Transportation is one of the most common sources of negative attendee experience at live events, and it is one of the operational domains that most directly affects the surrounding community’s relationship with the event organizer. Traffic congestion that extends miles from the venue, pedestrians walking along highway shoulders in the dark, parking lots that require an hour to exit after the performance ends, and trains so overcrowded at event close that station management implements crowd control measures—these are the consequences of inadequate transportation planning, and they are all preventable through coordination between the event organization, law enforcement, transit authorities, and the local highway department.

This article covers the planning process for transportation management at live events, from the initial engagement with traffic and transit authorities through the design of parking systems, the coordination of public transportation enhancements, and the operational procedures that govern how attendees arrive at and depart from the venue.

The Transportation Management Plan

The transportation management plan is the primary planning document governing all aspects of how attendees, staff, vendors, and emergency services access and depart from the event site. It is developed in cooperation with local law enforcement, the highway authority responsible for the roads surrounding the venue, and the relevant transit operators, and its coordination with these agencies is both a practical necessity and, in many jurisdictions, a regulatory requirement for permitted events above a certain scale.

The transportation management plan should be developed early in the event planning timeline, because many of the coordination mechanisms it requires—temporary traffic regulation orders, road closures, transit enhancements, and coordinated law enforcement deployment—require significant lead time for regulatory processing and agency scheduling. Temporary traffic regulation orders, which provide the legal basis for temporary road closures, banned turns, lane closures, parking restrictions, and temporary speed limits, must be processed through the appropriate highway authority; in many jurisdictions this process requires 30 to 60 days of lead time at minimum (Event Safety Alliance, 2013). Engaging the highway authority early ensures that the regulatory timeline does not become a constraint on the event’s operational planning.

Traffic Signs and Highway Closures

Temporary traffic signing supplements permanent highway signage to direct the unusually large volume of event traffic from the highway network to the event site’s entry points in an orderly manner. The need for temporary signs, their locations, and their content must be agreed upon with the local highway authority and law enforcement before the event; signs placed on public roads without proper authorization are a liability and may be removed by the highway authority without notice. For large events where the majority of attendees arrive by private vehicle, a professional traffic signing contractor with experience in event traffic management may be the appropriate resource for designing and installing the temporary signing scheme (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Traffic signing for event ingress should begin at the appropriate highway junction, be consistent in color and format with the surrounding permanent signage, and provide sufficient advance notice of turns and lane changes that drivers can execute the required maneuvers safely. Signs directing traffic toward different parking areas should be clearly differentiated and should include the parking zone designations used in the pre-event communication to ticket purchasers. Clear signing for accessible parking areas and for drop-off zones serves both operational and ADA compliance purposes.

Road closures required to manage high pedestrian volumes between parking areas and the venue, or to reserve highway lanes for event traffic management, require formal temporary traffic regulation orders in most jurisdictions. These orders must be processed in advance and coordinated with affected residents, businesses, and other road users. Where road closures divert traffic from established routes, alternative route signing must be in place before the closure takes effect. Only law enforcement or persons operating under their direction and authority can legally regulate traffic on the public highway; event traffic marshals cannot direct highway traffic without the authority of law enforcement (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Traffic Marshaling

Traffic marshals operating on the public highway must do so under the authority and direction of law enforcement, and must be equipped with appropriate personal protective equipment including high-visibility clothing and weather protection. Training for traffic marshals should address safe positioning relative to moving vehicles, visibility problems created by drivers’ blind spots and the limitations of reversing vehicle visibility, and the hand signals used to direct traffic in coordination with law enforcement officers. Traffic marshals operating in parking areas and on private event site roads operate under the authority of the event organization rather than law enforcement, but the PPE and training requirements are equally applicable (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Communication between on-site and off-site traffic marshaling operations is essential for coordinated traffic management. When a parking area reaches capacity, the information must reach the traffic marshals on the approach roads quickly enough to redirect incoming vehicles before they reach the full parking area. When an incident creates a blockage on an access route, alternative routing instructions must be transmitted to all relevant marshaling positions simultaneously. Radio communication with a traffic command position that has visibility across all traffic management positions is the standard architecture for coordinating large event traffic operations.

Public Transportation Coordination

Events that generate significant demand for public transportation—rail, subway, bus, or other transit systems—must engage with the relevant transit operators as part of the transportation management planning process. Transit operators need advance notice of events that will substantially increase passenger volumes at specific stations or on specific lines, not only to plan their own operational response but also to identify the constraints (platform capacity, maximum throughput of station entry systems, rolling stock availability) that will limit how much of the attendee demand public transit can absorb (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

For rail and subway systems, consultation with the operating authority should address the availability of enhanced train frequency or additional train services on the relevant lines, the maximum number of people that the event-adjacent stations can safely accommodate at any one time, and the contingency plans that the transit operator has for managing unusually high passenger volumes. Most rail operators have established crowd management protocols for station platforms and concourses; these protocols define the maximum occupancy of each station component and the procedures for managing queues and preventing platform overcrowding. Understanding these constraints allows event transportation planning to manage the rate of attendee departure in a way that does not exceed transit system capacity.

Combined event-and-transit package tickets—which bundle event admission with round-trip transit fare—provide a reliable mechanism for diverting a predictable portion of the expected attendee population from private vehicle to public transit, reducing parking demand and highway traffic volume. Package ticket programs require coordination with the transit operator regarding ticket format, fare settlement, and the communication to ticket purchasers of the transit services included in the package. The distance between the transit station and the event venue, and the adequacy of connecting bus or pedestrian routes, are significant factors in the effectiveness of transit package programs (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Coach and Bus Operations

Events that generate significant coach and charter bus traffic—particularly school and youth group events, organized fan travel, and events in locations poorly served by public transit—require specific planning for coach arrival and departure management. Coaches have a significantly larger turning radius and footprint than private vehicles, require designated parking areas with adequate turning space, and ideally should be routed through one-way systems that eliminate the need to reverse in pedestrian areas. Bus loops that allow coaches to drop and pick up passengers in a continuous flow without stopping are more effective than designated stop points that create queues of waiting coaches (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Coach and bus parking areas must contain toilet facilities where coaches will be held for the duration of the event rather than departing after drop-off. The operators of coaches that depart after drop-off must be provided with clear instructions for when and where to return for pickup, and the transportation management plan must account for the volume of returning coaches at event end as a component of the overall egress traffic management plan.

Private shuttle bus services between transit stations and the venue can significantly extend the catchment area of public transit for the event, making transit a practical option for attendees who would otherwise drive. These services are most effective when coordinated with transit operators rather than operated independently, and when the shuttle route, schedule, and fare are clearly communicated to ticket purchasers before the event day.

Parking Management

Parking planning begins with the determination of the total parking demand expected for the event—calculated from the expected attendance, the anticipated proportion of attendees arriving by private vehicle, and the average vehicle occupancy—and the identification of available parking supply on-site and at off-site locations within a practical walking or shuttle distance of the venue. Where available parking supply falls short of demand, the gap must be addressed through transit promotion, parking reservation systems, or off-site overflow parking with shuttle service (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Separate parking areas for different user categories significantly improve parking operations and reduce conflict between incompatible traffic types. The Event Safety Alliance recommends distinct areas for general audience vehicles, accessible parking (positioned at the most directly accessible location relative to the accessible venue areas), coaches and buses, shuttle buses, VIP and guest vehicles, artist vehicles, emergency service vehicles, and event staff. Overflow parking should be identified and planned before the event, with a clear protocol for when overflow is activated and how drivers are directed to it.

Parking areas must be adequately lit, with reflective numbering or lettering visible to attendees returning to their vehicles after dark. Signed exit routes from the parking area to the local road network must be in place and consistent with the traffic management plan. Ground conditions in parking and walkway areas must be monitored throughout the event; standing water, deep mud, or surface damage creates both safety hazards and access problems that should be corrected or flagged as they develop (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Entry capacity for parking areas is a significant throughput constraint: queuing of vehicles waiting to enter the parking area can quickly extend back onto the public highway, creating congestion and safety hazards. Dedicated parking area entries with no ticket checks on entry—with ticket checking relocated to the pedestrian exit from the parking area to the event area—can significantly improve parking ingress flow for large events. Adequate staffing at parking entries, with clear communication from the parking management team to the traffic marshals on the approach roads, allows parking area capacity to be managed without allowing queues to extend onto the highway (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Conclusion

Transportation management is one of the operational domains where the quality of pre-event planning most directly determines the attendee experience and the event’s relationship with its host community. Events that coordinate thoroughly with traffic and transit authorities, design their parking operations for realistic peak demand, and communicate transportation information clearly to attendees in advance produce a noticeably different arrival and departure experience from events that leave these matters to be managed reactively on the day. The investment in transportation management planning is recovered many times over in reduced traffic incidents, faster arrival and departure processing, and the goodwill of a community that did not spend the evening sitting in event-related gridlock.

References

Event Safety Alliance. (2013). The event safety guide (version 1.1). ESA. https://eventsafetyalliance.org

Federal Highway Administration. (2016). Traffic control devices handbook (3rd ed.). FHWA. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov

Institute of Transportation Engineers. (2019). Transportation planning handbook (4th ed.). ITE.

National Cooperative Highway Research Program. (2015). Special events traffic management handbook. Transportation Research Board.