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This is the second of our series looking at sports venues in which we’re going to focus on Talladega Superspeedway, home to one of the NASCAR races.
Motorsport is very different from American football (NFL) or indeed any other football (soccer, rugby league or union, or Aussie rules) matches because many motorsport events last several days: for example, there may be qualifying rounds to determine grid position before the final race day. There are often several race events going on at the same time too, such as races between cars of different horsepower. For those with no exposure to motorsport, think of the athletics at an Olympic Games where there are a lot of qualifying rounds and different sports like javelin and hurdles taking place consecutively.
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The result: motorsport is a multi-day experience with some fans attending the entire event (for 3 or 4 days) and some just travelling for the main race.
The venue we’re going to look at in this article is the Talladega Superspeedway, which hosts the YellaWood 500 on 1st October 2023. The Talladega Superspeedway is adjacent to Talladega airport in Alabama and sits about 15 miles to the north of the city of Talladega. Peak capacity is over 100,000 split across the main grandstand (max 80,000) and infield (you can even camp inside the racetrack!)
The venue we’re going to look at in this article is the Talladega Superspeedway, which hosts the YellaWood 500 on 1st October 2023. The Talladega Superspeedway is adjacent to Talladega airport in Alabama and sits about 15 miles to the north of the city of Talladega. Peak capacity is over 100,000 split across the main grandstand (max 80,000) and infield (you can even camp inside the racetrack!)
Area of interest 1: Lop-sided arrival and departures
With the structure of the race event and qualifying days, fans arrive over a long period in the run-up to the main race day. This means the density of traffic is lower which can give us more time to ensure decisions are made to help ease the traffic problems that occur on the main race day and when fans are departing.
With a lop-sided traffic profile, it makes sense to do some planning. One very good option is to encourage all drivers to park their vehicles so they can leave facing forwards. Although this may mean entry parking slows as queues form as each car reverses into a space, it creates a benefit on exit because vehicles can move forwards out of their space which is faster and substantially safer for pedestrians.
When arrival traffic pressure is high, drivers are unlikely to be encouraged to park in this way, which means that although the current problem is solved, there is no consideration for outbound traffic in a few days’ time.
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