Get Me to the Ball Game on Time: Access Time Patterns at Baseball Stadia

Arrival patterns at three baseball stadia under varying conditions are observed. These conditions include proximity to downtown, availability of transit facilities, and the vagaries of the playing season. Patterns are assessed at Shea Stadium in New York City, Jacobs Field in Cleveland, and Anaheim Stadium in Orange County, California. At Shea Stadium, a simulated sellout game, a typical game between the Mets and their divisional rivals, and a September game for die-hard fans are analyzed. The general conclusions that were reached are as follows: (a) efficient and dependable highway access produces sharp arrival peaks that require efficient parking facilities at and nearby the stadium; (b) good transit also will create sharp arrival peaks close to game time; (c) with good access, efficient spectator processing within the stadium is highly necessary to seat last-minute arrivals before the first pitch; (d) the intuitive notion that die-hard fans will have a better idea of how well the stadium access system works and tend to be better at planning their arrivals is borne out by the analysis; (e) when superior rail-transit access is available, under typical or better U.S. conditions, it will carry up to 40 percent of all spectators; and (f) good transit appears to reduce the predicted average vehicle occupancy (AVO) from 2.5 to between 2.2 and 2.3. Without good rail transit, the AVO is approximately 2.6.