Emptying of the River Market parking deck after Monday's firework show in downtown Little Rock "did not go smoothly" and communication breakdowns "led to unnecessary confusion" and long wait times to exit, an official said.
It took about an hour and a half to exit 500 cars from the full deck after the Pops on the River firework show. During the last 15 minutes, parking attendants lifted the gates and let the cars flow out without paying.
The Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau operates the parking deck and had one attendant working that deck that night. The bureau estimates it lost about $400 by letting vehicles go without paying the last 15 minutes. The rate was $6 for special event parking.
"I will readily admit that staff did not respond well to approximately 500 cars attempting to exit between shortly after 10 p.m. and approximately 11:40 p.m.," Senior Vice President Jim Rice said. "If all proper procedures are followed, we should turn 10 exits per minute and the deck should clear in about 50 to 55 minutes during the rare occurrences of a full deck all exiting at the same time."
"Communication breakdowns between parking attendants, their supervisors and management led to unnecessary confusion. The final 15 minutes or so, the gates were opened, and all cars were waved through in an effort to ease the parking patrons' frustration and get everyone home," Rice said.
He said the parking management team is taking the event "very seriously" and working to put in place remedies and training to prevent such an occurrence in the future.
A high volume of traffic on the downtown roadways contributed to the issue. The traffic during the initial half hour after the firework show was virtually gridlock on East Second Street and President Clinton Avenue from Sherman Street west to Main Street, and south to the Interstate 30 ramp. Cars exiting from surface parking lots, street parking and the two garage decks at the same time caused the gridlock.
Parking availability was an issue Monday for the annual Pops on the River event, sponsored by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Organizers estimated about 30,000 people attended.
Little Rock police issued 151 parking citations that day, and 143 of them were for being in a no-parking area. That's more than the amount of citations issued during the three days of Riverfest in the River Market District this year, when 78 parking citations were written.
Jack Wrenn, the city's parking enforcement coordinator, said the Fourth of July event is more comparable to parking traffic seen at Razorback games than to Riverfest.
"During last year's Razorback game at War Memorial, 134 citations were written. The difference between the events is that both the Pops on the River and the Razorback game have definitive start times, and that impacts how far people are willing to walk to get to the event taking place," Wrenn said. "Riverfest has a much more fluid time frame, and people are willing to park farther away and leisurely walk to Riverfest and look around before any specific concert begins."
Last year, there were 47 parking citations issued during the Pops on the River event. Wrenn said he didn't have any thoughts on why the number increased this year.
Metro on 07/08/2016