Study Shows Excess Parking at Some Denver Sports Stadiums

Tue, 28 Oct 2014 13:54:58 -0400

Sports stadiums in Denver suffer from excess parking, creating unattractive concrete spaces, heat islands, and missed economic opportunities, according to a new study from the University of Colorado Denver. “We tend to think the more parking, the better,” said Wesley Marshall, PhD, PE, assistant professor of civil engineering at the CU Denver College of Engineering and Applied Science. “But too much parking can be as bad as too little.” The study began as a research project for CU Denver engineering student Alejandro Henao and was recently published in the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. Historically, sports teams and their host cities have had difficulty determining parking needs. So the researchers set out to see how Denver stacked up, focusing on Coors Field, the Pepsi Center, Sports Authority Field and Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Henao, who is working toward a doctorate degree in engineering, gained hands-on experience surveying all four sporting venues, noting the number of available parking spaces, number of people arriving per car, examining aerial images, and talking to facilities managers and spectators. The baseball park and the basketball/hockey arena were surveyed during weekday games while football field and soccer stadium data were collected during Sunday contests... _Read full article >>_