Roads around stadiums on game days - how long until they return to normal flow?

Started by KCRoadFan, October 15, 2020, 05:23:21 PM

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KCRoadFan

For me, this is post number 162 - which, as a sports fan, I know is the number of games a major league baseball team (normally) plays in a season. That association, in turn, prompted me to think of the following question: regarding the roads around stadiums, how is the traffic flow handled on game days? This mostly applies to after the game, because before the game, people arrive on a gradual basis over a span of several hours, whereas afterwards, they tend to leave the parking lots all at once - something on the order of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of vehicles, all leaving at the same time. From personal experience, I know that in order to streamline the flow of exiting vehicles, officials (most often parking lot security, local police, state highway patrol, or some combination thereof) will often block certain traffic movements around the exits to the lots, funneling traffic in a given direction, so as to reduce conflict points - and thus, reduce bottlenecks and expedite traffic flow. (Inevitably, there will always be traffic jams anyway.)

I guess my question is as follows: how long does this altered traffic pattern tend to be in place after the game (or concert, or whatever the event) before the officials step aside and allow normal traffic flow on the nearby roads to resume? I suppose it carries on for however long is needed to clear the lots, which I'm sure varies greatly based on certain factors - such as how many people attended the event, as well as the layout of the lots themselves - but, in many cases, can probably take about an hour if not more.

Regarding this question, what are your experiences regarding traffic patterns on game days? (And if anyone on this forum has actually directed traffic themselves after a stadium event, that's even better!)


NWI_Irish96

So, 2020 is an outlier, but for Notre Dame football games, traffic flow is directed by law enforcement until about 90 minutes after the end of the game.
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webny99

Bills Stadium in Orchard Park, NY, would be an interesting case study. I know very little about it from a functional level, having never been there in person, but I know from traveling to/through the area that there's always horrible congestion after home Bills games, and it's not in a particularly commercial area, so congestion often flows onto residential streets like this one.

Traffic has three main access points to the freeway: I-90/NY 179, US 219/NY 179, and US 219/US 20A. (Testing my memory here, but I think the US 20A approach usually has restricted access or closures of some kind.) You can usually almost watch the bottlenecks moving in real time in the hours after the game. First the surface streets jam up, then the approaches to US 219/I-90, then US 219 itself where it joins I-90, then I-90 EB (heading north), and ultimately, the Williamsville toll booth, and the entire Thruway all the way to Rochester. When there's a 1PM kickoff (which is almost always), the actual stadium area is usually cleared out by about 5:30 to 6PM or so, but you'll see congestion lingering on the Thruway as far east as Pembroke and Batavia until 7PM or even later.

It's funny, back in the day before I started paying attention to the Bills, I could come around the corner from I-290 onto the Thruway and instantly be able to tell whether it was a home game Sunday based on the traffic levels, and know within a minute whether they won or lost based on how hot-headed the drivers were! :-D

nexus73

BYU's Cougar Stadium has 4-lane streets around it.  When the game ends, police set up those streets for 1-way flow.  Over 60K fans can exit the stadium area in about an hour.

Want to see the opposite?  Go to Reser Stadium, home of the Oregon State Beavers, where the crowd will be about half of what BYU draws.  One 2-lane road runs to the south of the stadium.  It can take hours to get out of that area.  For an university known for engineering, no one there seems to grasp the problem and solve it.

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paulthemapguy

There are actually questions about this on professional engineering licensure exams, because the ending to a large concert or sporting event is the largest single shock to the demand of a transportation network.  I've poked around a bit looking for a practice exam question, but haven't found one yet.  All I know is that there were at least 2 when I took the actual P.E.
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mrsman

It's not just sports events.  In my area, there is a very complicated traffic plan to get people out of the area after the fireworks displays on July 4.  Of course, the big one in Downtown Washington requires all sorts of coordination, but the small local suburban ones will also have the police reverse flow on many streets that emanate from the fireworks site.

There are some sports facilities that have automatic signaling to deal with the flow, like reversible lanes.

Here is an old setup in Inglewood, CA:

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.9431356,-118.3439071,3a,75y,201.18h,85.02t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1stVxHQ-seHhyJjmLupE9Mhg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

I'm not sure if this is still used in light of the new football stadium, but it was definitely there to help with traffic back when the Lakers used to play at the Forum and after a major horse race at the now defunct Hollywood Park.


ErmineNotyours

Automatic signage outside the Tacoma Dome.

In Seattle, they turn the I-5 reversible Express Lanes north of downtown to northbound after events.  One problem is during Sounders day games and Mariners night games. They turn the Express Lanes north after the Sounders match reasoning that their traffic demand is more sudden, and higher. Traffic southbound on I-5 whenever the Express Lanes aren't turned that way is always horrible, but it is worse when Mariner fans are trying to stream into town.  I was on a bus stuck in traffic, and my leg was going completely numb sitting there waiting and doing nothing.  I could have picked a different bus into town along Aurora, but I didn't.

thspfc

For I-94 and the Stadium Freeway near Miller Park in Milwaukee, it usually takes 3-4 hours. Of course, "normal flow" for that area on weekdays is only a ten minute bottleneck instead of a 45 minute bottleneck like on game days.

Dirt Roads

For most of the stadiums I'm familiar with, they clear out in about 2 hours:  Blacksburg, Morgantown, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem and Columbia.  At Duke (Durham), things usually clear out in about an hour because of the smaller crowd size.  But the worst is in Knoxville after a 3:30pm kickoff, where you can expect folks to hang out on the strip around campus for at least 4-1/2 to 5 hours after the game (it usually takes more than 3 hours to clear out Neyland at other times, so I park several miles away on the other side of downtown and walk out).

Dirt Roads

Quote from: mrsman on October 16, 2020, 01:42:49 PM
It's not just sports events.  In my area, there is a very complicated traffic plan to get people out of the area after the fireworks displays on July 4. 

The worst I've ever seen was at the televised Bicentennial event at Kings Island in Ohio.  After letting out at midnight, parking lot traffic didn't move for six hours and we didn't get out for another 90 minutes or so.  We were no where near the end of the line, so I suspect that some folks got stuck for another hour.

Gulol

Leaving the Air Force Academy after football games can be a bit of an adventure.  Depending on the lot you're parked in, you're either steered towards the North gate exit or to the South gate exit with Stadium Blvd adjusted for an additional traffic lane to help the flow.  For big games, such as Army or Navy, it can be an adventure getting out.  When the Avalanche and Kings played a game at the stadium earlier this year, it was taking people HOURS to get in and out of there.  Getting in generally takes longer since the stadium is on an active military installation and if there are any security concerns, they will do vehicle searches before letting you proceed onto Academy grounds.  All things considered, they do a pretty good job getting folks in and out.  Just make sure you hit the bathroom before you leave otherwise because you can never be sure. 

ErmineNotyours


MCRoads

We went to a nascar race in Phoenix, AZ, and there solution was to turn every road to the track one-way. They also directed priority parking and general parking different routes. All stoplights from the track to the I-10 were turned off, and police blocked cross traffic. They also posted VMS messages to help direct traffic.
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webny99

Quote from: webny99 on October 15, 2020, 07:35:34 PM
Bills Stadium in Orchard Park, NY, would be an interesting case study. I know very little about it from a functional level, having never been there in person, but I know from traveling to/through the area that there's always horrible congestion after home Bills games, and it's not in a particularly commercial area, so congestion often flows onto residential streets like this one.

Traffic has three main access points to the freeway: I-90/NY 179, US 219/NY 179, and US 219/US 20A. (Testing my memory here, but I think the US 20A approach usually has restricted access or closures of some kind.) You can usually almost watch the bottlenecks moving in real time in the hours after the game. First the surface streets jam up, then the approaches to US 219/I-90, then US 219 itself where it joins I-90, then I-90 EB (heading north), and ultimately, the Williamsville toll booth, and the entire Thruway all the way to Rochester. When there's a 1PM kickoff (which is almost always), the actual stadium area is usually cleared out by about 5:30 to 6PM or so, but you'll see congestion lingering on the Thruway as far east as Pembroke and Batavia until 7PM or even later.

Slight bump here, but wanted to add some data for context. With the Thruway traffic data for 2022, I ran an analysis of pre- and post-game traffic levels for I-90 WB in the AM and I-90 EB in the PM for the 1PM game on Oct. 9th. This data compares the game day volumes to an average of the four closest non-game day Sunday volumes.

Sunday AM Traffic on I-90 WB, Syracuse to Rochester

Count LocationVPH (5AM-11AM)VPH over Avg.Peak VPHPeak VPH over Avg.Total (5AM-11AM)Total over Avg.Est. Game Traffic%
MM 294.68091849493674853110522.7%
MM 340.585721211294975139127224.7%
MM 358.275628810285664537172938.1%

Sunday AM Traffic on I-90 WB, Rochester to Buffalo

Count LocationVPH (5AM-12PM)VPH over Avg.Peak VPHPeak VPH over Avg.Total (5AM-12PM)Total over Avg.Est. Game Traffic%
MM 369.397738115248216836266839.0%
MM 379.11421612229213279946428543.1%
MM 418.214736262456145510310438242.6%




Sunday PM Traffic on I-90 EB, Buffalo to Rochester

Count LocationVPH (4PM-12AM)VPH over Avg.Peak VPHPeak VPH over Avg.Total (4PM-12AM)Total over Avg.Est. Game Traffic%
MM 418.215985182965125613035437533.6%
MM 379.116365912807138613086473036.1%
MM 369.31133388200310109067310434.2%

Sunday PM Traffic on I-90 EB, Rochester to Syracuse

Count LocationVPH (5PM-12AM)VPH over Avg.Peak VPHPeak VPH over Avg.Total (5PM-12AM)Total over Avg.Est. Game Traffic%
MM 358.293929816817096575208631.7%
MM 340.5107523918254997527167622.2%
MM 294.6103118514093917219129417.9%

LilianaUwU

Traffic is especially egregious in downtown Québec City when the Festival d'été happens. Thankfully, the bus service somewhat compensates for this. I would say something about the Nordiques to be more on topic, but we all know they're never gonna come back.
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ran4sh

At Atlanta Braves games it returns to normal somewhat quickly, usually within 1 to 1.5 hr. There are 2 main factors that allow for this:

1. The parking areas are spread out in most directions away from the stadium and have access to get on different interchanges on both I-75 & I-285. E.g. a south lot driver going to 285 E doesn't really interfere with an east lot driver going to 75 S.
2. Due to nearby development, it is common to go to a bar or restaurant after a game instead of leaving immediately, which reduces the traffic leaving right after the game.
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Bruce

For Mariners, Seahawks, and Sounders games: it's chaotic but there's traffic control out directing and using temporary setups (such as dual turns where normally there's none). A bit annoying having to wait in a massive glob of pedestrians for some cars to block the box, though.

The winning move is, of course, not to play. If I have my car with me, I'm parking close to a light rail station or within rental bike distance. With the latter, I can get back to my car in 15 minutes from stadium exit to garage; a few minutes later and I'm on the express lanes.

Ted$8roadFan

I am most familiar with I-95 south of Boston before and after home games of the New England Patriots. I have learned to avoid the area at those times, but informally it can take 2-3 hours for traffic to clear. Obviously it is worse on US-1.

webny99

I do wonder if stadiums set away from downtown areas, like the Bills in Orchard Park and the Patriots in Foxborough, lend themselves to greater traffic issues because not only do a greater percentage of attendees have to travel long distances to reach the game, there also isn't as much infrastructure to handle a large influx of traffic.

1995hoo

Quote from: webny99 on September 21, 2023, 09:31:44 AM
I do wonder if stadiums set away from downtown areas, like the Bills in Orchard Park and the Patriots in Foxborough, lend themselves to greater traffic issues because not only do a greater percentage of attendees have to travel long distances to reach the game, there also isn't as much infrastructure to handle a large influx of traffic.

In my admittedly unscientific observation, one major issue is how many different realistic options there are for people to leave. FedEx Field has relatively poor traffic flow despite being just off the Beltway, in part because the Beltway is the lone major highway running past the location and several of the other routes (notably Sheriff Road) go in a direction, and through certain neighborhoods, that a lot of people want to avoid. The problem becomes noticeably worse for any event other than an NFL game for the quite understandable reason that the NFL season-ticket holders are familiar with the layout and have figured out what routes to take, whereas people who go there once every five years for a concert or an international soccer exhibition game will most likely put blind faith in a sat-nav or a mapping app. The Metrorail is less useful than it was at old RFK Stadium because the stop is a lot further away (a mile walk from the stadium) and because trains don't always run late enough at night to be a viable option, depending on the particular event.
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Ted$8roadFan

Quote from: webny99 on September 21, 2023, 09:31:44 AM
I do wonder if stadiums set away from downtown areas, like the Bills in Orchard Park and the Patriots in Foxborough, lend themselves to greater traffic issues because not only do a greater percentage of attendees have to travel long distances to reach the game, there also isn't as much infrastructure to handle a large influx of traffic.

There is a commuter rail stop at Gillette Stadium from South Station that serves the stadium for Patriots games, and tickets for that rain are usually sold out. US-1 and I-95 are adequately designed, but traffic can get quite hairy on event days, and state police often have to direct traffic.

I'm sure many residents of Foxboro and surrounding towns would also agree, as their police have to block side streets during Patriots games and big concerts to prevent cut-through traffic, and it must be hard to travel anywhere.

Of course, football may be different from other major sports because of tailgating, which more or less requires vehicles.

tmoore952

Quote from: webny99 on September 21, 2023, 09:31:44 AM
I do wonder if stadiums set away from downtown areas, like the Bills in Orchard Park and the Patriots in Foxborough, lend themselves to greater traffic issues because not only do a greater percentage of attendees have to travel long distances to reach the game, there also isn't as much infrastructure to handle a large influx of traffic.

I can speak from my experience of being part of a Philadelphia Phillies season ticket package from 1992-1995. I went to about 10 games a year, plus sometimes I went to hockey games, concerts etc.

Now the actual locations of the stadiums/arenas have completely changed in the intervening years, and the actual locations at least some of the potential parking areas have changed for the same reason, but the general location of them have not, and they are set away from downtown. So I believe what I say here, while dated, is still generally valid.

There are several interstate interchanges in the immediate area for I-95 and I-76 as well as one other means of egress I used to use. They are all in different directions from the stadiums/arenas and can serve traffic going in different directions.

Southbound: I-95 interchange with Broad Street (on south side of complex)
or Pattison Avenue westbound to Platt Bridge (heading west from complex, then turning south)

North or northwest bound: I-76 interchange with Broad Street (on north side of complex)
or Pattison Avenue westbound to 26th Street north to I-76 west (which is really going north here) (heading west from complex, then turning north)

North or northeast bound (staying in PA): I-95 interchange with Packer Avenue (near Walt Whitman Bridge) (east or northeast of complex)

Eastbound to Walt Whitman Bridge (to all NJ points): I-76 interchange with Broad Street (on north side of complex)
I believe there is another way to get to I-76 east at the east end of the complex (closer to the bridge), but I don't know the details.

To go westbound, you would either go southbound or northwestbound first -- it depends where you were headed.

Anyway, with I-76 to the north of the complex, and I-95 both south and east of the complex, there were several ways to get out of the area.

When I was very young, I was coming from Delaware and would approach/leave using SB methods listed above.
When I was part of the season ticket package, I lived north of Philadelphia. At that time the baseball stadium was just to the east of Broad Street (which is where a 14th Street would be). I would park at a lot at 7th Street. When I left, I would drive over to the Packer Street interchange of I-95 (which was around 2nd Street, and very near the Walt Whitman Bridge), and head north.

The newer baseball stadium is a few blocks to the east (around 9th? and Pattison -- not sure about the numbered street). I moved away before it opened, and so I don't know how I would park in that area now. Of course, since I have moved away, I may not necessarily be trying to head northbound like I used to in the '90s.

I can't really answer the question about how long the lots took to clear because I always tried to have an easier means of egress than being stuck in the "official" parking lots, and so I was always out of the area relatively quickly.

fhmiii

It's been a while, but my recollection of University of Georgia football games is that traffic control doesn't last more than an hour after the game.  They're actually much more concerned about keeping cars that haven't paid for a parking pass away from campus before the games.

After the game traffic tends to be dicey near the stadium for about an hour, mostly due to pedestrians.  The parking is very spread out throughout the campus and surrounding areas.  The real heavy traffic is mostly on campus, or on the important 2-lane roads leading away, like S Milledge Ave.  While traffic control generally works for about an hour after the game, there's very little done off campus to redirect traffic.  I have no idea what repeat national championships have done to affect that, as I haven't been back to a game since 2017.

As I recall, the traffic problems really start on the 10-Loop and Ben Epps Parkway as you approach GA-316 and US-78/GA-8.  Most of the people at the games are coming from Atlanta, so the GA-316 expressway always gets jammed up.  A lot of people know about GA-8, so it's usually crowded but it's rarely terrible.  US-78 varies from "just crowded" to "world's longest parking lot."

A lot of people also like to go into downtown Athens to continue the festivities, especially after a big win (or drown their sorrows after a sickening loss).  That helps to reduce the headaches.

Vaulter

Quote from: Ted$8roadFan on September 21, 2023, 01:34:48 PM
Quote from: webny99 on September 21, 2023, 09:31:44 AM
I do wonder if stadiums set away from downtown areas, like the Bills in Orchard Park and the Patriots in Foxborough, lend themselves to greater traffic issues because not only do a greater percentage of attendees have to travel long distances to reach the game, there also isn't as much infrastructure to handle a large influx of traffic.

There is a commuter rail stop at Gillette Stadium from South Station that serves the stadium for Patriots games, and tickets for that rain are usually sold out. US-1 and I-95 are adequately designed, but traffic can get quite hairy on event days, and state police often have to direct traffic.

I'm sure many residents of Foxboro and surrounding towns would also agree, as their police have to block side streets during Patriots games and big concerts to prevent cut-through traffic, and it must be hard to travel anywhere.

Of course, football may be different from other major sports because of tailgating, which more or less requires vehicles.

There's also a train that runs from Providence to Gillette on game days

wanderer2575

Quote from: webny99 on September 21, 2023, 09:31:44 AM
I do wonder if stadiums set away from downtown areas, like the Bills in Orchard Park and the Patriots in Foxborough, lend themselves to greater traffic issues because not only do a greater percentage of attendees have to travel long distances to reach the game, there also isn't as much infrastructure to handle a large influx of traffic.

The Palace of Auburn Hills parking lot had an exit directly onto the ramp from M-24 to I-75 (I assume with police providing traffic control when it was used after events).  The exit can still be seen, though it's it's permanently blocked now.  During the Detroit Pistons' glory years there, traffic on I-75 and probably also on M-24 was considerably heavy with some backups.

Same with a major concert at Pine Knob Music Theater in Clarkston, although I think that's been somewhat relieved with improvements at the I-75/Sashabaw Road interchange.

I don't recall much active police presence (i.e. officers attempting traffic control and not just sitting in their cruisers) for events at Comerica Park, Little Caesars Arena, and the Fox Theatre in downtown Detroit.  Whatever presence was there was pretty much useless as there was no coordination.  I don't know about traffic control for Lions games and other events at Ford Field.

Former sign on southbound M-24 about two miles before the Palace:




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