City braces for heavy CC traffic

With 17,000 conventioneers expected to descend upon Downtown Lancaster this week for the American Quilters Society (AQS) annual show, the City of Lancaster is gearing up for an extraordinary surge of traffic. Although officials are expecting most attendees to park their personal vehicles at Liberty Place, Clipper Stadium, Franklin & Marshall, or Burle Industrial Park, the convention will nevertheless bring additional traffic from over 50 motor coach groups as well as a steady flow of vehicles shuttling attendees from hotels and parking lots outside the city.

Though in previous years the county has drawn up to 12,000 visitors to a since-discontinued quilt show, that event had been held at the Lancaster Host on Lincoln Highway East.

Since shuttling services from the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau cost $15 a day per person, some conventioneers may opt to park in a nearby city garage, which would only cost $14 a day for as many can fit in a vehicle. The convention will also bring day-trip attendees, and those who arrive in their own vehicles may defer to standard city parking.

Such traffic variables will likely keep the City on its toes in the days to come.

“This is the first time its coming,” said Valarie Wagner, special events manager for the mayor’s office of special events (MOOSE), “You can only do so much to predict what’s going to happen.” MOOSE has worked as a liaison between event planners and the Lancaster City police bureau, which will coordinate traffic direction downtown.

The bureau is keeping an open-ended plan to manage traffic throughout the convention. According to sergeant Mike Branner of patrol services, civilian traffic directors are scheduled to work on Vine Street (where motorcoach drop-off will occur) and Penn Square (the primary shuttle stop). Beyond that, Branner said, the bureau will staff other high-traffic areas with day-shift officers as the need arises over the course of each day.

“You’ve got to remember that this goes from early morning into the evening,” Branner said, “So its an all day thing.”

According to Branner, the cost of civilian traffic directors is being largely covered by the event planners. Services lent by on-duty officers will come at the City’s discretion.