Why Is It So Hard To Get Everyone Out Of A Parking Lot After A Show Or Game?

I guess the short answer to my question is "bottlenecking". Everyone trying to leave at the same time. It still seems like it is worse than it should be.  People leaving this weeks Jabfest had to wait forty-five minutes to an hour just to leave.

What's crazy about the exit time at the Amphitheater is, there's no traffic lights or anything adding to the congestion. It should be a smooth shot right out the gate, but somehow it turns into a giant mess every time. It is most certainly not just an Amphitheater problem, this was just my last chance to witness a major clusterfudge in action.  I think some police assistance would help, but I don't really know if that falls in their job description. Leaving the street the Amp is on you have to cross two east bound lands to get west into town.  All it takes is for a little bit of traffic on either the eastbound or westbound lanes and you're screwed.  I think what happens is that people who park outside the grounds clog up the west bound lanes and people refuse to head east and loop back around to other street. So, you basically have someone at the front of the line just sitting there with a left blinker going when if they would just go right it would help everything.

I can add one other thing to that mix. Assh*les.  People trying to cut into line, gumming up the works, and causing unnecessary congestion. All in all, at the Amp at least, I think the best solution would be to force the people leaving the Amp grounds to go right, then circle back around at some point. It would go so much faster (plus there's a Sonic up the street when you can get a snack while you wait for the west bound lanes to clear up).

There's one other thing to mention, that is kind of too random to be included with the other thoughts and that is-why are venues in such a hurry to kick you out? Don't they make their money on drinks (and a bit of food)?  Why not have an atmosphere where some of the people can linger a bit? This one, I've never understood.

Now, I don't expect anything to be done, but I'll leave you with this. I was talking to a couple of concert attendees who had been in traffic forty five minutes to get out and her best line was "Can I pay you $5 to get out?". Now THAT, would be worth $5.