St. Paul shuttle issues

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wdgold

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Maybe I missed it, but does anyone know of any solutions that will be implemented with the shuttle service this saturday?
 

Haven't seen or heard anything as yet ... and I'm hoping it gets addressed as you are.

Here's one thought I had: each person walks along the paved trail next to the transitway and forms a line 3 people deep. Then we pass three people (one at a time) over our heads to the head of the line. When those three are underway, we pass the next three, and so on. Eventually we'll all end up in Lot S108.
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The only thing that was posted by a GH'er was that the shuttles actually do run for more than 1 hour after the game. For the 1st hour the run every 5 minutes, but then after that they run every 15 minutes for I think it was at least 3 hours after game time. So you don't need to feel like you must get on the shuttle in that first hour. That seems to be a misconception that people had, you may have seen that post though.

Best advice is to duck in somewhere and have cold one. We did that after the game this week, caught the end of the tOSU v USC game, waited about 90 minutes, then we drove right out of our ramp with no traffic around.
 


It seemed to me that the biggest problem wasn't the buses (once they brought in the school buses) but the lack of organization getting people in line for the buses. Once the lines were formed and organized, they started moving at a modest but orderly pace. That should be solved...I hope. I think it's reasonable for people to wait 20 minutes for the bus though, it's not like we didn't know there'd be thousands of people heading back all at once.
 


That is what I meant was the disorganization of the crowd waiting for the buses, maybe things will be better this saturday.
 

Just got this e-mail:

Thank you for writing to the University of Minnesota.
To correct the long shuttle waits at the end of football games and to improve service, Parking and Transportation Services is making four changes:

1 – No more school buses. We are adding more 40-foot Lorenz transit buses with two doors.

2 - Tall 10-foot-high signs will direct bus riders where to line up for the return trips away from the stadium to St. Paul and West Bank. We will also increase our number of staff members directing people after the game.

3 – There will be smaller disability-only, mini-coach buses nearby for those who need extra attention. These vehicles will seat 12 people and two wheelchairs.

4 – The St. Paul shuttle bus stops are moving! The buses will stop on the north end of the Gortner Avenue Ramp (1395 Gortner Ave.) near the Vocational & Technical Education Building dock and by Lot S108 (fairgrounds lot). Starting with the October 3 game, we will no longer open Lot S101 in St. Paul.

We hope these changes make your gameday experience better. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you at this Saturday’s game - Go Gophers!

Jacqueline Brudlos
Communications Coordinator
Parking and Transportation Services
University of Minnesota
 

The school buses were horribly slow loading, so I like point No. 1 the best here, followed by No. 2.
 




year of the gopher said:
It seemed to me that the biggest problem wasn't the buses (once they brought in the school buses) but the lack of organization getting people in line for the buses. Once the lines were formed and organized, they started moving at a modest but orderly pace. That should be solved...I hope. I think it's reasonable for people to wait 20 minutes for the bus though, it's not like we didn't know there'd be thousands of people heading back all at once.
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+1
They just need more people doing crowd control, and maybe some ropes. I think the number of buses was ok.
 

Depending upon how they "stage" those of us waiting for a bus, this should alleviate a lot of the problems I saw last Saturday. Having enough staff to direct fans and then having enough space for fans who are in line will help.

One great change is the use of specialized buses for those who were in wheel chairs, etc. Having dedicated (and sufficient) space for those fans -- and not having some go all the way to the end of the line -- should help. I just hope that they have enough since they're somewhat small (12 passengers plus two wheelchairs).
 

THey need to know the capacity of the buses and then funnel that number of people into staging areas. Example: 100 people line up in this queue...the next bus will be yours. Next 100 people...line up in this queue...the 2nd bus will be yours, etc.
 

I don't care whether I ride back on a school bus, metro transit bus, Lorenz bus, or campus bus. Just keep the lines orderly and the buses moving and everyone will be back in reasonable time.
 



They need to have a large number of buses waiting at the end of the game ready to go! Not 15 minutes later when the mob arrives!
 

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