The madness in Wyoming

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jnyork
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The madness in Wyoming

Post by jnyork »

Wyoming’s population almost tripled for a day during Monday’s eclipse, according to early estimates.
Initial estimates by the Wyoming Department of Transportation reported a 494,000-car increase over the normal five-year average for that day. But they were updated Tuesday morning to show that overall traffic increased by 536,000 vehicles, almost 68 percent more than normal.
“If you go by yesterday... and figure two people in every car, you could say roughly a million people,” said Jeff Goetz, a public information officer for the department. “I don’t see why not.”

Traffic counts showed an increase of 217,000 on Sunday, but the big push was Monday morning. Vehicles lined up at a standstill on parts of Interstate 25 near Cheyenne and Glendo. Some reported it took 10 hours to get from Orin Junction to Fort Collins, a 160-mile drive.
For the dramatic increase in people, WYDOT reported relatively few problems.
“We still had people pulling over on the interstate, which we knew we would have. Depending on traffic, we knew all along no matter where you were trying to get to, when that time came, that’s where you would be viewing it from, which for a lot of people was stuck in traffic on I-25,” Goetz said. “Overall I didn’t have reports of anything major.”

The biggest increases were in Laramie County with 209,394 more vehicles than normal, according to a WYDOT news release. Other busy counties included Converse, with 40,220 more vehicles, Albany with 34,692 and Fremont with 32,973.
The traffic counts also don’t reflect all traffic movement in the state as all roads don’t have counters," the WYDOT release stated.
Keep checking trib.com for more on impacts of the eclipse on Wyoming.
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pdentrem
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Re: The madness in Wyoming

Post by pdentrem »

I can believe it! I know of a few who headed out that way for the eclipse. Fortunately I do not have to do anything but step out my door if the weather gods cooperate in 2024.
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Old Ironsights
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Re: The madness in Wyoming

Post by Old Ironsights »

And that is why I was in Minneapolis having a cocktail at a riverfront cafe during the eclipse... Fewer people and less traffic to deal with. ;)
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Leverluver
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Re: The madness in Wyoming

Post by Leverluver »

All through the afternoon and evening traffic was heavy but moving nicely from Casper south. The problems started between Douglas and Orin Junction. After that Katy bar the door. I laughed when the news guy was basically asking why WY didn't have the infrastructure to make both north and south lanes of I-25 temporarily head south. Holy cow, it was a flippin eclipse, not a nuclear attack. What I hear from business is that the "windfall" was not near as great as expected due to most all the visitors (Coloradoans) coming for only for the one day and not for the 3-4 day "party" that "everyone" expected. Other than a few KOA campgrounds there was no great party, and I'd like to know what idiots actually thought that Casper's population was going to more than double and for heavens sake Glenrock's triple. There's no place to put that many people. A lot of businesses bought extra expecting the financial windfall based on stupid politicians and Chamber morons guestimates. I hope it was good food because the locals will be eating it for the next year. As for Glendo, that was expected by all as it was the closest town on the path of 100% totality that was accessible by interstate from Colo. In some of the small towns, I hope the profit was worth the pain
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ollogger
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Re: The madness in Wyoming

Post by ollogger »

Speculation & rumors ran rampant around here from mass suicide,5 dollar gas, lock up your small animals so no one
can steal them for a eclipse sacrifice, stores running out of every thing, or im gonna make millions, my wife works at the power plant & she didn't hear any thing real bazar yesterday, our local tv station is Denver so dont that give you much news on Wyo.
Leverluver summed it up pretty good as to why it wasn't a giant 3 day party
I heard of motels going up to a thousand bucks a night, campers being rented for 350 a night per person & with all the other
rumors it just could be that Wyoming scared off most folks to make the mad dash up & back on Monday



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ywaltzucanrknrl
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Re: The madness in Wyoming

Post by ywaltzucanrknrl »

Cody was busy for sure. I have a friend who drives from Meeteetse to Cody for work in the morning and she said she counted over 500 cars headed south and not one other in her lane going north---that's about a thirty mile stretch of road. Best thing here was I went home from work during the eclipse and there literally was not another car on the road---pretty eerie post apocalypse like feeling.
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Blaine
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Re: The madness in Wyoming

Post by Blaine »

I stayed home except for Saturday, and it took four X longer to make a 30 mile trip down I-5 thru Tacoma-Olympia to turn off to the ocean beaches....The day of the eclipse, I guess traffic froze on the streets and highways for the duration.
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