In response to widespread complaints about gridlock in Park City this winter, the city and Park City Mountain Resort announced new parking and traffic flow procedures that began last weekend. Those measures included more guest shuttles and a new traffic pattern around the resort base.
Despite the changes, traffic was at a standstill most of the day Saturday, with many reporting slow progress and confusion about closed roads, one-way streets, and where to enter parking areas.
Tammy Manassa said she saw the new traffic pattern at the base cause more than a few people to take wrong turns.
“They redid, obviously, how you drive into Park City [Mountain Resort] base with directing some things one way, which is a little confusing because it’s really not marked that this is now going to turn into a one way, especially leaving the main parking lots," she said. "It's one way out. It’s just very confusing.”
The resort announced this week that there will be updated signs and additional staff to help with traffic flow this weekend.
PCMR Senior Director of Base Operations Mike Lewis told KPCW he and his staff are prepared to make changes for Presidents’ Day weekend, which is expected to be another busy one in Park City.
The traffic flow that confused Manassa and others looped people around the First Time lot last weekend. Lewis said that route will be altered with the hope it will make the experience more streamlined during both the morning and afternoon rush periods.
“We’re gonna try this weekend to put that on Lowell because we close off lower Lowell when we get full," said Lewis. "This is only for a short period of time when we fill the lots and before congestion kind of eases and people head off to the Canyons or the high school. A lot of what we’re putting into place is there for 40 minutes to an hour and then everything eases up and then we put it back into place for egress.”
The city will also continue restricting traffic through the Thaynes Canyon and Three Kings neighborhoods to neighborhood residents and people heading to White Pine Touring. Many residents have complained of people driving too fast and using the neighborhoods as a shortcut to the resort. The city is billing the resort for the cost of those efforts.
Lewis said he strongly encourages people to park elsewhere and ride the bus if they are headed to the resort this weekend.
For Manassa, despite her less than ideal experience last weekend, she has continued going to the resort and will be back to ski over the holiday.
“We have guests in town, so yeah, we are heading to the mountain," Manassa said. "My expectation as a local is we need to leave at 7:30 and get there very, very early in order to stay out of some of the traffic and be able to get a parking space.”
The resort and city encourage people to follow @pcmtnalert on Twitter and the city’s various social media accounts for the most up to date parking and traffic information on their way to the resort.
