Gameday traffic may never be the same if a newly released phone app lives up to expectations.
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute announced the creation of a gameday app this summer to help football fans get in and out of Kyle Field faster. The app, called Destination Aggieland, will feature suggested routes for cars, pedestrians and cyclists along with live updates on road traffic conditions.
With the additional visitors and their cars, College Station is the fourth largest downtown in the state of Texas on game days, said Tim Lomax, regents fellow at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
“We’ll have 106,300 fans in Kyle Field this year, about 20,000 more than 2013,” Lomax said. “We have done a pretty good job with traffic in the past, but this new traffic challenge has been combined with Chancellor John Sharp’s interest in improving the game weekend experience.”
Lomax said there would be about five major changes for gameday transportation. First, pregame traffic will be more efficient because people will have the ability to buy parking spaces before getting to campus through the app.
Postgame, Lomax said traffic signals will have more green time for those leaving the game. Some turns will not be allowed and some parking lots will be channeled to one big street for a while after the game.
Lomax said Wellborn Road would turn into four southbound lanes and one lane northbound for a few hours after the game to allow people to get out of town if they want to.
Lomax said there will be reduced pedestrian-vehicle conflict on exit paths and bus routes will be more efficient with the addition of 10 gameday shuttles and designated bus lanes. These changes should speed up the bus transportation times by reducing traffic competition and allowing buses to make more round trips, Lomax said.
“The idea is to move the visitors who want to leave town or leave the area around Kyle Field so that we can pick up the traffic controls and allow people to move more freely,” Lomax said.
Lomax said Destination Aggieland was created to help people understand the changes and improvements, but fans should still be prepared for the congestion on game days.
Lomax said the most challenging part about the creation of this plan has been figuring out how to handle 106,300 fans without a significant increase in resources, such as new freeways or streets.
Meteorology senior Coryn Collins said the transportation changes and the app are a great idea.
“Everyone knows you have to leave at least an hour before you want to get to the game because the traffic is so awful,” Collins said. “We could really use something to alleviate or at least help maneuver these heavy traffic flows.”
Destination Aggieland is now available for free for both iPhone and Android systems at TAMU Mobile or at gameday.12thMan.com. Anyone interested is encouraged to download the app before game day as broadband is expected to be slow with visitors on campus.