Festival traffic snarls Coachella Valley roads, freeway
It was bumper to bumper traffic on Jefferson Street in Indio with weekend one of Coachella ending. It made it hard for some local residents just trying to get around.
“It’s hard because we go to San Diego right now. I don’t know how it is on the freeway right now,” Rosa Sanchez, who lives in Indio, said.
Some festival-goers decided to head out as soon as they could to avoid the worst of the traffic. That included a group from San Francisco.
“Yeah, we’re getting out of here early. A lot of cars still there before we left so we’re going to try to sneak out and get through the mountains without any traffic,” Mitchell Gray, traveling from San Francisco, said.
That’s the same strategy this couple went with after camping at Coachella.
“They actually wanted us out by 10 a.m., but we figured since the first day we got here, that we needed to do it as soon as possible,” Lydia Lopez, traveling from Whittier, said.
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Westbound Interstate 10 traffic began to slow by 9 a.m. and was near “parking lot” status for hours Monday afternoon. Caltrans says to expect more of the same on Thursday eastbound into the Coachella Valley as festival-goers make their way to Indio for weekend two. The worst stretch is between Indio and Beaumont. Locals say the traffic can be a headache, but understand the benefit of all these visitors…
“We like it that people come and visit us because it’s good for the business…and I like the music,” Sanchez said.
If there’s advice for anyone needing to make their way through festival season, a festival-goer has this to say.
“Please leave early as possible. You’re not going to like it when you get stuck in traffic and just get out of there as soon as you can,” Lopez said.
