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

during the games. The predominant changeinvolved employers revising normal workschedules during the event and allowing earlierwork hours or flexible schedules.TRANSIT SERVICEOverview7In order to reduce commercial truck traffic,stakeholders should contact pertinent truckingcompanies and advise them of times thattruckers should avoid traversing freewayand arterial corridors serving the eventvenue. Trucking companies should attemptto reduce the number of truck trips made andshift some of their remaining truck trips tonighttime hours. Special mailings can besent to long haul trucking companies in orderto inform them of an upcoming plannedspecial event and affected road corridors. Inaddition, fliers can be distributed to truckdrivers at major points of entry to the region,disseminating information on the days andtimes of the event, high impact locations,and special traffic patterns. During theevent, e-mails containing traffic advisoriescan be sent to trucking companies so thatthey can, in turn, get the word out to truckersvia citizens-band radio and through theirelectronic distribution lists. Portablechangeable message signs (CMS) and highwayadvisory radio (HAR) can also beplaced at major ports of entry to alert truckdrivers. (2)Some components of a successful freightmanagement plan include requiring trucks tohave permits to enter certain areas between aset time frame. In this way only trucks thatneed to be in the area will be present duringpeak traffic times. In addition, deliveryhours can be restricted to overnight to completelyavoid conflict with event traffic.Long-haul trucking can be discouraged fromcertain roadways in the event area by providingdirections on the roadway that diverttrucks around the area surrounding an eventvenue.Modifications to existing transit service for aspecial event represent TDM strategies. Thefocus of the public transit agency is to increaseridership during the event by increasingthe attractiveness of the service that itprovides. In many locations and for manytypes of special events, additional ridershipto and from special event sites can providesubstantial additional revenue for the transitsystem at little additional cost. Also, transitsystem use may relieve traffic congestionaround the venue.Table 7-3 contains a summary of transit servicestrategies.Public Transit Service ExpansionIn order to maximize the use of public transit,options need to be convenient (e.g.,faster travel time and satisfactory comfortlevel) for event patrons without impactingnon-attendee transit users.Three possible approaches to using publictransit during special events includes:• Existing service with additional vehiclehours. In general, this represents an extensionof the existing service and is inaddition to the regularly scheduled transitservice. The extension of existingservice may include: (1) expanded hoursof operation or (2) increased frequencyof system service on a particular route inorder to serve a planned special event.• Modifying existing service by creating aroute deviation. A deviation involvesadding a new transit stop near the eventvenue to the existing route. In addition,a deviation of the regular route may berequired due to road or travel lane closuresneeded to stage the planned specialEVENT PROFILE POST-EVENT ACTIVITIES DAY-OF-EVENT ACTIVITIES ADVANCE PLANNINGOVERVIEW7-9