The West Side of Manhattan has been viewed as the site for a new sports stadium, most recently by the New York Jets organization. Planning for a major sports facility in New York City, especially in the densely populated Midtown area, must satisfy numerous concerns regarding access, circulation, and parking. This paper addresses traffic and transportation planning issues faced by the Jets and local agencies in bringing a stadium to Manhattan including: modal split on game days in a CBD where peak period commutation has a 90 percent transit share and residents and workers have a decidedly transit mindset; game day arrival and departure patterns and the time needed to dissipate post game traffic; and special event traffic plans and initiatives that facilitate traffic flow and maximize transit use. As part of work being done for the West Midtown stadium, this paper identifies "best practices" employed at other stadiums around the country, and which have been presented to planners and decision makers in New York as part of the process to bring a new stadium to Manhattan and to assist the Jets organization in planning for the stadium.
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