Mangroves Manhandled by a Yacht Show

[HopCar]

B&B, there should be very little increase in traffic on the road to the stadium. The plan is to bring everyone possible by bus and boat. If I remember correctly the plan calls for nine water taxi pickup sites and thirteen bus pickup locations. There will be almost no parking available on Virginia Key, it will be very expensive, and almost all of it will be used by exhibitors.

I'll get a parking place for my employees who will work the show. They will all go in one vehicle.

If I was in Ft. Lauderdale or even as far north as Palm Beach, I'd ride Tri Rail south to Miami, transfer to Metro Rail, ride Metro Rail to the Viscaya Station, and catch the shuttle bus to the Stadium.

This location will be much easier to get to than the Convention Center.

[BandB]

Originally Posted by HopCar

B&B, there should be very little increase in traffic on the road to the stadium. The plan is to bring everyone possible by bus and boat. If I remember correctly the plan calls for nine water taxi pickup sites and thirteen bus pickup locations. There will be almost no parking available on Virginia Key, it will be very expensive, and almost all of it will be used by exhibitors.

I'll get a parking place for my employees who will work the show. They will all go in one vehicle.

If I was in Ft. Lauderdale or even as far north as Palm Beach, I'd ride Tri Rail south to Miami, transfer to Metro Rail, ride Metro Rail to the Viscaya Station, and catch the shuttle bus to the Stadium.

This location will be much easier to get to than the Convention Center.

Well, shuttling and public transit are big questions as to how successful they'll be. We're in an area where people are very conditioned to driving their own cars. Hopefully the transportation will all be set up efficiently.

In the minds of those who live in the area, the traffic increase will be major, whether in reality it is or not. However, after one year, they may feel differently.

Any idea how many people attended the show last year? I'm not talking promoter's numbers but real numbers?

[HopCar]

The only numbers I know are those put out by NMMA, the show owners. They say that somewhat over a hundred thousand people visit the show over five days. I think it works out to about twenty thousand a day with between twenty five and thirty thousand on Saturday. NMMA has a budget of close to a million dollars for transportation in 2016. The vast majority of the people who go to the show will visit the show website ahead of time. They will learn about the transportation plans then.

Key Biscayne has a tennis tournament every year that screws up the traffic far more than the boat show will. In fact they use the Stadium property for parking during the tournament which lasts longer than the boat show.

[HopCar]

Just looked up the numbers on the Tennis Tournament. They claim over three hundred thousand visitors spread over twelve days. There is no water transportation for the tournament and the shuttle busses run from the Marine Stadium. The traffic is a huge nightmare but they don't care. Key Biscayne makes money from the tennis but not from the boat show.

[BandB]

Originally Posted by HopCar

The only numbers I know are those put out by NMMA, the show owners. They say that somewhat over a hundred thousand people visit the show over five days. I think it works out to about twenty thousand a day with between twenty five and thirty thousand on Saturday. NMMA has a budget of close to a million dollars for transportation in 2016. The vast majority of the people who go to the show will visit the show website ahead of time. They will learn about the transportation plans then.

Key Biscayne has a tennis tournament every year that screws up the traffic far more than the boat show will. In fact they use the Stadium property for parking during the tournament which lasts longer than the boat show.

I don't argue at all that the tennis impacts more, but it's something the residents are use to, not something new.

If I believed even NMMA's numbers, then 20,000 is no more than a Heat or Marlin's game and probably less peak impact since their traffic is in a shorter period of the day. Still 20,000 is a lot of shuttling. By bus that's 1000+ trips per day so requires more capacity than that to avoid long waits during peak. Water taxis reduce that bus requirement some. Conservatively probably a peak level of 200-250 trips per hour.

So manageable, but still a major job and still a lot of orientation for visitors into a method they are not use to. I also suspect the 100,000 is on the high side. Over 100,000 is also the number Fort Lauderdale uses. Seems like a popular number.

It will be interesting but I can't help but think an improvement. The Convention center to me just really changed the show negatively.

[pbmaise]

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