Traffic counts continue to increase in Wyoming before Aug. 21 solar eclipse

Wyoming traffic counts continued to increase over the past two days as the Aug. 21 solar eclipse approaches.

Figures from Wednesday, Aug. 16 and Thursday, Aug. 17 showed overall traffic counts increased by more than 30,000 vehicles for both days when looking at a five-year averages for the third Wednesday and Thursday in August.

The increases don’t consider vehicles that pass the same spot multiple times a day, like commuter vehicles or local delivery vehicles. The traffic counts also don’t reflect all traffic movement in the state as all roads don’t have counters.

Traffic continued to increase locally in several spots. Those areas include Jackson, Afton, Etna and Moran Junction along US 89, 189 and 191, which are high-volume roads in the state.

On US 89 south of Etna on Aug. 17, traffic increased by about 36 percent, figures from the Wyoming Department of Transportation’s traffic counters showed. On Aug. 16, traffic increased by 25 percent. Along US 26-89-189-191 south of Kelly near Jackson, traffic increased by 22 percent. On Aug. 16, that number increased by 18 percent. Again, the increases are based on data over a five-year period.

Some other areas in the northwestern part of the state where traffic continued to increase on Aug. 17 include US 89-191-187 north of Moran Junction north of Jackson at 35 percent (1,638 more vehicles), US 89-191-287 near Colter Bay near the Grand Teton National Park at 15 percent (753 more vehicles), US 189 north of Lazeart Junction near Evanston at 22 percent (309 more vehicles), US 89 south of Afton at 18 percent (516 more vehicles), US 189-191 at Teton National Park at 19 percent (464 more vehicles) and US 89 south of Etna at 36 percent (1,369 more vehicles), traffic figures showed.

US 191 north of Rock Springs and at the Sweetwater County line also continued a positive trend in traffic counts on Aug. 17. The section near Rock Springs increased by 16 percent (535 more vehicles) for the five-year average while the area near Sweetwater increased by 17 percent (519 more vehicles).

Traffic counts on US 287 east of WYO 28 near Lander also substantially increased on Aug. 17 by 45 percent (519 more vehicles). On Aug. 16, counts increased by 22 percent (253 more vehicles), traffic counts showed. Also along US 287 north of WYO 28, traffic counts increased by 18 percent (573 more vehicles) for Aug. 17.

Along US 287 south of Tie Siding near the Colorado border, traffic counts continued to increase by 44 percent (1,989 more vehicles).

On I-25 in the Cheyenne area, traffic increased in several locations by about 10 percent. For example, at the I-25 area near the Colorado border, there were 2,455 more vehicles. However, figures north of Glendo on I-25 had a decrease of about 45 percent.

Traffic counts fluctuated along the I-80 corridor with some areas having a decrease in the number of overall counts from the Aug. 16 data.

East of Little American and west of Green River on the western side of I-80, traffic increased by more than 10 percent (2,237 more vehicles).

Interestingly, west of Laramie on I-80, traffic counts increased by 17 percent (2,348 more vehicles) for Aug. 17. On Aug. 16, counts increased by 12 percent (1,743 more vehicles).

The decreases along I-80 could be the result of motorists traveling north in that area of the state.