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

and (4) program planning. In planning forall planned special events in a region, thefinal section on program planning highlightsissues to consider that evolve from and/orpertain to rural events. By following eachone of the steps and procedures, the userwill have identified and covered all the significantaspects that are necessary to resultin successful management of travel for aplanned special event with characteristicsspecific to a rural event.A rural event encompasses any discrete/recurringevent or continuous eventthat occurs in a rural area. Table 15-1 indicatesdifferent types of planned specialevents classified as a rural event. Ruralevents collectively have the event operationcharacteristics of discrete/recurring events ata permanent venue and continuous eventswith one notable exception; rural events takeplace in rural areas. Table 15-2 lists keycharacteristics of a rural event.Table 15-1Types of Rural EventsEVENT TYPE• Fairs and festivals in rural areas• Events at a rural amphitheater• Events at a rural race track venue• Professional golf tournaments in rural areasTable 15-2Distinguishing Operating Characteristics ofa Rural EventCHARACTERISTIC• Rural or rural/tourist area• High attendance events attracting event patronsfrom a regional area• Limited roadway capacity serving an eventvenue• Area lacking regular transit service• Events having either a time specific durationor continuous durationSpecial ConsiderationsIn light of the characteristics of a ruralevent, special considerations when planningsuch an event include:• Need for stakeholders to assume newand/or expanded roles.• Need to work closely with all affectedstakeholders in order: (1) to gain theirhelp in identifying concerns and (2) tointroduce them to mitigation measuresthat they may be unfamiliar with due tothe rural nature of the area.• Need to work closely with involvedstakeholders so that a trust relationship isestablished, thus lessening sensitive feelingsof an outsider coming in and imposinginitiatives that could overlook thesignificance of local issues.• Existence of limited road capacity to accessthe event venue and potentially limitedparking capacity at the venue.• Existence of fewer alternate routes toaccommodate event and backgroundtraffic.• Lack of regular transit service and hotelsnear the venue.• Existence of limited or no permanentinfrastructure for monitoring and managingtraffic.• Generation of trips from a multi-countyregion.EVENT OPERATIONSPLANNINGThe scope and infrequent/one-time occurrenceof a high-attendance rural event, coupledwith the typical limited capacity oftransportation systems in rural areas, requiresthe event planning team to develop:(1) a feasibility study, (2) a traffic managementplan, and (3) travel demand managementinitiatives (as necessary) in the eventoperations planning phase. The stakeholdercomposition of an event planning team var-15-2