Saturday’s jam-packed Cruise Douglas event was shut down after an hour by Wichita police
For the first half hour or so, it was a pretty happy event with lots of waving, smiling, honking and engine revving.
But it didn’t take long for an unofficial meetup called “Cruise Douglas: Quarantine Edition,” intended by its organizers to give people a safe way to get out of their houses, show off their classic cars and cure a little cabin fever, to go bad on Saturday night, with some car owners doing burnouts on the street and dozens of people getting out of their cars and crowding together in parking lots off of Douglas.
After about a hour, Wichita Police shut it all down.
“We understand the need to have safe events like the Facebook ‘Cruise Douglas-Quarantine Edition’ to help break the cabin fever we’re all experiencing,” the police department said in a statement issued afterward. “But when ‘cruisin’ became bruising, WPD had to do what’s best for everyone’s safety. Several individuals were racing, popping wheelies, doing burnouts, driving on sidewalks, and not practicing social distancing.”
Officer Kevin Wheeler said that the officers were out watching the event and that they also received complaints from individuals.
Organizers said they were disappointed on many levels.
“People are upset with people who don’t understand,” said Damon Sanchez, a local car enthusiast who put out the Public Facebook invitation suggesting the event late last week. “Let’s do this and let’s have fun, but why stand on the side of the road? Why do that with your car? I don’t get it.”
The event, which invited Wichitans to drive up and down Douglas like teens did years ago, was intended as a way for people to get together safely during the stay-at-home order issued because of the coronavirus pandemic.
It started at 6 p.m. on Saturday, and the event quickly produced the type of traffic downtown Wichita almost never sees. About an hour in, traffic was bumper-to-bumper from the Delano neighborhood all the way to Hillside.
Many of the participants were classic-car owners, who formed a parade of hot rods, sports cars and vintage coupes that traveled east all the way down Douglas, turned around and drove all the way west. Many other participants were motorcyclists or families in mini-vans and compact cars, out to see what was happening.
It didn’t take long for people to start pulling over on the side of the road to talk with other drivers. People were especially congregating east of Washington and in the QuikTrip parking lot at Douglas and Washington.
Lance Crawford said he saw the event posted on Facebook and thought it would be fun to get out, thinking driving his family of six around in his classic convertible wouldn’t be too big of a risk. He drove all the way from Derby to participate.
He was disappointed it was over so quickly, he said.
“I hate it that they closed it down,” he said. “We want to keep people safe, but people don’t want to adhere to the rules. It just kinds of ruins it for everyone.”
Contributing: Travis Heying of the Wichita Eagle
This story was originally published April 11, 2020 at 8:36 PM.
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