To handle the traffic congestion and crowds of celebrities and film fans at this year's Sundance Film Festival, police in Park City are trying something new: There will be no parking on one side of Main Street.
"One of the things we run into is people double parking, making deliveries outside of delivery hours, and it just causes a huge traffic congestion problem in both directions," Park City Police Lt. Rick Ryan said Thursday.
Police are prohibiting parking on the west side of Main Street from Jan. 19 until Jan. 28. The west side will used for deliveries and dropping off passengers.
"It especially facilitates deliveries and the taxi use that comes with Sundance," Park City Special Events Coordinate Max Paap said.
In the past, officers have barricaded sections of the historic street, but it hasn't really alleviated much of the congestion. People would still double-park to run in for "just a minute," leaving a line of frustrated people in cars behind them.
"This will be kind of a new experiment," Ryan said, adding that police have the support of many of the businesses and venues on Main Street.
Barricades will be up again along Main Street to provide crowd control for celebrities around some bars and clubs, as well as to allow a smooth flow of pedestrian traffic.
By closing the west side of Main Street, Park City will lose some precious parking spaces. The city hopes to augment that by opening spaces up on nearby Swede Alley and having a new parking structure available.
"We hope that it allows people better access to Main Street and to the businesses by not getting stuck in traffic spending time stuck in their car," Ryan said.
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com