Sonoma Raceway and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) recently unveiled their plans to mitigate race-day traffic on area roadways during this Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event. NASCAR’s annual visit to the Sonoma wine country marks one of the Bay Area’s largest single-day sporting events each year. The addition of racing fans to the normal wine country visitor traffic puts tremendous strain on the surrounding road systems, particularly the two-lane stretches of Highways 37 and 121. A primary focus this year will be to educate non-race attendees about alternative routes in and out of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. In past years, up to 85% of the drivers passing the raceway on Highways 37 and 121 during peak entry and exit times are not attending the event. When combined with race traffic, the results can bring hours of congestion for all drivers. The raceway’s traffic management plan includes an array of measures intended to divert ambient traffic from the adjacent highways on race day. Some of these new initiatives can be seen at racesonoma.com)(6-18-2014)
