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

pick-up/drop-off area, during ingress andvice versa during egress. The trafficmanagement team manages the accessoperations component.• Process involves activities necessary to“approve” vehicles for entry into a parkingarea. A fee transaction between aparking area operator and motoristrepresents a common process activity.• Park involves handling vehicles from aprocess point to a parking space. Aparking team and associated volunteersoperate the process and park components.A breakdown in any one of thethree components can result in congestionextending to the adjacent street systemand possibly to freeway and arterialcorridors serving the planned specialevent.In order to facilitate safe and quick spectatorand participant travel to/from the event site,the site access and parking plan should specifytactics that prevent potential congestionon parking area access roads and allow forgood circulation on roadways surroundingthe event site. Table 3-21 indicates site accessand circulation considerations applicableto the development of a site access andparking plan.The objective of designing and operatingparking areas involves providing an accesspoint capacity in excess of the peak rate oftraffic flow that traverses the driveway. Anyplanned special event parking area that requiresa fee or permit for access has a servicefacility in-place to process vehicles enteringthe lot. Therefore, a first-in-first-outqueuing system exists.Queuing happens when the arrival rate exceedsthe service rate. The arrival rate denotesthe number of vehicles traversing asingle parking area access point over someperiod of time. The service rate is the numberof vehicles the service facility can processover some period of time. The magnitudeof this rate depends on the number ofservers (e.g., staff or automated gates) thatcomprise the service facility and server efficiency.A parking area queuing system operatesstochastically. Traffic arrival rateswill vary, and individual transaction timesthat collectively determine the service ratewill also vary. In designing a service facilityfor a planned special event parking area,select a conservative server service time(e.g., the time to serve one vehicle) and determinethe required number of servers thatcan process the maximum anticipated arrivalrate with one server on break.Table 3-21Site Access and Circulation ConsiderationsCONSIDERATIONTACTICParking area ingress • Right turn circulation pattern• Contraflow operation• Shoulder utilization• Lane channelization• Parking area overflow access pointsPick-ups and drop-offs • Use of off-street areas• Designation of pick-up/drop-off areas to avoid conflict with primary trafficingress/egress routes• Storage areaParking area egress • Right turn circulation pattern• Preservation of adjacent street flow• Provision of rapid parking area unloading3-30