GLTA to ease Bike Week traffic problem

"Glita" to the rescue.

Laconia Motorcycle Rally & Race Week Association Executive Director Charlie St. Clair said last night that the Greater Laconia Transit Agency (GLTA) will be running busses up an down Rte. 3 during the final days of Bike Week this year. And that bus service should alleviate the primary concern City Council had last night before approving three new temporary traffic orders requested by the police department: Allowing people who work at the Weirs to head for home in a reasonably timely manner.

After considerable discussion, council approved:

— Closing Rollercoaster Rd. to eastbound through-traffic on the final Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.,

— Preventing northbound traffic on Rte. 3 from turning left onto Rollercoaster Rd. during the same hours, and

— Allowing police — on an as needed basis — to force vehicles traveling westbound on Watson Rd. to only turn right onto Rte. at the Tamarack Restaurant.

The three orders were requested by police in an attempt to loosen up the traffic bottleneck that occurs where Rte. intersects with Rollercoaster Rd. (to the west) and Watson Rd. (to the east).

There was no debate on the first and third order, but the proposal to not allow left turns onto Rollercoaster Rd. brought Donna Jardin, proprietor of the 1848 Inn on Rte. 3, to the council meeting. She explained the order would make the task of finding a way home for her employees — always a problem — that much more difficult.

Jardin said she has typically loaded up her van with workers — some of whom are from Gilford and Belmont — and carried them north to meet relatives at the intersection of Rollercoaster Rd. and Parade Rd. The new order, she said would require her to fight traffic all the way in to Meredith before turning back south on Parade Rd.

She cannot go south from her inn because the Weirs channel bridge is closed to 4-wheeled vehicles from Thursday on.

Councilor Rick Judkins said "there has to be some accommodation made " for employers like Jardin but rejected a suggestion from Jim Cowan (Ward 4) that some kind of sticker system could be used. "Passes turn out to be a nightmare," said Judkins. "Everybody ends up with one."

Mayor Mark Fraser seemed to be heading toward suggesting that the order could be amended to prevent only motorcycles from turning left but Judy Krahulec (Ward 1), St. Clair and police Lt. John MacLennan all testified that many cars travel northbound on Rte. 3 that do not belong to Weirs residents or businesses.

St. Clair said there are always a lot automobile drivers get as far south as the intersection of Hilliard Rd. before they are told they can't cross the bridge and have to turn around and head back north.

Krahulec said she agreed the police were right to try and address the gridlock problem but she was skeptical the proposed orders were the answer. MacLennan disagreed with her assertion that emergency vehicles find it easy to get through the traffic jams on Rte. 3, saying he doubted that a fire truck could get through when traffic has come to a stop. He repeated Chief Tom Oetinger's assertion that slow but steady movement is much safer than no movement at all.

When asked what his answer to Jardin's predicament might be, MacLennan answered, "The train or GLTA."

The temporary traffic orders were amended to exempt GLTA busses from the Weirs channel bridge crossing prohibition and St. Clair confirmed that GLTA Executive Director Allan Gauthier was committed to providing bus service at the Weirs during Bike Week.

After the meeting, St. Clair said busses would run from the Weirs Fire Station to at least the Rollercoaster Rd/Watson Rd. intersection, and perhaps as far as Meredith Harley-Davidson. from Thursday through Sunday and he predicted ridership would be high. He said the exact locations where busses would stop along the way would be determined soon.