July 4th 2018 was a day of parking nightmare at the Rockland State Park, but action from officials meant the day was a lot more orderly this time round.
Last year, the park hosted more people than it had planned to and there were too many cars to fit into the parking lot. The overflow forced people to park haphazardly, which meant that people’s driveways were blocked.
Several meetings were held to plan out the parking situation. The meeting included officials from the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, emergency responders, and law enforcement. They decided on a detailed plan, which was also used to successfully control parking on Memorial Day and Labor Day. They expected the same plan to handle the influx of traffic coming from nearby areas such as New City.
Ed Day, Rockland County Executive, stated before the event:
“We have every expectation that the mayhem that occurred last year on the Fourth of July will not be repeated. Zero tolerance will be the order of the day with tow trucks at the ready to deal with violators.”
Some of the actions taken to prevent a parking mess for this year’s Independence Day celebrations included:
- Enlisting poster printing services to let drivers know of the ‘no parking’ restrictions at Rockland Lake State Park’s entrances
- Assisting park officials with directing traffic
- Live alerts on the park’s website to show the real-time parking conditions at the park
- Keeping local tow trucks on standby
