Shuttle aims to make it easy to beat traffic at Coast Guard Festival [Video]

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — There’s no argument that the the Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival is among the top events in West Michigan: among the biggest and longest, with 10 days of activities.

There’s also no argument that traffic and parking can be a challenge. Festival officials are very open about that.

“I truly believe that traffic is a huge issue in Grand Haven just because it’s a condensed area,” says the festival’s marketing director Annie Lengkeek. “There’s just not a lot of parking.”

The process of trying out solutions in recent years, partnering with Harbor Transit, has resulted in the decision to provide free shuttle service daily for the first nine days of the Coast Guard Festival, and low-cost shuttle service from multiple locations on the final day.

The daily shuttle servicewill run between a free parking area at the Harbor Island soccer field and a single drop-off location: Columbus Avenue at …