Getting off campus last night...

[dawgstudent]

The road we usually go out on - the one that runs by the band hall - the engineering row portion is blocked behind the Library. But the rest of that road wasn't.

Plus - the lot that is across from the new cafeteria - there are 2-3 exits on the right going down Bully Blvd and one exit on the left. If you are starting at the top of that hill - they are letting out 3-4 different exits thus making hte wait even worse if I couldn't take a left from the allen parking lot to go on President's Circle and go behind Swalm and the chemical lab.

Yellow is the way I wanted to and red was the way I had to go. Don't get me a wrong - it's a good problem to have 62K on campus but being in traffic for 2 hours on campus and getting home at 4 AM might make me rethink coming if I don't have a hotel room. I tend to get rather sleepy driving.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/M...2!3m1!1s0x8881354af76252db:0xf2cc3291c0d67f3c

View attachment 2370

 

[Shmuley]

Now that A&M is a conference brethren, maybe loaferz can put in a request for a traffic flow study with their transportation experts. Apparently there aren't any qualified traffic engineers on campus in Starkville.

 

[AFDawg]

I was surprised to hear so many people had trouble. Our lot is on Stone. I left at the end of the game and was in Tupelo by 1:30--with a stop in West Point.

 

[randystewart]

Some of the roads they had blocked made no sense at all. I park at Bost and usually take a right on Barr, a left by Architecture and then zoom on out on the bypass. Well, they weren't allowing right turns onto Barr so my only option was to go down University or head towards 12, neither of which moved for an hour or so. You'd think it would be much more logical to try and funnel people to the bypass than forcing them on University. Once I finally made it onto 12, I sat within view of Chick FilA for at least 30 mins. Once I finally got past the light by Strangebrew, it was smooth sailing.

ETA: I had bus driver tell me that they couldn't get the shuttle buses back on campus to pick up people who shuttled from the horse park. He said it was a screw up on the part of whoever drew up the traffic plan, not a gridlock issue. They closed any road that usually gave them access back. So it sounds like whoever did the traffic plan for this year might need to be looking for a new job.

 

[TNT.sixpack]

Took me an hour to get to where I was staying off Academy Drive. Son calls me at 1:30 am and asks can he get a ride from fraternity house. I left immediately at 1:30 to go get him. Did not get back until 2:45 a.m. I simply do not understand how traffic was STILL bumper to bumper leaving campus at 2:30 am. In fact, I sat at the signal light in front of McDonalds on Hwy 12 for 20 minutes (which is where I eventually picked him us as it was impossible to get closer to campus than that).

 

[ChroamOneHundred]

It was this bad a couple of years ago for the opening game: roads closed and traffic funneled in bad directions, some lots not even moving for hours. It got better after that first game as changes were made. I think with all the construction and road changes, someone sat down with a map and drew all the flows fresh and basically undid all the lessons learned.

So I guess it will get better ....

 

[Fighting Irish.sixpack]

One major problem was the fact that there was no one at Stone & Bully..........

directing traffic. Everyone was having to use the light. They have had someone there for EVERY game for the past 5 years. Why did they not have anyone here after this game blows my mind. This was a Larry Templeton led post game traffic plan.

 

[Seinfeld]

I was not able to attend on Saturday night, so I can't speak to the specific issues from this past weekend, but one thing I can say for certain after having gone to MANY night games during the last 10 years is that post game traffic has been a cluster for them for as long as I can remember.

My lot (17, which couldn't have a more appropriate number) actually gets completely held up for about an hour before the poor traffic folks will even let anyone out. I say "poor" because while they get screamed and cursed at ad nauseam for blocking the exit, all they can do is tell people that their director is instructing them via radio to not let anyone out of the side lots. So basically, I've learned to not even bother going to the car for about an hour or so, and then even once I do start heading that way, I'm full prepared to have to wait another hour before getting back to highway 12. When they do finally start letting people turn out of lot 17, it's usually about 10 cars at a time which obviously takes forever for a lot that that probably hold 300-400 cars.

All that said, every time I get stuck in it, I can't help but think to myself that there HAS to be a better way

 

[Drewbowski]

Same here AFDawg.

 

[WrappedinMaroon&White]

Is there any kind of Game Day focus group or a group of alumni/students/faculty that is used to help with decisions? Seems that decisions are being made in isolation from everyone's reality.

Need a a system that focuses getting everyone on to the By-Pass as fast as possible. Folks can get where they need to go from there. There has to be a better plan. Agree that having traffic directing policeman at critical intersections would help. Folks trying to turn left in places can't and end up blocking traffic behind them for very, very, very, long periods of time.

 

[kired]

Don't we have one of the top super computers in the world? Can we not run a few thousand traffic simulations to come up with a plan to get everyone off campus in an hour?

I don't understand the reluctance to let certain lots go. There are 2 other lots that feed into the same road as mine - and they are both absolutely empty by the time mine starts moving. They normally let about 5-6 cars go at a time from mine. Then we sit for at least 5-10 minutes. Seems like they intentionally let the smaller lots empty first while barely letting the large lots move.

 

[KurtRambis4]

With the current

situation ongoing, I really think I have the best parking spot and pay nothing for it. Once I get to my vehicle, after the game (which is about a 20 min walk from the stadium), I can be on HWY 82 in 10 mins. It's awesome.

 

[411dawg]

Is there any kind of Game Day focus group or a group of alumni/students/faculty that is used to help with decisions? Seems that decisions are being made in isolation from everyone's reality.

Need a a system that focuses getting everyone on to the By-Pass as fast as possible. Folks can get where they need to go from there. There has to be a better plan. Agree that having traffic directing policeman at critical intersections would help. Folks trying to turn left in places can't and end up blocking traffic behind them for very, very, very, long periods of time.

I really think that there is a problem with how the individual departments of the school communicate on gameday operations. There are serious problems with the parking and traffic control.

Another thing that will make you scratch your head is how the student union is run on gameday. We normally watch the early games on the big screens on the 2nd floor. Well this week they closed the 2nd floor at 6 pm with an 8:20 kickoff. They literally ran everyone out to crowd into one small room on the first floor to watch a game. Not to mention this closed the largest restrooms. There are numerous examples that I can bring up over the past few years of how the union seems to be run with a vendetta against customer service. The guy that seems to be in charge is always extremely rude, and seems like he is still upset that football players kept snatching his pocket protector in school.

Overall there is not a uniform commitment to making gameday's great. Year after year we get excuses that they are learning. They still can't get the video board right. After one of the 4th quarter TDs the crowd is amped up kickoff and rocking for the entire TV timeout with no music being played. At the end of the timeout they put on a commercial.

 

[uptowndawg]

Me too. I had to wait on the three cars ahead of me at the stop sign but after that I was home free.

I more upset that MAFES closed at 5:00.

 

[Digging dog]

We park in lot 6 (across from Hunter Henry) usually fairly painless to get onto university drive. Our holdup this year was one poor drunk bastard pulling a blue cooler (fess up if it was on of yall). He crossed university drive or should I say attempted too then proceeded his slow swerving stagger down the street. Felt little sorry for him but it was funny just the same.

 

[KurtRambis4]

Bird dog floats?

*

 

[FQDawg]

I've made this point before...

so apologies for repeating myself but I can understand traffic being slow after a game like that but I can't understand traffic not moving for over an hour. It seems like their goal should be to get as many people as possible towards the 82 bypass. It seems like almost anywhere you want to go, you can get to from the bypass... Taking it towards 45 North or South is pretty easy. It might take an extra 20 minutes or so to go around Starkville to get to 25 South or 12 West but that's better than sitting in gridlock on campus for an hour or more.