Big day at zoo reveals limits of area roads
The school holiday and a warm winter day, combined with free admission to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium added up to gridlock last Monday.
A typical 30-minute trip for some took hours for others. Some gave up and turned around.
Zoo officials expected about 20,000 visitors on such a nice day. They were off by about 40,000.
Central Ohio is known for its smooth commuting, at least compared to many large cities.
But the area is not immune to traffic nightmares fueled by continuing growth, reliance on automobiles and a mix of conditions such as occurred last Monday.
Traffic engineers generally design roadways 20 years in advance, factoring in peak rush-hour use.
But they don’t include unpredictable events, such as pre-Christmas and back-toschool shopping, the Fourth of July weekend at Alum Creek State Park or the opening of a new store at Polaris Fashion Place, said Rob Riley, chief deputy engineer in Delaware County.
“We generally have to acknowledge the limitations of surface transport,” Riley said. Designing roads for “worst-case” scenarios isn’t practical, he added. “They’re too big and the cost of designing for the highest traffic events of the year is too cost prohibitive.”
Anticipating growth also can be tricky, said Dean Ringle, Franklin County engineer.
“It’s a guesstimate,” he said. “Truthfully, there are very few times that we do an improvement and it holds for another 20 years because things are growing and changing.”
Technical advances such as automated vehicles may help in the future.
Driverless cars, linked by computer, increase the capacity of roadways, said Ringle.
And rail lines or carpooling can help, experts say.
The unusual congestion around the zoo is troubling, Ringle said, considering that Sawmill and Powell roads, feeders to the zoo, had been widened and improved in recent years.
“Traffic is supposed to be ebb and flow,” he said. “Eventually you want (gridlock) to break up. It’s not supposed to happen all day.”
Average daily traffic along Powell Road toward the zoo is about 15,000 vehicles; along Sawmill Parkway, about 25,000.
Central Ohio’s growth repeatedly exceeds expectations, said Nick Gill, assistant
transportation director at the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.
But building a bypass or dedicated road into a big attraction isn’t always welcomed by nearby residents. Some communities may tolerate the occasional traffic flare-up.
“They may want to deal with some of the congestion sometimes rather than have massive road projects near their homes,” Gill said.
The zoo fielded numerous complaints Monday, but officials could do little more than update its Twitter, Facebook and Instagram followers.
Free admission will be considered more carefully in the future to avoid “too much of a good thing,” said Patty Peters, zoo spokeswoman.
“I think the only thing we could have done is to look at the weather and decide not to hold the free day as we had planned for months,” she said. “There was no way for us to know that we were going to get that many people.”
Powell Police Chief Gary Vest, a zoo member, was monitoring the backup from his bicycle Monday, noting that most motorists were in good spirits and patient.
He also thinks the zoo got lucky.
“If a disaster had occurred and everybody left at one time, you can imagine the chaos,” he said. “A real emergency would have been virtually impossible,” said Vest, who thinks the zoo should use an RSVP system to gauge attendance on free days.
The zoo may also work with COTA, which offers a bus route to the zoo from Columbus that includes admission discounts. The Delaware Area Transit Agency has no dedicated zoo routes.
Columbus officials say they keep eye out for surprise turnouts at big events, said Brian Hoyt, Columbus Recreation and Parks spokesman.
“We always plan for crowds and parking, and work very closely with public safety and police. We will always over-plan,” he said.
Zoo officials said they noticed cars filled with large numbers of people Monday, many likely first-time attendees or those who rarely get to the zoo, said Peters. “There clearly was a pentup demand to some that we don’t normally see.”