Stewing in Traffic No Longer an Event at the Del Mar Fair

Joe and Hildy Mehuron hadn’t been to the Del Mar Fair in five years, and they expected a lengthy traffic jam getting in.

They were pleasantly surprised.

The Mehurons entered the fairgrounds Wednesday afternoon, driving at almost the speed limit, minutes after leaving Interstate 5. Though they had to park in a distant dirt lot (“If we didn’t take the tram, we’d probably still be walking,” Joe said), they were able to get into the fair with relative ease.

And that makes fair officials happy.

“It went pretty smooth last year, too,” spokeswoman Diane Scholfield said.

Several Minor Changes

Despite brief tie-ups just before the nightly concerts, traffic has been flowing routinely. Much of the credit goes to “minor things that together add up to a big change,” said Larry Baumann, the fair’s operations manager. “Like last year, I think we’re going to have a real good year with the traffic situation.”

One of the changes has been radio communications between San Diego police and county sheriff’s deputies to synchronize signal lights on Via de la Valle, which runs through both agencies’ jurisdictions. Another idea has been to utilize space between barns as parking lots on the weekends.

“It allows us to take people in faster” and not make traffic back up onto the I-5 off-ramp, said Baumann, who has been with the fair 19 years. He said there had always been significant traffic congestion “until last year and, so far, this year.”

The catalyst for the changes were the traffic snarls of 1987, which lasted up to two hours. Like some less-favorable images of the fair, it has taken a while for the public’s perception of traffic problems to reflect the changes, Scholfield said.

“We still have people who think we have sideshows with two-headed people and fat ladies and everything,” she said.

Through the first five days of the fair, attendance has fallen slightly compared to last year. In 1988, 244,066 people went to the fair in the first five days, as opposed to 239,495 this year.

First Week Slower

The attendance figures are not down enough to cause concern, Scholfield said. Each year, the first week’s attendance is lower than the second week. Although the days surrounding the Fourth of July are among the most popular each year, Independence Day itself usually draws average-size crowds.

Fair officials are also working on plans for a northbound off-ramp from I-5 to run exclusively to the fairgrounds. That would cost $4.5 million and be paid for by the 22nd Agricultural District, which runs the fair. The off-ramp would be open only during the fair and the Del Mar Race Track season, which follows the fair. The project would ease congestion on Via de la Valle.

In the meantime, three off-site parking lots with free shuttle service on weekends and July 3 and 4 add 5,500 spaces to the fairgrounds’ 12,000 spaces. Directions to each lot are marked on I-5 and I-805 when the lots are open.

“We hope that fair visitors will use these lots instead of trying to park on the grounds,” Baumann said. “In many ways, this is a better deal for fair visitors because the bus will drop them off right in front of the entrance gate.”

The off-site lots are:

*Eastgate Technology Park, at I-805 and Eastgate Mall. The lot, used by the fair for the first time, accommodates 3,000 cars. It may be reached by exiting I-805 at La Jolla Village Drive.

*Torrey Pines High School, at I-5 and Carmel Mountain Road or Del Mar Heights Road. This lot accommodates about 1,000 cars and can be found by following signs east to the school.

*UC San Diego, at I-5 and Genesee Avenue. The university’s main lot will be available the last two weekends of the fair, June 24-25 and July 1-4.

North County Transit District riders will be able to transfer to a special route that goes to the fairgrounds. Trams run throughout the day and night to bring passengers to and from the more-distant lots.