness that occurred this past May and ended in a triple homicide.
Contrary to what many insist upon believing, violent crime is not a mainstay during Memorial Day weekend - but the potential for out of control traffic and street parties always have been.
I’d have to see much more of the city’s plans before endorsing them, but the focus on traffic and the highly-concentrated crowd simply makes sense, no matter which side of the debate you’re own.
The initially proposed 40-mile traffic loop wasn’t feasible after others who had experience with such things examined it. So there’s no guarantee a 23-mile loop will be feasible either.
But if it is, can it end up dissuading some participants from coming back in 2016? Maybe. That shouldn’t be our concern, though.
Taking sensible, reasonable steps to make sure things don’t get out of hand need to be the priority.
That’s another reason why the rhetoric and ad campaigns telling people to behave or not come make little sense. They take away from what our primary focus should be.
Better controlling the traffic, preventing the presence of highly-concentrated stagnant crowds, and putting body cams on every police officer - as the Myrtle Beach Police Department plans to do beginning Jan. 1 - are all steps in the right direction.
How the public talks about this event, and what it expects, remains a major hurdle, though.
If we don’t get that right, things won’t turn out well, no matter how well thought out the plans.
This story was originally published December 2, 2014 at 10:27 AM with the headline "Blog | Myrtle Beach Bikefest traffic loop necessary or sly attempt to dissuade participants? Both?."