Impact of solar eclipse felt across Wyoming

Posted 8/27/17

People flood to Wyoming for solar eclipse

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Impact of solar eclipse felt across Wyoming

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During a Wednesday morning press briefing call to recap Monday’s total solar eclipse, representatives from Wyoming agencies shared traffic reports, event information and more as they answered questions from members of the media. 

“We got people to Wyoming and spread them around the path of totality throughout the state,” said Chris Mickey, public relations advisor from the Office of Governor Matt Mead. “There’s no doubt that this event had a positive impact from both a tourism and economic perspective.”

Traffic counts

Updated Wyoming traffic counts for Monday, August 21, showed an increase of more than 550,000 vehicles compared to a five-year average for the same timeframe, according to information shared by WYDOT on press briefing call.

In addition, traffic counts increased by more than 244,000 vehicles on Tuesday; Sunday saw an additional 217,000 vehicles; Saturday showed an increase of more than 131,000 vehicles; Friday saw an increase of 74,000 vehicles; Thursday had an additional 45,000 vehicles; and Wednesday saw an additional 30,000 vehicles.

Please note these are raw numbers and the increases don’t consider vehicles that pass the same spot multiple times per day. The traffic counts also don’t reflect all traffic movements in the state, as all roads don’t have counters. 

Tourism impact

Wyoming welcomed an incredible influx of visitors from around the country and the world to the Cowboy State to view this year’s total solar eclipse. Both anecdotal and hard data showed that many visitors came into Wyoming early and planned on staying after the eclipse to explore our wide-open spaces, natural wonders and destinations.

The Wyoming Office of Tourism is conducting an economic impact study on the eclipse and will be releasing findings from that study in October. 

WHP calls and incidents

The Wyoming Highway Patrol had 1,813 events in a 24-hour period on Monday, which included 100 crashes, 325 motorist assists and 111 traffic complaints, as compared to 609 events and 25 crashes on Tuesday. For the amount of traffic that was in the state, the number of events was extremely low thanks to most travelers being patient, adhering to traffic laws and maintaining slow speeds. 

“This was the highest density of traffic that Wyoming has ever seen,” said Sergeant Kyle McKay, public relations and recruitment for the Wyoming Highway Patrol. “With this high amount of traffic, we were really pleased with the shockingly low volume of traffic incidents and were impressed that the majority of travelers displayed patience throughout the whole event.”