Whether football fans plan on traveling to the U on game day by TRAX, highway or FrontRunner, the commuter expectations are all the same.
“Probably horrible,” said Stephanie Sakellariou, a junior in elementary education, of her traffic and parking forecast. Sakellariou said she plans on leaving two hours before kickoff to have enough time to maneuver through traffic and enjoy the tailgating festivities.
About 40,000 people are expected to converge at the Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Alma Allred, director of Commuter Services, has the responsibility of managing parking for the big day. Allred said he expects almost all of the 18,000 parking stalls available to game-goers will fill up. On the Utah-BYU game day, the average person-to-car ratio increases from one to three-and-a-half, because so many fans carpool and bring their families.
Stein Ingerbretsen, a sophomore in physics, lives a few miles away from the stadium in Sugar House. He said on game day, he and about four friends will carpool to maximize their tailgating experience and to lessen traffic, which he said will be “terrible.”
Commuter Services anticipates 6,000 to 8,000 people will ride TRAX to and from the U that evening. Carrie Bohnsack-Ware, a spokeswoman for the Utah Transit Authority, said UTA has three extra trains on call before and after the football game. UTA places supervisors at TRAX stations to watch rider volumes before the game so they can call additional trains when volumes look too high.
On the average weekday, about 38,000 people commute to the U for class, work and studying, Allred said.
“That 38,000 comes throughout the day,” he said. “(On game day), everyone comes here at the beginning of the game and leaves at the same time.”
Miriam Halford, a senior in elementary education, said she has ridden TRAX to past games.
“TRAX is wow!” Halford said.
She joked with her friend who will take TRAX to the game this year, “You’re going to have to sit on people’s laps.”
Lennie MahlerAbout 7,000 football fans will ride TRAX to get up to Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday.