A great research institution that can’t figure out pedestrian traffic?
While Roy Williams was calling himself the luckiest man in the world after the comeback win over Tennessee, I was stuck in traffic in the Bowles lot next to the Smith Center. It never ceases to amaze me how UNC, with all its brain power and resources, cannot figure out how handle pedestrian foot traffic versus automobiles getting out.
The last couple of years, the school erected a temporary stairway at the far end of the Bowles lot that created a tunnel for cars to go through. That was smart. But Carolina either has given up on that idea or is raising money to do it again. So we’re back to the same big mess of people leaving the Dean Dome by car or foot.
Despite dozens of yellow-vested traffic monitors with red wands, apparently no one has instructed or trained them how to handle thousands of people walking across to the permanent staircase up to the Craig dorm complex and the hundreds of cars trying to get out of the dad gum lot. Here’s a suggestion.
Treat it like any other intersection. Stop the pedestrian traffic for a few minutes and let some cars start a flow out toward Bowles Drive. Then stop the cars and let the walkers through for a few minutes. Hold the walkers at the intersection and then stop the cars. Let’s go over that again. Let people pass for a few minutes, then hold up those red wands and stop them while the next flow of cars leave.
Apparently, none of these people ever worked on the safety patrol in elementary school. So what happens? Fans race out of the Dean Dome to their cars, hoping to avoid the gridlock that has become famous after Tar Heel games. But it’s a useless exercise, because they sit in their cars while the traffic guards let hundreds of people cross until they pile up at the bottom of the stairs and then spill back into the lane of traffic, further blocking the path of cars.
Is it my imagination or are they making a simple solution the biggest pain in the butt possible? Look, everyone expects a traffic jam leaving a 22,000-seat arena in the bottom of a big gully. But to create more of a problem by having no system is, IMO, just plain stupid.
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Living in Atlanta i ve attended games at many SEC venues and experienced great and poor execution of crowd mgmt. At one of the best, i learned Alabama hired a traffic consulting firm to determine the best way to handle the 105,000+ crowd on gamedays in Tuscaloosa and revamp everything to eliminate multihour delays. It works now amazingly well for traffic. They also provide for attractive tailgating on its counterpart to the quad (set up privately and available to public for a fee for a tent/table/tv). UNC should consider the same if it hasn t already for football and basketball.
Contact Nascar! They can get 100,000 people out without much problem. They change traffic patterns. Move roads to one way out and funnel into major roads. UNC has never figured out that having traffic flow in two direction on roads hinders flow. Cars have to wait for people to turn in heavy traffic. Never happens. Add people walking in front of cars with disregard and we have gridlock. Also, as sated above I have observed the people in yellow vests just watch as the gridlock continues and the State troopers sit in their cars.
If you lucky enough to attend a game you really shouldn’t complain. Most of the foot traffic are probably made of students trying to get back to their dorms ..while you are snug in your car listening to post game….