For Car Week, tips on avoiding traffic snarls and a plea to focus on the good things.

The numbers are rounded off and a bit dated—from a 2014 survey—but still impressive. During Car Week, 85,000 people crowd into the peninsula. Collectively, they shell out some $53.5 million on food, shopping and hotel rooms. Their stay generates $4.8 million in taxes.

The figures are included in the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau information kit published in advance of Car Week. In addition, the bureau adds an interactive map, a schedule of events, and other information to seemonterey.com/carweektravel to help people locate activities and avoid snarls on the road.

“This is going to be very helpful,” District 5 County Supervisor Mary Adams said at a media roundtable on July 26, as she glanced over the information while making reference to out-of-county visitors. “When they leave the peninsula and are stuck in traffic, they’ll remember the good things.”

MCCVB would like more residents to think of the positives, as well. Yet in the announcement was a caveat: traffic congestion is not a problem that can be solved. The bureau can only fight traffic with facts, figures and tips.

The packet—”Your Guide to Navigating Car Week 2018”—details road closures and tips for access routes, parking and other important information. MCCVB published the kit, intended to bring attention to resources on paper and online available to visitors and local residents, was published earlier than in previous years. 

“Not everybody loves cars,” observed Tammy Blount-Canavan, President and CEO of the bureau. “The best thing we can do is let people know when to watch for that congestion.”

There are suggestions to lessen the headaches, some of them practical, others more hopeful. Among the practical suggestions: county and MCCVB officials encourage greater use of public transportation during Car Week. In addition, they urge people to pay attention to the location of events, as well as start and end times. In other words, to know when and where traffic will be pouring onto roads.

For example, on Thursday, Aug. 23, Carmel hosts a Tour d’Elegance 11:30am-2pm that shuts down Ocean Avenue. The Bonham’s auction stock is on display at Quail Lodge near Carmel Valley 9am-6pm. The Mecum and Russo and Steele auctions get underway in Monterey. Mecum’s event ends at 5pm. Russo and Steele bangs their first gavel around the same time. There is also an RM Sotheby’s preview at the Monterey Conference Center 10am-8pm, taking up part of Del Monte. In Pacific Grove, Worldwide Auctioneers event begins at 5pm. And that’s just a portion of the list.

“As Car Week has grown, communication is more important,” explained Brad Littlefield, public relations manager for WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

The guide points out, for instance, that free general parking for Mecum is at the Del Monte Golf Course. For Russo and Steele, the guide suggests riding the free trolley or walking the recreation trail.

The online interactive maps is part of that effort.

“I know how hard it is,” said Holly Zoller, CEO of the Carmel Foundation. “Some of us have to go to work. This way you can plot your route.”

Among the more hopeful suggestions? Adams pointed out that employers could be more flexible with work schedules, allowing staff to stagger their hours according to the Car Week schedule.

In the long run, the county and the visitors bureau hopes that providing access to information in printed packets and online, will cause people to focus on the benefits of Car Week—the millions spent in local businesses and the prestige of the events—rather than the crawling commutes.

“Our area has changed in positive and negative ways,” Adams said. “To change people’s minds, the only way to do it is provide information. And there’s a ton of good information here.”