# Eclipse traffic **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 14, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650 "2017-08-14T17:51:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/41 "2017-08-15T08:13:48Z")
You just know that there will be loads of people who live maybe 200/300 miles off the path of totality who will get up on Monday morning, jump in their cars and set off to see it. They will see all the stuff about traffic and decide to make an early start to beat it. Their abandoned cars will add to the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/42 "2017-08-15T08:15:31Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > I work for TA/Petro in Troutdale. Gas prices in Multnomah County will be around $9.50/gallon the weekend preceding the eclipse. Well, that’s one more reason than usual not to gas up in Oregon. 🙂 I have until 11 PM on Friday to decide whether I want to keep my reservation or not - I may or may not decide to do so based on how bad things get by then. ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/43 "2017-08-15T12:40:46Z")
My current plan is to get to central Missouri, either Columbia or Jefferson City. I’ll be staying near Kansas City the night before. I figure that Kansas City people will just go north to see it, and St. Louis people will go south to see it. That will leave central Missouri a bit quieter. I’ll head east on the freeway in the morning. If traffic gets too heavy, I’ll just go north or south to the closest point to see it. Lots of farm land out there is what I’m thinking. I’m hopeful that things won’t be too bad out there. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/44 "2017-08-15T12:46:54Z")
The road that I live on bridges a eastish-westish state highway and a northish-southish state highway, all in the zone of totality. I wonder if it will become an impromptu parking lot? ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/45 "2017-08-15T13:06:52Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > [snip] … I do vaguely remember the 1979 eclipse, but truthfully, only hardcore eclipse nerds and astronomers would have gone to North Dakota or Manitoba, because it was in the dead of winter. Traffic was real bad then even … but just really bad in a normal kind of way … every hardtop road was cars parked bumper-to-bumper on the shoulders the night before … this was along the Columbia Gorge … _Carmageddon cometh … repent your slothful ways and traveleth early …_ Publicity … timing … location … the perfect “storm” of humanity … ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/46 "2017-08-15T13:21:52Z")
At the airline they’ve told us to expect 100% load factors for a couple days either side of Sunday. As in most US airports will look a lot like Thanksgiving. We expect a … profitable … weekend. > [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Randall Munroe chimes in on the issue: [xkcd: Eclipse Searches](https://xkcd.com/1876/) I enjoyed that this morning. In at least some areas I think this other work of his may be more relevant: [Everybody Jump](https://what-if.xkcd.com/8/) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/47 "2017-08-15T13:25:37Z")
IMO this will be a very nice rehearsal / wake up call for anyone who harbors silly ideas about evacuating cities in advance of disasters or attacks. E.g. Seoul or Honolulu ref NK or Miami / Tampa / Charleston, _et al_ ref hurricanes. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/48 "2017-08-15T13:32:46Z")
I’m wondering which will be the bigger show … the eclipse or the traffic … **Duckster** laid out the issues here in Western Oregon quite well … can’t stress the fire hazard enough … it’s been a couple of months with [del]no rain[/del] and everything here is bone dry just itchin’ to start burning … - = except that it rains every day all day long (technically only ten months a year) … Oregon is beautiful, come and visit often, just leave the U-Hauls at home … ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/49 "2017-08-15T14:13:43Z")
It’s a week before Burning Man so a camp-mate from Tucson and I will be going up early, stashing her auto and 4x4 trailer in Gerlach, and taking my Suburban to Stanley, Idaho. The route takes us north of Boise on a state highway through a national forest the night before so we’re going to hole up on a forest road west of Stanley – the campgrounds are all closed because of the fire hazard. I checked out of curiousity about three weeks ago and hotel rooms were still available in Stanley, for $400. Being burners, a cold camp is no big deal for us, especially if we can get breakfast in Stanley (luxury). Assuming we can get through Stanley, the target is about 5-km south where the Salmon River crosses the highway. It’s right smack under the centerline of the eclipse and there are handy parking spots on either side of the bridge. If that’s not feasible, there should be plenty of places to pull over in Stanley itself, which is only a few seconds difference in the eclipse time. After that, it’s south and west to Reno where a hotel room is waiting. From there, after stocking up on final supplies, back to Gerlach recover her car and then the eight miles to Black Rock City on Tuesday. As a volunteer I can get my partner and I in early. Since at peak times getting into BRC can be as much as 12 hours, we’re both used to heavy traffic in isolated areas. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/50 "2017-08-15T15:37:38Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > All I can tell you is that I am going to Colorado tomorrow for unrelated reasons and I had to pay an extreme premium to get a rental car that I will return the day before the eclipse. The rental sites were showing demand over 400% above normal. I assume that there are a shit-ton of people flying into Denver and then driving into Wyoming to see the eclipse in its totality. I wish I had thought ahead and planned to stay to see it but it looks like a whole lot of other people also thought of that plan. AIUI, the Wyoming state police are expecting a massive ingress of people into eastern Wyoming from the Denver metroplex, followed by an equally massive egress following the eclipse. They have been warning people to bring food and water with them in their cars, with the expectation that roads south out of Wyoming may temporarily become parking lots. [Wyoming DOT taking extra precautions ahead of eclipse](http://www.9news.com/news/eclipse/wyoming-dot-taking-extra-precautions-ahead-of-eclipse/459172808) [Number of eclipse visitors could match Wyoming’s population](http://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/number-of-eclipse-visitors-could-match-wyoming-s-population/article_59301ac0-2402-11e7-868f-07a72fa876fd.html) ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/51 "2017-08-15T15:50:09Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > At the airline they’ve told us to expect 100% load factors for a couple days either side of Sunday. As in most US airports will look a lot like Thanksgiving. We expect a … profitable … weekend. There is a [regularly scheduled Delta flight from Portland, OR to Atlanta, GA which happens to track the path of the eclipse almost perfectly](https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/blogs/delta-flight-front-row-seat-solar-eclipse) along its entire route. Being above the clouds the passengers should get quite a show (at least the half on the side that can see the eclipse…I wonder if the pilot will have to tell passengers to not all rush to one side of the plane). Despite the plane being fast the speed of the eclipse is far, far faster than the plane so the plane’s motion will only extend the duration of the eclipse by a few seconds. Still, should be pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/52 "2017-08-15T15:54:18Z")
Yeah, for that you need to[demothball a Concorde](http://www.google.com/search?q=Concorde+follow+eclipse&oq=Concorde+follow+eclipse). ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/53 "2017-08-15T16:01:20Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > _Carmageddon cometh … repent your slothful ways and traveleth early …_ The original [Carmageddon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_405_(California)#History) turned out to be a dud. They put out so much publicity about the freeway closures that everyone did their best to avoid them. So traffic was actually pretty low. The same effect happened in Portland some years back when half of the Interstate Bridge (I-5 between Portland and Vancouver) was going to close for a couple weeks. They started publicising it about half a year ahead of time. So everyone avoided it and used the I-205 bridge. I-205 was jammed; I-5 was virtually deserted, at least for the first day. I’m wondering if there’s going to be a similar effect for the eclipse. Everyone’s hearing about the expected traffic jams, so maybe lots of people will stay home and the traffic is much less than expected. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/54 "2017-08-15T16:09:24Z")
Presumably there will be a lot of scientists and newscasters and just ordinary eclipse fans recording and broadcasting, too. I’m sure seeing in the flesh is better, but I’m jaded by how underwhelming the several partial eclipses I’ve seen were. (Uh, it got about as dark as a heavily clouded day, and the birds got a little excited…) I’ll just skip the hassles and travel and costs. Besides, let me tell you about my sister and her husband. They make arrangements to go to Gloucester for a “meteor watching” sailing trip to view the Perseids shower out on the darkness of the ocean. They’ve made the reservations for this the past five years straight. EVERY SINGLE YEAR the sail has been canceled the day before due to rain/overcast. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/55 "2017-08-15T16:20:40Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > Presumably there will be a lot of scientists and newscasters and just ordinary eclipse fans recording and broadcasting, too. I’m sure seeing in the flesh is better, but I’m jaded by how underwhelming the several partial eclipses I’ve seen were. Partial eclipses are a far cry from the experience of a full eclipse. Not really comparable. Being in the totality of an eclipse is usually described as pretty amazing. > [@](#): > > ``` > As the entire duration of an eclipse, partial phases and all, embraces two or three hours, often for an hour after ‘first contact’ insects still chirp in the grass, birds sing, and animals quietly continue their grazing. But a sense of uneasiness seems gradually to steal over all life. Cows and horses feed intermittently, bird songs diminish, grasshoppers fall quiet, and a suggestion of chill crosses the air. Darker and darker grows the landscape. > > As much as five minutes before total obscurity it may be possible to detect strange wavering lines of light and shade dance across the landscape – the ‘shadow bands’ as they are called – a curious and beautiful effect (related to the same atmospheric phenomenon that causes stars to twinkle). > > ``` > > Then, with frightful velocity, the actual shadow of the moon is often seen approaching, a tangible darkness advancing almost like a wall, swift as imagination, silent as doom. The immensity of nature never comes quite so near as then, and strong must be the nerves not to quiver as this blue-black shadow rushes upon the spectator with incredible speed. A vast, palpable presence seems to overwhelm the world. The blue sky changes to gray or dull purple, speedily becoming more dusky, and a death-like trance seizes upon everything earthly. Birds with terrified cries, fly bewildered for a moment, and then silently seek their night quarters. Bats emerge stealthily. Sensitive flowers, the scarlet pimpernel, the African mimosa, close their delicate petals, and a sense of hushed expectancy deepens with the darkness. > > An assembled crowd is awed into silence almost invariably. Trivial chatter and senseless joking cease. Sometimes the shadow engulfs the observer smoothly, sometimes apparently with jerks; but all the world might well be dead and cold and turned to ashes. Often the very air seems to hold its breath for sympathy; at other times a lull suddenly awakens into a strange wind, blowing with unnatural effect. > > Then out upon the darkness, gruesome but sublime, flashes the glory of the incomparable corona, a silvery, soft, unearthly light, with radiant streamers, stretching at times millions of uncomprehended miles into space, while the rosy, flame-like prominences skirt the black rim of the moon in ethereal splendor. It becomes curiously cold, dew frequently forms, and the chill is perhaps mental as well as physical. > > ``` > Suddenly, instantaneously as a lightning flash, an arrow of actual sunlight strikes the landscape, and Earth comes to life again, while the corona and prominences melt into the returning brilliance, and occasionally the receding lunar shadow is glimpsed as it flies away with the tremendous speed of its approach. > > ``` > > The great opportunity has come and gone, and happy is the astronomer who has kept the poetry of his nature in such abeyance that the merely accurate and scientific work has been accomplished; but in executing his prescribed program, the professional observer must exercise vast self-control. > > ``` > Professor Langley says of this superb sight: ‘The spectacle is one of which, though the man of science may prosaically state the facts, perhaps only the poet could render the impression.’ > > I doubt if the effect of witnessing a total eclipse ever quite passes away. The impression is singularly vivid and quieting for days, and can never be wholly lost. A startling nearness to the gigantic forces of nature and their inconceivable operation seems to have been established. Personalities and towns and cities, and hates and jealousies, and even mundane hopes, grow very small and very far away. > > ``` > > SOURCE: [Mabel Loomis Todd in her book Total Eclipses of the Sun, 1894](http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/whats-it-like-to-see-a-total-solar-eclipse) ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/56 "2017-08-15T16:27:10Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Yeah, for that you need to[demothball a Concorde](http://www.google.com/search?q=Concorde+follow+eclipse&oq=Concorde+follow+eclipse). That was some good reading. June 1973, Concorde #001, and eclipse totality extended from 7 minutes to 70(!) minutes at Mach 2. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/57 "2017-08-15T16:44:50Z")
On the traffic, I am reminded of London 2012, when massive traffic jams were widely forecast. In fact, traffic was lighter than on a normal day, because the locals stayed at home or took the time off as a holiday. Many people who lived near the Olympic Park, flew off to Spain and rented their houses or flats out for the two weeks at huge rents (This happens at Wimbledon every year too). ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/58 "2017-08-15T16:56:36Z")
Reading through this thread has made me wonder how nuts I am for wanting to drive up and see it. Right here at home we’re at about 97% totality, but as others have said being in the path of totality really is worth it. On a good normal day of driving I’m about an hour and 45 minutes south of the center line. But dammit I really want to be in the path of totality! I’m planning on driving north on I-5 from southern Oregon to see the eclipse. My original plan was to get up super early on Monday morning (like 1am) and drive north to see the eclipse somewhere around Dallas. Since **Sunny Daze** is hosting an eclipse Dopefest in her backyard that morning, I think I’ll go there instead. Of course, I knew the traffic would be bad but I didn’t realize what a massive clusterfuck it was predicted to be. Maybe I’ll still leave early, but early Sunday morning and find something to do in Albany on Sunday and then head over that night for the actual Dopefest. I’d still prefer to go up Sunday night; that means less time imposing on people and pissing off everyone in Albany by being another of the six zillion tourists they’re expecting. I’m really hoping that 1-5 will be at least driveable at 1-3 am. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/59 "2017-08-15T17:18:15Z")
I’m on a bike tour ([https://www.cyclegreateryellowstone.com/](https://www.cyclegreateryellowstone.com/)) and the ride starts at 5:30 AM MDT (latest to start is 6:30) on eclipse day :eek: It is a short ride (47 miles) There have been many warnings about traffic. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650/60 "2017-08-15T17:19:53Z")
**Lancia** , if my family and I can go all the way from Cleveland to Georgia to see it, you can go a mere hundred miles. Make it happen somehow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eclipse-traffic/793650.md?page=4)