There's nothing worse than having a traffic nightmare ruin an enjoyable day for the family. But apparently that's what happened during this past weekend's Miramar Air Show. The huge free air show, which attracts well over 700,000 over three days obviously has traffic challenges as any event of this size, but this year's event was a logistical nightmare that ran counter to a precise military exercise. Here are some of the comments posted n this website:
From zerotlrnc: The air show and everything was great! Traffic control was horrible (I give them a triple F-). We parked in the "orange" parking lot and literally waited 2 hours before we can even get out of the lot. Even worst, when the traffic eventually moved, the soldiers where sending us to the wrong direction and a couple of us had to do a u-turn because they essentially lead us to a street that was already jammed packed and heading the wrong way..Isn't the military supposed to be the best in logistics?
From Ben Marbury: This will be the last of the Miramar MCAS air shows for us! We have been going since 1996. We also parked in the Orange area and waited 1.5 hours in the parking lot before we even started moving to get out after the show!! It ruined the whole experience for me and my 2 grandchildren. Never again!
From dave: apparently they have not figured anything out since last year. we went to the show today and had a great day. got there at 9 am and left after the blue angels finished at 4.30. it took 2 hours !! to go 2 miles !! terrible awful horrible. If this is the best our government can do at handling things we are SCREWED !!
From JP: I parked in the Silver lot, and it took us nearly 3 hours to exit the base. What is the sense in pushing the entire base parking to a single exit, along a 15′ road? The Marines on traffic duty explained to me that this was a civilian traffic control manager's decision. I want the number of that person's boss so I can lodge a complaint.
From Dan: We tried to get in to the air show on Saturday, October 2nd and it was a nightmare! We drove all the way from Central Orange county and then waited in traffic for 3 hours just to get in! There was zero traffic control, people were cutting in line and nothing was moving. We eventually just turned around and went home after wasting a whole day, much to disappointment of myself and my family.
Pete M: Miserable experience on traffic leaving. Been there a number of times and you can expect traffic leaving, but it is tolerable. Yesterday took 2 hours to leave Silver lot, then send out on a narrow road which was not wide enough and car scraped against brush for miles and then came out at the Nursery near 805 almost 3 hours later. Absolute frigging awful how this was handled. FFFFFF would be too high of a grade.
Harsh words, and it appears officials have dropped the ball in providing adequate traffic control for an event this size. Perhaps the air show has become too big? Or is this something that can be remedied?
Anyone else encounter the traffic nightmare? Or has anyone heard from event officials about the traffic debacle?
Comments
I see a lot of comments about people complaining about getting out, I couldn’t even get in! My friends and I drove from Orange County and arrived to the area at 10am. We exited the freeway at 10am. We didn’t get to our seats until 2:30! It took 4 hours to get into the gate. this was my first air show and I missed ALL of the morning performances. We arrived in time to catch the end of the Canadian Snowbirds and the Blue Angels. NIGHTMARE
At the risk of being attacked by those who suffered long waits, the primary function of our Marines is not to move 700,000 people who think they have a better plan and ask each marine at each intersection if they can bend the rules. Unfortunately the men and women I watched suffered from being too polite to each driver who thought they had a better plan to get on/off the base and they would listen politely and then say no several times as each driver explained their unique plan. I had the opportunity of arriving each day between 10 and noon, each time I was in traffic approximately 20-45 minutes (Saturday being the 45), I did however slip out DURING the Blues performance instead of joining the other 400,000+ AFTER the performance so I had less than a 15 minute egress. I understand, you are different, all these other people should get out of your way, but look around, the bad part of any Airshow is EVERYONE LEAVES AT ONCE and no road system is prepared for that.
I learned a long time ago to ride my bike to the Air Show. I would ride from OB and make the day out of it. If you aren’t into riding that many miles then you can park near the furniture outlets on Miramar Rd. and just ride a mile onto the base and past all the traffic coming and going. As mentioned getting off the base is like trying to get out of Mission Beach on 4th of July. So next time take your bike, a couple of bike locks and enjoy the fresh air.
I am a Air Traffic Controller from JFK Tower in New York. So let me get this straight, you enjoyed the Air Show, but you were amazed that it took so long to get out of the parking facility at an air show with more than 300,000 spectators, even though you had military personal helping and guiding you out. Don’t you think they had better things to do than baby sitting AND entertaining you? I’m glad that you decided not to attend any more, our personel in the military have better things to do than listen to your complaints. Barrett R. Byrnes