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

A local or county department of publicworks (DPW) may include traffic engineersparticipating in program planning, event operationsplanning, and day-of-event trafficmanagement. At the program planninglevel, the agency may initiate infrastructureimprovement projects or establish trafficcontrol guidelines for event permits. Eventoperations planning activities may includedeveloping or reviewing proposed trafficmanagement plans and developing trafficsignal system timing plans to accommodateanticipated fluctuations in traffic demand.The agency has authority to enact temporarytraffic and parking restrictions on streetsadjacent to an event venue. Trafficengineers often serve a supervisory role on atraffic management team. In general,agency officials must monitor and maintaintraffic flow traversing their jurisdiction. Alocal/county DPW assumes an expandedrole in traffic operations planning and managementfor local level planned specialevents. The agency may also utilizeroadway maintenance personnel to deployrequired temporary traffic control devices,repair potholes along a parade route, andperform post-event street sweeping.A planning department may administer apermit program for special events while alocal jurisdiction planning commission mayrule on the transportation component of anevent permit application.The previous section described the role oftransit agencies in managing travel forplanned special events, which may includeservice expansions and achieving cooperativeagreements with private bus companiesto obtain additional equipment and drivers.Law EnforcementLaw enforcement agencies facilitate the safeand efficient flow of traffic during a plannedspecial event through traffic control and enforcement.Agencies contribute to all phasesof planned special events, particularly eventspecificadvance planning and traffic management.Local and county law enforcementhaving a traffic operations bureau maytake responsibility for developing and executinga local street traffic managementplan. Other potential duties of law enforcementinclude approving local street closures,approving an event traffic flow plan, approvingtemporary traffic control deployment,escorting dignitaries to/from the eventvenue, and enforcing the requirements of atraffic operations agency.Event OrganizersEvent organizers initiate the event operationsplanning phase by notifying stakeholders,either through a written request topublic agencies or the submission of anevent permit application, and assembling anevent planning team. The event organizercontinually works to maintain interagencycoordination in order to meet milestones inthe advance planning process and ultimatelygain stakeholder approval of the proposedtransportation management plan. The eventorganizer may hire a private traffic engineeringconsultant to perform an event feasibilitystudy and prepare a traffic managementplan. The event organizer may also fund thedeployment of equipment and personnel resources,including reimbursement of publicagency personnel costs, required to mitigatetraffic safety, mobility, and reliability impactsduring the day-of-event. An eventvenue operator essentially represents anevent organizer. These venue operators maywork together with transportation agencies,law enforcement, and elected officials duringthe program planning phase to developstrategies, including permanent installationof equipment for improved traffic monitor-3-6