Christmas Lighting traffic plan seems to be working

    After a series of changes and the combination of local and state agencies efforts to minimize the headache from traffic and lessen the difficulty for emergency vehicles to reach their destination - the first weekend implementing the new traffic plan for the Christmas Lighting seemed to have promising results. At the Tuesday morning, December 11 study session, the city council discussed observations, both from an outside party perspective and also their own personal experience in traffic the weekend of December 1.
    "There was no actual, from what I saw, gridlock. Traffic didn't actually stop, it moved, very slowly, but it moved. It wasn't dead, sitting on the highway," said Mayor Cheri Farivar.
    Previously reported on in the Echo, was the introduction of the traffic plan for Saturday events in 2018 that fermented after the 2017 Christmas Lighting traffic concerns. To recap - with a committee composed of several entities, included but not limited to the City, Chamber of Commerce and WSDOT, they came up with flaggers, better communication channels and a fresh bus parking and pedestrian plan.
    With a clear disclaimer that the new traffic plan would not be a magical fix to end traffic totally, it appears that it fulfilled its primary focus on making sure emergency vehicles would have the ability to get to locations where they were needed.
    "That is the main goal (making sure emergency vehicles can get to where they are needed), that is what really tripped the trigger," said Mayor Farivar.
    The council members remarked from their personal encounters with the traffic compared to previous years, impressed with the progress in 2018.
    "I've heard some horror stories about people being caught for about three, three and a half hours from Wenatchee to Leavenworth," said council member Clint Strand. "On Saturday, I traveled back to Leavenworth from Wenatchee at 5 p.m. on the dot and it took me one hour and 40 minutes, which is an improvement."
    Council member, Jason Lundgren asked if there was any quantitative measures done to assess how the traffic plan unfolded that first weekend - rather than the observations from council members or the more qualitative approach that was seemingly the WSDOT email review regarding the traffic plan results.
    "Is there a way to measure the effectiveness of the traffic control?" asked Lundgren. "Quantitative is more measurable, the email from DOT was more qualitative, more like general impressions, field notes. I was wondering if there was more of a way to objectively measure the improvement."
    Joel Walinski, City Administrator, confirmed there would be numbers evaluated at the end of the Christmas Lighting weekends. He again stressed the point that the focus isn't centered on traffic, but making sure that in case of emergency, those agencies and their vehicles can respond regardless of how compressed traffic is.
    Mayor Farivar reiterated that she's measuring the success of the ability for emergency vehicles, by talking to several agencies such as Sergeant Scott Lawrence from Chelan County Sheriff' and the EMT and ambulance department.
    While traffic is unavoidable during Leavenworth's busiest weekends, such as Oktoberfest and particularly Christmas Lighting, and arguably is an exhausted topic - it seems the new plan that recently came to fruition has somewhat dimmed down the degree of severity for traffic and made routes more accessible for emergency vehicles.