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Dale, I appreciate that the Park Service has a responsibility to consider the safety of all visitors, but I fail to see why it takes more than one day to come up with a plan to address the issues.
Why does it seem necessary to halt any event?
Events like these are held very frequently in all areas of the world. In my area (the bay area) there is some event that involves either runners or bicyclist every month that includes the support vehicles and many "re-fueling sites". They somehow manage to hold these events without problem. Why not the same in Death Valley?...
When competitive events are held in urban/suburban areas there are multi-lane streets available that are closed to traffic for the events. There are alternate highways for local traffic and medical emergency tranport. There is a pool a thousands of off duty police and medical personnel available to work security enforcement and safety in the area. The cities have a staff with the full time job of facilitating events. The city contains thousands of venders in place to provide services to contestants and crowds.
Death Valley has 2 lanes, often without shoulders. The race runs 135 back-country miles, not 26 urban/suburban miles. There are no alternate routes if you close the road for the event. There are long distances to services. There are no large pools of available enforcement and traffic personnel. (The Badwater 135 race already imports their medical personnel from out of area. See their website.)
So, back to my original question. Why does it take more than one day to decide on some procedures to address traffic safety concerns?
If you can't see a difference that would take more than a day for development and review of a management plan, we'll expect to begin the public comment on your complete proposal tomorrow. (Don't forget to have your lawyers review it before you post.) Better yet, find out how much lead time it takes for the organizations in your area to set up events even where they have resources available and check out your local government procedures. Tell us how simple they are in the easy case.
Dale B Dalrymple
