San Francisco police defend traffic control measures at Paul McCartney concert

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco police are defending their traffic control at the long-awaited Paul McCartney concert at Candlestick Park.

Traffic was so bad, some fans never even made it into the concert Thursday night. Instead they found themselves stuck in the street, outside the stadium.

Darrin Derita's wife bought him tickets as a Father's Day gift. It took them more than three hours to get from Alamo to Candlestick. When they got close, all they saw was a sea of tail lights. The show started when they were sitting in their car.

"As we made our way on the road that was alongside Candlestick, we followed it until we heard the encore," said Derita.

Michele Abrate was going to the show to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary. Instead she found total gridlock. The Abrate's sat in their car outside during the entire concert.

"There was a guy selling t-shirts out in the middle of the freeway. There were people getting out of cars and starting to walk, said Abrate.

The show ended after midnight and it was a traffic nightmare again.

"We didn't move for two hours, so it was two hours and 45 minutes to make the drive from Candlestick to Redwood City," said concert goer Whitney Black.

That's a trip that would normally take about 20 minutes.

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr says he had the same number of officers as he does on any big 49ers game and the same traffic controls, but he says the dynamics of the concert contributed to the

gridlock.

"Because it was a great show, nobody left early so when 60,000 people all leave from the same place at the same time, you get what you get," said Chief Suhr.

Ruth McDevitt from Philadelphia said her friend only lives 20 minutes from Candlestick so they gave two hours to get there, but four hours later they were only in the stadium or parking lot.