New center moves game day traffic

A new traffic management center in Ben Hill Griffin stadium should help game-bound Gator fans get into and out of Gainesville more quickly.

"This system will allow the 90,000-plus fans leaving the stadium to spend less time in traffic," said Phil Mann. Mann is manager of the City of Gainesville's traffic operations division.

Getting post-game traffic rolling has typically been a 2 1/2 hour process. The traffic management system should cut that time by about an hour, officials say.

Mann explains that 67 cameras mounted throughout the city allow the staff to monitor key corridors that funnel traffic toward the University of Florida campus: Archer Road, W. University Avenue/Newberry Road, 34th Street and 13th Street.

City staff can control the traffic signals along these busy access roads without having a police officer at each intersection.

"This allows us to manage the traffic from satellite centers at both the University Police Department and the stadium," he said.

The traffic management system is part of a five-year overhaul of traffic signals in Alachua County targeted for completion next September.

"On game days, we operate under the unified command system, with Chief Linda Stump at UPD being the incident commander," Mann said. Emergency services, law enforcement and traffic management all work under Stump's direction.

"Because we have EMS and law enforcement sitting right there with us, we can dispatch the resources we need immediately" in the event of an accident or tie-up.

Today's game would typically lead to tie-ups at the Gainesville exits off Interstate 75, but Mann said he hopes the new system will reduce congestion as fans from Central Florida and further south arrive for the game.

Mann said the new system "worked great" for the first game. The big test will come with the Sept. 19 Florida-Tennessee game.