Traffic picked up a little during the last half of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally but not enough to make up for its notably slow opening. The Department of Transportation reports that vehicle entering Sturgis from August 4 through August 13 totaled 458,161, down 8.1% from the pervious five-year average. Comparing to the six-year average brings this year’s shortfall down to 7.2%. By either measure, the daily totals show four days drawing above-average vehicle entries and six days drawing below.
Here are the daily vehicle entry counts, with each year’s peak attendance day in green:
On the bright side, this year’s lower attendance drops the five-year average by over 9,500, lowering the bar next year’s Rally will have to clear to make Sturgis look good.
While traffic went down 8.0% compared to last year, trouble went up. The Highway Patrol’s final Rally 2023 report shows drug arrests up 60% over last year, accidents up 29%, and, to the best of my memory, arrests for terrorism up 1. Drunk-driving arrests did decline 19% compared to last year. The Department of Public Safety has no explanation for the sharp increase in drug arrests. I would think that, instead of adopting the Noem Administration’s general refusal to talk to the local press, DPS would leap at the chance to spin the increased drug arrests as proof of greater vigilance and investigativity by South Dakota’s dedicated police officers. But it’s more likely that drug activity was simply more prevalent and obvious at Sturgis, and there’s no good way to spin that.
Perhaps my focus is too myopic, but is there another “event” with similar statistics? Perhaps it’s time to evaluate whether the rally is an event or a public nuisance. The first responder grapevine was that Rapid City hospital stands up extra full time ERs for the rally and in the past averaged 50 amputations during a rally.
https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2023/08/14/at-least-11-die-in-motorcycle-accidents-before-and-during-sturgis-rally/
I’d attribute the spikes in drug arrests to the new Meade County sheriff, Pat West. He’s real anal when it comes to drugs.
Another stat that rose to 1 would be the officer involved shooting category. That video revealed much more than the AG was willing to report initially.
https://kbhbradio.com/breaking-officer-involved-shooting-at-sturgis-wednesday/?fbclid=IwAR3DSJAxUzvMjqiq6p4Eo0UMqnaBxLB_XFpzm_nX3IQSGwTys5PnpDZjrhI
Maybe the fuzz stopped using 6-8 officers to harrass people with cameras in public spaces and used the manpower to fight actual criminal acts.
Fewer people mean more supervision by law enforcement. That will bring more people next year.
I wonder how many of those “increased” drug arrests involved marijuana offenses. After intiated Amendment A was passed, but before the SD Supreme Court declared it invalid, news reports of drug busts diuring the Rally indicated a substantial drop in the number of drug arrests. Local law enforcement simply stopped busting people for small amounts of marijuana during that time period.
https://apnews.com/article/health-arrests-marijuana-sd-state-wire-election-2020-3f3ab2ffd8df257b72f798f29ded613e
After Amendment A was invalidated, law enforcement attitudes and behavior shifted as reflected in All Mammal’s comment.
Speaking of marijuana. As P. Aitch noted on this blog ten years ago, “Marijuana in SD will become legal when it’s so passe’ no one cares about it anymore.” That’s how it went down in Colorado, Washington, California and now South Dakota.
Power’s blog posted the AG’s ballot explanation for repeal of medical marijuana and after two days only three people commented and two weren’t Miranda Gohn lying about the subject, again.
Nothing to see here. Move along and bash some poor trans kids and their parents.