How did Biloxi traffic plan handle a record number of Cruisers? Here’s a look.
When the cones came out in Biloxi for Cruisin’ The Coast on Friday, not everyone was pleased.
“The cones and the police are making it ridiculous,” one woman wrote in a Facebook group called Cruisin’ the Coast, with more than 30,000 members.
“I can agree with a few police but a full force of hundreds... what a joke,” another woman commented.
The comments about excessive police presence echoed the frustrations long expressed by attendees of another major Coast tourism event: Black Spring Break. Spring breakers have sometimes said the cones, police patrols on the beach, and limited pedestrian crossings on U.S. 90 make them feel unwelcome in Biloxi.
While the complaints by cruisers this year and spring breakers in the past are similar, some Cruisin’ attendees on social media argued that traffic control measures are necessary for one event — but not for theirs.
“The one lane policy was started for black spring break,” one man commented. “It was never intended for CTC until it was deemed racist to not do so.”
But Biloxi Police Department Capt. Brian Dykes said the city’s traffic plan for every event on the Coast — from Cruisin’ to spring break to Mardi Gras — is exactly the same, and has been in place for at least a decade.
During a record-breaking Cruisin’ The Coast, with more than 9,000 vehicles registered, it worked like it was supposed to, he said.
“If you base our performance on the number of vehicles here and the infrastructure we have here to support it, we did an outstanding job of keeping traffic at least moving, which allowed us to still provide the emergency services that the community requires of us, while monitoring the event,” he said.
Traffic plans in Biloxi
The plan in place from Porter Avenue to Debuys Road along U.S. 90 includes multiple “tipping points,” at which police will implement additional measures. The cones are the first step, and they serve two purposes.
“It serves as kind of a magnet for their eyes, because nobody wants to hit a cone, so they’re paying more attention,” he said.
Second, they ensure that if subsequent “tipping points” are reached, police can do what they need to do. For example, if traffic stops completely, police can force traffic out of the left lane to open it for emergency vehicles. But they need the cones in place beforehand in order to do that.
When traffic slows down, officers close selected left-hand turns on U.S. 90 to help keep things moving. That happened this year.
For the first time this year, officers also opened the two lanes of the service road to eastbound traffic from Treasure Bay Casino to Rodenberg Avenue. That reduced some of the intersections complicating traffic flow.
Many members of the Cruisin’ Facebook group defended the cones and praised Biloxi police officers.
“Not only are there nine thousand plus additional cars on the coast right now, there are also local residents needing to get to and from work and to and from their homes...” one woman wrote. “I think they are doing an outstanding job in an incredibly difficult and high traffic situation.”
Police statistics
Cruisin’s record 25th year also brought a number of high-profile public safety issues, including one pedestrian death.
On Tuesday, a 23-year-old woman was the victim of a hit and run while she was trying to cross the service road in front of Slap Ya Momma’s on U.S. 90. The driver’s vehicle was a newer Nissan Altima, Dykes said.
On Wednesday night a few blocks away, a Cruisin’ spectator was shot in the chest during a shootout between two motorists, which he was not involved in.
And on Thursday night, a pedestrian crossing U.S. 90 near the Beau Rivage was hit and killed by the driver of a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle. The pedestrian, whose name has not been released, started crossing when traffic was stopped, but the light changed before he reached the other side.
The initial police account said the driver had been attempting a burnout, but police later said there was conflicting information.
Pedestrians are killed along U.S. 90 in Biloxi and Gulfport throughout the year. In some stretches, crosswalks are far away from each other, so it’s not uncommon to see families scrambling across four lanes of traffic to get to the beach.
In 2019, the last Cruisin’ that took place before the pandemic, with about 8,500 registered vehicles, Biloxi police reported 288 event-related calls for service, 11 arrests, 16 charges and 71 traffic citations. This year, the city announced on Monday, police reported 434 calls for service and issued 156 traffic tickets.
Biloxi police released a report with statistics on traffic volume and numbers of tickets and arrests during Cruisin’ on Tuesday morning. That report showed there were 27 event-related arrests, up from nine in 2020.
Elizabeth Black, who lives in Biloxi near the beach, said that over the last four years she has seen “crazy things” during Cruisin’, from burnouts to garbage left behind.
“I like the cruising,” she said. “But there’s a point where they have to sit down and say look, we have issues we have to deal with before the next event, or before next year. We have to figure out how we can get some of this under control.”
Black Spring Break & Cruisin’ The Coast
To some observers, the incidents raised questions about how officials and community members perceive and receive two of the region’s biggest tourist events, Cruisin’ The Coast and Black Spring Break.
Tony Shabazz, a Black Ocean Springs native who now lives in Biloxi, said that the perceived double-standard between the two events had long been “a common conversation around the dinner table.”
“I don’t think a guy would sit there in his old-school car and burnout right in front of the police,” he said. “Apparently they don’t see the police.”
One draws mostly white, older people, while the other draws primarily young, Black college students. Cruisin’ stretches from Waveland to Pascagoula, with city sponsorship at every stop. Black Spring Break centers on the Coliseum and nearby beaches, with no official connection to local governments and multiple organizers.
Over the years, spring break attendees have often complained about what they see as excessive police presence and unfair treatment at Edgewater Mall.
When Black Spring Break organizer Nick Brundidge read about the shooting, the hit-and-run and the pedestrian fatality that occurred during Cruisin’, he wondered: What if this had happened during Black Spring Break?
He thinks he knows the answer.
“They’d be calling me, talking about ‘Let’s shut it down. We need to shut it down,’” he said. “This is getting ridiculous. But the show goes on.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2021 at 5:50 AM.
