Following a bottleneck of traffic during the Heritage Festival earlier this month and ahead of more events this summer, ETS is taking a look at how its park-and-ride service performed as thousands travelled to Hawrelak Park over the long weekend. Just under 200 buses provided park-and-ride during the Heritage Festival. “It’s an incredible amount of service,” said ETS branch manager Carrie Hotton-MacDonald. “At the same time, it’s that time of year where there’s a lot of different festivals and events – we also supported the Elks that weekend with park-and-ride service.” Hawrelak Park reopened after a three-year facelift, with the Heritage Festival being one of the first major events held there after renovations were completed. “If there are other large events to be held in the park, what we need, from a transit perspective, is to get those buses moving smoothly through the space,” said Hotton-MacDonald. “I think having a really clear distinction between the different modes of travel to get to and from the event is important.” The city’s park-and-ride service allows for free parking, but users are required to pay bus fare. Parking for personal vehicles was not available at Hawrelak Park for the Heritage Festival as the parking lot was used to stage buses. A contributing factor to the traffic congestion seen during the event was the influx of visitors on the final day of the festival due to closures on the two days prior as a result of inclement weather. “The surge in demand we saw on Monday … that was really an exception, and that’s not necessarily what we expect every single time,” said Hotton-MacDonald. “I love that everybody showed up … but it did create a bit of a surge. After every major event that ETS provides park-and-ride service for, there is a debrief where teams look to improve performance for the next year and upcoming events. Debriefs include ETS and event organizers as well as other community stakeholders. “I think our bus operations can run very smoothly with large volumes of people, provided we have the necessary structure and support around it in order to do that,” said Hotton-MacDonald, adding that she would like to see bus priority implemented at next year’s Heritage Festival. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson
