New season offers no break in traffic

Just when some might breathe a sigh of relief thinking summer traffic woes around Annapolis let up post Labor Day, here comes the fall festival and football season that can also clot traffic and parking around the area.

This weekend is a perfect example with the Navy football game and the Maryland Seafood Festival.

But other than a few larger events like the U.S. Boat Shows and the Eastport Yacht Club holiday Lights Parade, city officials say the growing number of special events should not keep area residents and regular tourists from enjoying the city, as city officials and police work constantly to keep event impacts to a minimum.

You can find traversing Route 50 between outlying areas and the city clotted with traffic, like the Rowe Boulevard ramp before a Navy game, but most of the impacts fall in the city. Closed roads are an inconvenience and tied-up parking across town can challenge the most creative parking sleuth, as many locals have become over the years.

"But mostly people come to terms with it as a part of living in an urban environment," said Ray Weaver, city police spokesman. "After all this is a capital city, it is going to come up."

Coordination between city event planners and police is the key to pulling off a schedule of weekend events in the city. And a traffic and parking plan is required of all those seeking required event permits in the city, said Karen Engelke, the city's special events coordinator.

She has been busy as more and more organizations seek to use city facilities and vistas for their events, shows, parades, races and the like.

"We have seen a 20 percent increase in demand," she said.

The city issued 147 permits last year, a record. "And as of this morning, I just issued number 144 for this year, and we have three months to go."

She still has not received the permit paper work for a few of the big upcoming events like Midnight Madness, the annual Christmas season shopping event, and the Parade of Lights, the nautical conga-line featuring yule-festooned boats idling up and down Spa Creek and Ego Alley.

Engelke and city planners work with police to coordinate the events and try to accommodate all comers.

"The perception is these events are all outsiders, people wonder who these people are," Engelke said. "But I looked at the permit history and actually it is us."

She said the plethora of event permits are from nonprofits, churches, community groups and the like.

The permitting process allows Engelke and her city police counterpart Sgt. Paul Gibbs to iron out the details for police coverage, parking and road closures.

"Paul Gibbs has been doing this so long he is a real genius. He's got the hands on experience to know where the conflicts are," Engelke said. "He helps us decide if there is an overload."

Gibbs said the toughest thing is dealing with events that clog up the City Dock area. Most visitors flock to that area of the city and if it is already jammed with activity it can cause a ripple of hassles from the City Dock on out.

"It doesn't take much to make the City Dock area a parking lot," Gibbs said in an e-mail response. "Just to many people and to many cars."

While he has a knack for the coordination required, he said the police department only serves to provide advice in the permitting process. Sometimes a recommendation against an event permit is not heeded.

Today's football game combined with the Maryland Seafood Festival should not create a perfect storm of traffic hassles because of the planning that attempts to separate the bulk of the traffic.

For instance, while Rowe Boulevard and West Street handle a lot of the traffic for the game the parking is mostly confined to the stadium, Germantown Elementary School grounds and the Harry Truman Parkway park-n-ride off Riva Road.

But Seafood Festival goers will be utilizing larger parking areas outside of the city, like Anne Arundel Community College, Broadneck High School and Kent Island High School across the Bay Bridge, and using shuttle buses.

The heaviest autumnal traffic and event convergence in the past few years has been the U.S. Boat Shows combined with Navy football.

But this year the city will be spared as the Midshipmen play away games on both Oct. 10 (Sailboat Show) and Oct. 17 (Powerboat Show).

On home game days, the Brigade of Midshipmen tie up some traffic for about 45 minutes as they march from the Academy to the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Stadium.

But like the periods of traffic tie ups with most events, it is only temporary.

"It's digestible," Engelke said. "It is an urban environment. This is not the little sleepy town it used to be."