Buffalo Bills tailgaters, be advised. The Bills are taking the first step to defuse any possible conflicts between tailgaters and other fans entering stadium parking lots.
Starting this preseason and throughout the fall, the team will implement "Disney-style parking" on a trial basis in perhaps Ralph Wilson Stadium's two biggest lots.
That means parking-lot attendants in Lots 2 and 3, just west of Abbott Road, will direct each vehicle to park next to the one that entered the lot just before it.
Previously, drivers have been able to choose where to park, often crossing paths with groups tossing a football around or setting up their tailgating parties.
"We're taking the friction points out of the equation," Bills Chief Executive Officer Russ Brandon explained. "Oakland implemented this last year with great success."
The Bills, along with local police and traffic experts, unveiled the new experimental parking plan Tuesday. It's all part of this season's new driving rules, designed to improve traffic flow and reduce conflicts between motorists and pedestrians.
"The hope is to provide our fans a more efficient and safe trip to and from the facility," Brandon said later.
"What we hear all the time from our fans is, 'How can we get in quickly?' and 'How can we get out faster?'" he added.
The most noticeable change may come with the new experimental parking rules.
"It's one car, one space," Craig E. Barber, chief operating officer of Allpro Parking, explained. "People are directed into the next space, instead of being allowed to freelance. It's space after space, row after row."
Besides cutting down on the freelancing, the new system presumably will allow more vehicles into each lot, because there will be fewer large gaps between vehicles.
What about tailgaters who want to set up shop next to each other?
Team officials are advising them to rendezvous somewhere near the stadium and drive closely together, so they can park together.
The most avid tailgaters also will have a shorter pregame ritual this season. In June, the team announced that stadium parking lots will open four hours prior to kickoff, rather than five hours, as had been the case recently.
The Bills on Tuesday announced other major changes in the traffic patterns:
-- A short stretch west of Abbott Road just outside Ralph Wilson Stadium will be barricaded and closed off to vehicles starting five hours before every home game.
That area, between the north entrance to Lot C and the south entrance to Lot B, will be open only to pedestrians, thus reducing the traffic congestion just outside the stadium.
-- Bills fans exiting the stadium lots will be funneled increasingly into clearly defined lanes, separated by orange pylons, allowing further separation between vehicles and pedestrians.
-- Existing one-way restrictions on vehicles leaving the stadium lots will be increased.
For example, people leaving Lot 2 must head south on Abbott Road, then either continue south on Abbott or go west -- not east -- on Big Tree Road.
The goal is to improve traffic flow by pushing more traffic away from the congested roads closest to the stadium.
"We're trying to get all the traffic outward, so that Abbott and other roads aren't blocked," said Gerard J. Sentz, Erie County public works commissioner. "You might drive farther, but you might get home quicker."
As Erie County Sheriff's Chief of Special Services Scott R. Patronik put it, fans coming to the games should take a look at the new traffic routes so they can preplan their routes to the stadium.
Bills officials directed fans to find the new traffic rules and patterns on the team's website, www.buffalobills.com.
Law enforcement and Bills officials hope the new traffic pattern will encourage fans from the north to park north of the stadium and fans from the south to park to the south. Or those fans can take routes farther from the stadium if they want to park where they always have.
"This has not been an overnight discussion or an overnight implementation," Brandon said Tuesday, noting that the Bills have been considering such changes after listening to concerns from their fans.
"This is a small city on game day, from 70,000 to 100,000 fans," he added. "Trying to move people in and out is a large task."
gwarner@buffnews.com null
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