Residents flood into La Quinta City Hall with Ironman traffic issues
The Ironman race is billed to come back to the Coachella Valley on December 15, 2019. It’s part of a three-year contract with the city of La Quinta and Indian Wells.
Residents have conflicting feelings about the globally recognized 70.3-mile triathlon. Officials closed much of Washington Street and Highway 111 for the first half ironman race in the valley earlier this month.
Some La Quinta residents spoke up about these traffic issues during public comment during the latest city council meeting.
“I’m in PGA West and for those of us in there, we were landlocked, we could not get out,” said Bonnie C, who raised concerns over traffic issues.
One local business owner told the city council he lost money that weekend. “I lost $21,000 that day,” said Derek.
“It didn’t get anything for the city, just a lot of headaches for most of us,” said TJ, another concerned La Quinta resident.
La Quinta Mayor Linda Evans explained that a correspondence will be sent out this week to those inconvenianced by the traffic.
“It is a summary and an apology for what transpired to be initially an amazing event that resulted in what we’ve experienced as a traffic nightmare. Again, our ultimate goal was to ensure that no one died during this event because we did not want that in La Quinta,” Evans said.
Some local participants thanked the city for their efforts.
“I have raced where the courses have not been closed and competitors have been killed and it was a very unfortunate and saddening moment when that happened, so I wanted to extend my thanks,” said Laura, a local resident and athlete who participated in the race.
“Ironman decided to come to our beautiful Valley for an amazing race. Yes, traffic is awful and it is my hope that La Quinta will work with Ironman to both improve traffic flow and allow 3,000 other people to race here again,” Kim D, said, another local Ironman participant.
Another local resident, who says he has planned similar races in a handful of other cities, said this type of reaction is normal and expects more support in the future.
“You’ll get very strong backlash, we’ll accommodate it. We’ll do the race the second year, and by usually the third year, there are people out cheering, talking about their Ironman race coming to their city,” said Alan Woodruff, of La Quinta.
The next meeting with the City of La Quinta, Ironman representatives, and other partners is planned to be held in January.
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