Game Traffic

Not time to complain about traffic yet.

You have to hold on to that card.

It also helps not to be down my three scores in the first half.

Yeah, I plan on an hour long event leaving the game doing the same thing. These people complaining about traffic are ridiculous. It’s the same in Athens, same in Gainesville, etc. you got 90k+ trying to leave in the same direction. It happens every where.

Most on campus stadiums have bad traffic. Campuses are not designed to handle an event with 100,000+ event.

I get if you want to choose not to go to a game because of traffic but at this point once you decide to go to an event with 100k+ people and traffic problems we all know exists why do you then complain when said traffic comes?

Either decide not to go or go and deal with all the issues that come with it. It isn’t that hard.

There are probably some % of the leaving early crowd that do so because of traffic. But that is the minority. 30 years ago Tiger Stadium held 80,000 people. So it's not as if the stadium suddenly went from 15k people in one area to 100k creating a traffic mess that previously never existed. Yet, 30 years ago leaving early wasn't a huge issue. Why?

1. 30 years ago tailgating wasn't as big as it is now. Yes, you had tailgates. But pretty much everyone that was tailgating was going to the game. Now, for many, the tailgate is the actual event. Not the game. Some don't even go to the game (yet they take up space and add to congestion on campus). Some go to the game but leave soon thereafter because they want to get back to the tailgate and party more. The game is almost an inconvenience rather than the "event".

2. Every game is on TV now. 30-40 years ago maybe 1/2 (or slightly more) of the games were on TV. Thus, if you wanted to see all of the action you had to stay at the game. Now, you can leave at HT and get home to watch the entire second half (if you are recording the game) from the comfort of your home without missing a thing.

3. Cell phones. When I first started going to games no one had cell phones on their person. So the way things usually went was I'd get to campus a few hours early and meet at the tailgate with a group friends. Everyone had tickets to the game, but not everyone sat near one another. That included sometimes the people with whom you carpooled to the game. Plans had to be made BEFORE going into the stadium. Those plans often consisted of "we'll meet (here) after the game". Because we had no cell phones we couldn't text/call one another during the game to to say "hey, you want to leave early to go ____?" You also couldn't call/text anyone who didn't go to the game to see if what they were doing may be a better option. You had to stay throughout the game or risk being at the meeting place alone for a long period of time if you decided to leave early. So you just stayed until the end. It was better than leaving early and having no one to meet.

In order to "beat" the traffic I leave after the pre game salute . I do run into those trying to get seated. But once in the parking lot it is smooth sailing to I10. Home by 1/2 time. No line at the bathroom and cold beer on hand.

quote:

---

Why is it so bad exactly? I’ve been to 9-10 SEC venues as well as semifinals and national championships. NOTHING is as bad as traffic after an LSU football game. It makes no sense really how awful it is compared to literally everyone else.

---

I think to some degree it is the location of TS and where the fans who are attended are coming/going from.

West of TS is the river
North is downtown and NBR
East is the lakes and SE BR
South is the most "open" area...but its undergone a lot of development over the decades and continues to do so.

I would guess the majority of fans at the game (at least the ones who are driving home after) are from the BR metro area, or areas SE down the river to Nola. Given you probably don't have a large group of people from NBR attending the games, that means the majority of people are trying to got East and South following the game. That causes a ton of congestion because you'll find that if you are traveling North or West after the game traffic isn't all that bad. For instance, if you are traveling out towards the west side of the river it is not all that difficult to take river road to downtown BR and hop on I-10W there. Same if you are going north (Baker, Zachary, St. Francisville, parts beyond). Once you can get to downtown it's pretty easy to get where you are going.

Not so if you want to go east. Everyone has to wind their way through campus, the lakes, Burbank, etc. In BR most of the people attending the games live in the eastern/southeastern part of the parish. You also have a lot of people from the Nola metro area attending the game all trying to go in the same direction.

If you are in other, smaller, towns. Starkville, Oxford, Auburn, College Station, etc, not that many people live in the same town where the stadium is located. So everyone is taking an outlet out of town.

This does not appear to be changing anytime soon. Your alternative is to search out strategically the most time efficient way out of campus. I have been going to games for 40 years and have honed in on the best parking / tailgate location that fits me. I am 30 minutes max getting off campus to I-10. If you keep parking in the hayfield / levee lots you will continue to get the same terrible results. Move about and find the place that works for you.

quote:

---

1. 30 years ago tailgating wasn't as big as it is now. Yes, you had tailgates. But pretty much everyone that was tailgating was going to the game. Now, for many, the tailgate is the actual event. Not the game. Some don't even go to the game (yet they take up space and add to congestion on campus). Some go to the game but leave soon thereafter because they want to get back to the tailgate and party more. The game is almost an inconvenience rather than the "event".

---

i'll disagree with this. tailgating was huge up until 10 years ago when Clown Joe Aleva changed every damn thing about campus on gameday. they used to have live bands at tailgates all over campus in the 80's , 90's. Those games were hardly on TV except when Tigervision came around. Different generation of folks always looking for the next best thing to do.