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

planned special event stakeholders is paramountto meeting the goals of planned specialevent management: achieving predictability,ensuring safety, and maximizing efficiency.Steps toward meeting this objectivebegin in the advance planning of trafficmanagement plans and other initiatives andcontinues through implementation and dayof-eventtravel management.Planned special events can involve a widerange of stakeholders with diverse goals andincentives. One of the biggest challenges toconsistently achieving effective planned specialevent management is coordinating andintegrating the responses of all involvedstakeholders, each with responsibility toserve the public, but with sometimes divergentpriorities and performance objectives.Each stakeholder has its own norms, guidelines,sense of authority, and internal culture.The involvement of multiple stakeholderscan threaten the sense of securityand authority of each, causing such groupsto unconsciously de-emphasize the publicgood each has set out to serve. (9) As a result,the objectives of the collective stakeholdergroup are left unfulfilled.Several stakeholders active in the advanceplanning and management of planned specialevents also team to mitigate the occurrenceof unplanned events, such as trafficincidents and other emergencies, throughproactive planning and response. Thesestakeholders include transportation agencies,law enforcement, and emergency serviceagencies. It should be recognized that theroles and responsibilities of stakeholdersinvolved in managing unplanned eventschange under planned special events. However,the important partnerships and level oftrust established between stakeholders carryover to groups formed to plan and manageplanned special events.Figure 2-7 shows that advance planning andday-of-event management of travel forplanned special events involves stakeholderscomprising the following three distinctgroups:• The oversight team involves stakeholdersparticipating in program planningactivities to improve the managementof travel during future plannedspecial events. These stakeholders includemid-to-upper level representativesof transportation agencies and law enforcement.Additional stakeholders includeelected officials, regional organizations,and other government agencies.Members of an oversight team work toestablish policies, regulations, procedures,and task forces for future applicationto a specific planned special event.Team members may interact with anevent planning team, consulting on feasibilitystudy results and evaluating conceptualtransportation management plancomponents. Stakeholders may alsowork independent of the team to evaluatepotential new technology applicationsthat may improve their performanceand capabilities while meeting teamobjectives.• The event planning team involvesstakeholders participating in eventspecificoperations planning and trafficmanagement plan implementation tasks.Stakeholders comprising the oversightteam typically have mid-level representativesserving on the event planningteam. Other stakeholders include theevent organizer, media, emergency serviceagencies, private industry, and thepublic. Due to the wide range of advanceplanning tasks and potential eventmanagement initiatives, an event planningteam may create a number of2EVENT PROFILE POST-EVENT ACTIVITIES DAY-OF-EVENT ACTIVITIES ADVANCE PLANNINGOVERVIEW2-15