Sustainable Event Transportation

Abstract

Each year, cities around the world host thousands of different events and sports, stirring passion and providing entertainment for individuals from all around. These events attract millions of people each year to specific areas in a city to partake in or watch an attraction. These types of occurrences are significant to many individuals as it provides them with an escape from their everyday lives. Sporting events and other events like festivals, fairs, and trade shows are crucial to many cities' economies. They attract outsiders from different parts of the world, and this creates a massive uptick in economic activity during those times due to the high volume of people. Unfortunately, while these lustrous events do wonders for the cities or areas they are held, they are not sustainable and can be harmful to the environment, the surrounding neighborhoods, and the air quality. Event locations, such as stadiums, are a pivotal part of the entertainment world that allows fans to connect with celebrities and professionals face to face. Drawing thousands of individuals to a specific location has a direct tie to the increase in the amount of traffic that takes place in that area (Pyun & Humphreys, 2017). Given that cars are emitters of carbon emissions (Environmental Protection Agency, 2018), the more traffic congestion that occurs in a compact area, the more carbon emissions that will be released. Among these emissions, carbon dioxide is known to be one of the driving factors in anthropogenic climate change (NASA, 2019). Currently, impacts from climate change such as the melting of polar ice caps, rising sea levels, and more extreme patterns of weather are occurring at higher rates (NASA, 2019). When an event takes place at an isolated location, traffic jams cause cars to idle while waiting to park or exit the stadium lot. When a vehicle is idling, it uses more fuel and will produce more emissions than when the car is moving. (U.S. Department of Energy, 2015). The emissions from idling cars directly tie into the reduced air quality of the surrounding area that can have harmful effects on human health and contribute to climate change. (Zeisel, 2017) This research project sets out to determine how the University of Arizona can improve on traffic revolving around games and events to reduce the impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods, air quality, and climate change. This is an important aspect of the sports and entertainment world that can go overlooked. These events offer an enormous opportunity to promote the idea of a healthier world to the attendees as the events play a key connecting role between the people and the things they love. To achieve this, it will be necessary first to understand how the fans currently get to the campus. Then by looking at how the University plans for the traffic and discussing with professionals, it will be possible to determine alternative strategies that could assist in bettering the traffic issues. If the University of Arizona can deter enough traffic during games successfully, then this will not only help the local environment but the citizens of Tucson as well.