Measures Being Taken to Lighten Sturgis Traffic

Yesterday we had the opportunity to speak with the owner of the Legendary Buffalo Chip Campground, Rod “Woody” Woodruff, who’s excited about the upcoming 71st annual Sturgis Rally. Not only because the Buffalo Chip is having a huge celebration in honor of its 30th anniversary, but because the Dept. of Transportation and the governor of South Dakota have taken active measures to alleviate some of the traffic problems around Sturgis during the rally. Here’s what “Woody” had to say.

“The Dept. of Transportation is working hard to improve traffic and I think there will be a huge improvement this year in traffic because frankly, nobody ever took it seriously before and there’s people in the city of Sturgis who actually like the group of bikers (in town). They felt like it kept people locked in town or something instead of realizing it just kept people from even coming close to town.

“So the city this year, for the first time in 30 years, the highway department for the state of South Dakota has come in and they’ve convinced the city of Sturgis to reroute traffic, to open some additional lanes of traffic so people can get through town more rapidly without the delay, without all that stopping and stopping and stopping and pushing your bike.

“So I don’t think there’s going to be any of that this year. I think traffic’s going to flow pretty smoothly through town and I think that the connecting road will finally be completed by the 75th (anniversary) and 2015 (The building of a new road from I-90 to Highway 79 along a route that would extend 131st Avenue east of Sturgis has been a point of contention for years). I think that the connecting road will be done and then there will be another way here (the Buffalo Chip) and another way into town, and after that there will be no traffic congestion through town or at least it will move more smoothly.

“They’re putting in new lights, new monitors and traffic officers to keep traffic moving. They’re getting rid of some of the stoplights so you don’t have to stop every block. And they’re putting in a temporary stoplight out here with a traffic design engineer operating it personally every day so that when you’re coming and going from the Chip there’ll be somebody there to keep the traffic moving smoothly instead of there being any unnecessary delays.

“There’s been so much improvement because of the involvement of the Dept. of Transportation this year and our governor (South Dakota’s current governor is Rep. Dennis Daugaard). We’re in a unique situation where we have a governor now who appreciates bikers and the fact that they come. In 30 years, we’ve never had that. In the old days, the governors thought that everybody on two wheels was a career criminal, right? It got better over the years but right now we’ve got a governor who said “This is important. This bike rally is important and we need to help.” And I think this is one reason everything is going so well and that’s why I feel so optimistic.”