It may have been a prediction that didn’t materialize, but the City of Kingston was ready all the same for a traffic surge into the city.
City officials predicted anywhere from 70,000 to 500,000 people coming to the Limestone City to view the solar eclipse on Monday. And while prime viewing locations seemed busy, city streets were quiet.
One of the viewing parties, down at Grass Creek Park, saw visitors coming from other parts of the province — visitors like Dianne Douchette, from Ottawa.
“We live just outside of Carleton Place,” she said. “I’m here with my four grandchildren and they live in Ottawa.”
Hunny Schadeva, from Toronto, told Global News that he and his family had been driving since 3 a.m. the morning of the eclipse.
“We have taken (days) off from work… we planned way in advance,” he added. “We wanted to beat the crowd, beat the traffic. That’s why we started early. We reached here at 6 a.m. We reached here before the staff showed up.”
Will Roughton, a visitor to Kingston from Boston, said making the trip was worth the hype.
“There’s a spontaneity and a live-ness to seeing the (Sun’s) corona emanating from the actual silhouette… it’s one of the few things that really is worth the hype,” he said.
Ultimately, the location reached maximum capacity. But around the rest of the city, it was not as bad. Lane closures were in effect, and the city had issued a notice on their website over the weekend — detailing which areas would be affected by partial or total road closures.
But even with Sir John A. MacDonald Boulevard being reduced to one lane of traffic, and repair work shutting down the Lasalle Causeway, areas like the Wabaan Crossing or the 401 Highway near the city were quiet.
— with files from Global’s Fawwaz Muhammad-Yusuf.