More changes are coming to San Diego Comic Con this year. This one may actually be a relief for convention goers. The Convention Center Connection reported that Harbor Drive will be closed to traffic between First Avenue and Park Boulevard during SDCC. Shuttle buses and emergency vehicles will still have access, but this opens up the road in front of the convention center to more pedestrian traffic.
The article posted on visitsandiego.com continues on to say that only those who have a convention badge will be permitted access to the front steps and surrounding sidewalks of the convention center. While they don’t detail how they will regulate the pedestrian traffic to badged members only, you can visit the article here to see their PDF drawings detailing the new security procedures.
All of this will be in effect during the entire convention. The hours for the road closures are as follows:
- Wednesday, July 18th from 3pm – 9pm
- Thursday, July 19th from 7am – 9pm
- Friday, July 20th from 7am – 9pm
- Saturday, July 21st from 7am – 9pm
- Sunday, July 22nd from 7am – 7pm
While I am a fan of the closure of Harbor Drive, I’m curious about limiting the pedestrians to badged members only around the convention center. I agree that this new measure should ensure more safety for convention goers, but this means that people who either don’t have a badge at all or don’t have a badge for that day won’t be able to get near the convention center. Hopefully, there will still be plenty of free things to do around the convention, so those without badges will barely even notice. I think what this really means is that cosplayers may have to venture a little further away from the convention to be seen by both those who have badges as well as those who don’t.
On the plus side, badges have started to ship out and should be arriving shortly. Stay tuned for more Comic Con news as we are exactly one month away from Day 1 of San Diego Comic Con 2018.
