managing travel for planned special events - FHWA Operations ...

away as possible from major intersectionsso that vehicles can exit immediatelyfrom the parking areas without disruptingthe flow of traffic on the adjacentaccess road.• When the adjacent street represents acollector or arterial roadway, the trafficmanagement team generally seeks topreserve flow. This is accomplished eitherby manual or automated means. Amanual operations approach involvestraffic management team personnelmonitoring parking exit points. Crewspermit a maximum volume of traffic toexit the parking areas while still maintaininga smooth traffic flow on the adjacentroadway network. If traffic beginsto queue downstream of an exitpoint, personnel would communicate viaradio and movement out of the relevantparking areas stopped until mainlinecongestion dissipates.o This strategy worked successfullyduring two major rural events, the1986 and 1995 U.S. Golf Open atShinnecock Hills Golf Course inSouthampton, New York. (5)o Instead of manually controlling traffic,traffic management team personnelcould operate portable trafficsignals placed at parking area accesspoints.o If access points have a permanenttraffic signal, operators can simplyimplement new timing plans in favorof either egress strategy.• To effect rapid parking area unloading,consider providing multiple accesspoints for each parking area.o For planning purposes, practitionersmay either assume an access pointcapacity of 900 vehicles per hour perlane (e.g., 4 second headway betweenvehicles) or use computer trafficsimulation software to gain amore precise estimate based on localconditions.o An alternate approach involves temporarilystriping additional exitlanes, for a nominal distance (e.g.,1000+ feet) plus taper, on the adjacentaccess road to allow for multiplelanes of traffic out of the parkingarea. Figure 6-11 illustrates thisstrategy, implemented for a countyfair in rural Dutchess County, NewYork. This approach works wellwhen the parking area access point iscentrally located and accommodatestraffic from opposite ends of theparking area.Figure 6-11Access Road Traffic Pattern During EventEgress (6)Parking Area Design andOperationParking area operations consist of two distinctcomponents: process and park. A significantbreakdown in either componentwill, in turn, cause congestion to occur andpropagate on the access road serving theparking area. The objective of designingand operating parking areas involves providingan access point capacity in excess of thepeak rate of traffic flow that traverses thedriveway.Process Component6-20