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

• Park vehicles at the same rate as thosebeing processed.• Minimize pedestrian/vehicular conflictsinside parking areas.When multiple servers process vehicles, operatorsshould consider creating multiplevehicle streams from the service facility and,in turn, parking vehicles in different sectionsof the parking area. Each stream must maintainan adequate speed or congestion willoccur within the parking area and spillbackto the service facility. Prior to the event,parking operators should survey the parkingarea and note any features that may slowvehicles traversing a parking area. Such featuresinclude ditches, sand, and humps.Figure 6-14 shows an excellent example ofminimizing pedestrian/vehicular conflictsinside a parking area. Simply ensure thatevery vehicle entering a parking area parksas close to the adjacent pedestrian accessroute, leading to the venue or shuttle busstation, as possible. Erect pedestrian walkwaysigns and instruct volunteers to tellevent patrons where to walk as soon as patronsexit their vehicle.Figure 6-14Minimizing Pedestrian/Vehicular Conflictsin Parking AreasParking Occupancy MonitoringOn the day-of-event, traffic patterns andparking area loading patterns may vary fromevent planning team predictions. As a result,some parking areas, particularly nonreservedlots, may load faster than other lots.The event planning team and traffic managementteam must, in advance of the event,develop a detail for monitoring parking areaoccupancy levels for the ingress period. Thefocus of this task involves making a “lotfull” decision at a time when all vehiclesbetween the parking area access point andtraveler information devices directing motoriststo the parking area (e.g., the pipeline)can still park at the subject lot. As soon asteam personnel make a “lot full” call, TMCor command post operators change the messageset communicated by traveler informationdevices in order to direct motorists to analternate lot. The traveler information device(s)forming the upstream boundary ofthe pipeline must be located upstream of theaccess road serving an alternate parkingarea. In some cases, a parking area pipelinemay extend to a freeway or arterial corridorserving the event venue.Two methods for making a “lot full” decisionin the field include: (1) vehicle count atparking area access points and (2) visual inspection.Both methods require field personnelto have an estimate of the pipelinecapacity during load-in. That is, the definedpipeline length (account for multiple travellanes) divided by average vehicle spacing.Consider that up until the parking areareaches capacity, vehicles traversing thepipeline will be moving. Therefore, averagevehicle spacing equals vehicle length plusthe space allotted by drivers between vehicles.Average vehicle spacing ranges from30 feet (conservative) to 40 feet.The vehicle count method involves conductinga manual or machine count at the downstreampipeline end beginning at the start ofparking area load-in. This count representsthe number of vehicles that have entered theparking lot. The following equation definesa “lot full” decision:6EVENT PROFILE POST-EVENT ACTIVITIES DAY-OF-EVENT ACTIVITIES ADVANCE PLANNINGOVERVIEW6-23