Here’s what you missed at Penn State football’s parking, traffic town hall

In the fall, the Beaver Stadium media room is populated with reporters quizzing James Franklin while blue-chip prospects look on from the upstairs recruiting lounge. But on Saturday, questions came everywhere from the balcony to the back corner — and Penn State’s head coach ought to feel lucky he didn’t have to answer those inquiries.

Penn State held a pair of hour-long traffic and parking town hall meetings in the Beaver Stadium media room, first addressing reserved and preferred spot holders and later the general parking crowd. Open seats were few, and questions were aplenty as four Penn State officials sat at the dais and did the best they could to calm the concerns of frustrated fans.

The official presentations and later Q&A sessions centered around Penn State’s new parking and traffic plan for the 2019 season, which was announced in November. In an attempt to ease travel issues around Beaver Stadium on gameday, Penn State is implementing a four-zone system — with reserved, preferred and general lots landing in the West, East, North or South sections. Once pregame one-way traffic patterns go into effect, fans will be required to enter their zones at the specified locations. Reserved lots will also be numbered, while general lots will not.

As Cory Chapman, Penn State’s associate athletic director for facility and event operations, explained, the primary objectives for the changes revolve around eliminating pedestrian/vehicle interface at “hot spot” intersections, reducing congestion pregame and postgame and improving consistency.

Chapman moderated the afternoon, while four officials fielded most of the questions: Bill Moerschbacher, assistant chief for university police and public safety; Don Jordan, senior vice president of operations for SP Plus (outside contractor); Joe Foley, senior associate AD for advancement; and Tom McGrath, associate AD for business relations.

Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour was not in attendance. She was in Orlando for the 2019 NCAA Convention, per a university spokesperson.

The season ticket holders who were there, while oftentimes upset by the lack of direct solutions to personal concerns, expressed gratitude to have the town hall opportunity, to voice their issues. But some believed it to be too little too late.

“It was more beneficial than I thought it would be. I felt like they were actually listening,” said Jeannette Macaluso, a Penn State human resources employee and reserved parking lot holder. “But bringing us all into a room and talking about these things is something that they should have done maybe six months ago before they rolled this all out. ... There’s already been a lot of frustration. If you take the time to plan ahead of time, you have people — who have a vested interest in it — feel like their voices were heard.”

Well, they were on Saturday. Now it’s just a matter of what the Penn State officials do with the in-person suggestions.

Here is a breakdown of the topics most fervently discussed at the town hall.

One-way traffic patterns

A primary concern brought up was how the new four-zone system would force fans into less-than-ideal travel when the one-way patterns are enforced.

For example, reserved lots 17 and 18 — on the north and west side of Beaver Stadium, respectively — are in the West zone despite being within sight of Fox Hollow Road. Once one-way traffic begins pregame, fans must access those lots from Park Avenue. Those who live in Toftrees and those coming from the University Park Airport who have spots in reserved lots 17 and 18 have to loop all the way to Atherton Street, turn on Park and sit in traffic instead of driving less than two miles down Fox Hollow.

As it stands, those spot holders — and any spot holder, for that matter — can access their lots whichever way they choose before the one-way traffic patterns are implemented. And the Penn State officials promised that when those pregame patterns go into effect will be made known ahead of time.

But Jordan — the SP Plus VP who has worked on improving travel at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, among other projects — estimated that one-way traffic patterns could be necessary three hours prior to kickoff.

“At a large football stadium, it’ll range from an hour to four hours,” Jordan said. “It’s dependent upon the habits of the people, the number of people and other constraints.

Added Moerschbacher, the assistant police chief: “From my observations for a noon game, for sustained traffic, we’ll need at least three hours. If not, a little more. Again, depending on the interest of the game.”

As far as postgame, when the one-way traffic patterns stop and all travel options open will depend on how the game is going/went, weather, etc.

Rideshare worries

One patron brought it to Chapman’s attention the traffic that Uber and Lyft drivers cause when driving halfway up Porter Road to drop off passengers — and the associate AD answered the fan’s concern in-depth.

“We’ve had a few conversations with Uber as a partner of ours. And right now, the pickup and dropoff location (in 2019) would be at Hastings (Road),” Chapman said. “We really are limited in our options. To be honest with you, they tried to get us to give them a parking lot that they can do their business in. And we have not been willing to do that because of the demand for our fan base.”

Rideshare cars can only get to the Hastings Road location via Porter Road and University Drive.

Last year, Chapman noted, Uber and Lyft drivers were brought up University Drive inbound to drop off customers. After dropoff, they were sent back down University, which proved to be “problematic.” Identifying one dropoff and pickup location — in this case, Hastings Road — should help alleviate rideshare traffic, Chapman said.

Speaking of rideshare concerns, it appears access from Orchard Road to Park Avenue will remain cut off. A left turn onto Park from Orchard was nixed last season when Uber and Lyft drivers used it frequently as a shortcut, according to the Penn State officials.

Pedestrian control

Several fans brought up the lack of control with pedestrians walking in roads and intersections. And that is listed as one of the primary objectives for the changes — to “eliminate the pedestrian and vehicle interface”.

Jordan suggested a method where traffic is totally stopped, pedestrians have a few seconds to run across wherever they need to get to and then start vehicular travel back up. But outside of that, and enforcement on the parking officials’ part, there isn’t much of a concrete solution out there.

Chapman was asked about the possibility of building a pedestrian overpass or underpass on Park Avenue. He said while that has been brought up in meetings, there have been “no definitive answers on that yet.”

As far as trouble enforcing crosswalks and other pedestrian traffic, Moerschbacher noted that due to “tremendous turnover,” it wouldn’t be surprising to encounter a student auxiliary traffic employee working his or her first day.

“We do brief them. We do have a plan,” the police official said. “But we don’t have the resources necessary as the university police to do this. ... It’s a challenge.”

Note: Penn State will hold another pair of town hall meetings on Friday, Feb. 1 in the Beaver Stadium media room. The first hour-long session will begin at 4 p.m. for preferred/reserved season parking holders. The second town hall, for general season parking holders, starts at approximately 5:05 p.m. Friday’s session will be live streamed by Penn State Athletics.

This story was originally published January 26, 2019 at 6:05 PM.