Getting around during the UCI Road World Championships

You can still traverse the city with relative ease, but you must inform yourself if you want to avoid a frustrated meltdown.

August 5, 2015; 5:07 PM • by Susan Howson

UCI unveiled its long-anticipated transportation plan today, which includes approximately 450,000 individual pieces of information.

In a nutshell, you can go to navigate.richmond2015.com for all your needs, be your needs transportational, social, recreational, or curiosical.

Their main message today was: “Know before you go.”

Said Mayor Jones, to us, the faithful media, “Hosting an event of this size will cause some changes to your normal routine–we know that those who will take this information from you today will be able to navigate the city during the race.”

Don’t let us down, readers!

In other words, our responsibility is to do our homework before we leave our houses, which by this point we’ve stocked up with frozen meals, a selection of craft beers, and a HBO NOW subscription, making the point possibly moot.

The site features an interactive map(toggle between race routes, ramp closures, street closures, and course crossings), the transportation guide, which provides everything you could ever want to know about anything involving how this race will affect your life, they say (look in the blue box for a bunch of PDFs), and online information about where to go, parking information, where to be entertained, and more.

Notable facts

Parking

• In order to keep our parking spaces as free as possible, spectators will be encouraged to park in one of three designated satellite parking areas and be shuttled to points in the event. Lots will be at City Stadium, the Diamond, and at Anthem on Staples Mill. Visitors must [buy parking tickets in advance as well as view the shuttle schedule]
• Cycling is a great way to experience the race itself, says Richmond Police Department Captain Will Smith. They’ll have a number of bicycle valets to help with that.

Road Closures

• “Just because the race is going on doesn’t mean you can’t get to where you want to go,” says Captain Smith. Various side streets will be open in order to maximize access to decks and businesses and such.
• Roads scheduled to be closed will be so an hour prior to the race and opened “very, very quickly” after the last rider goes by.

Crowd Estimates

• There will and will not be 450,000 people watching the race. “We’re not talking about 450,000 people showing up on September 19th and staying until September 27th. It’s the total estimate of spectators, not visitors, that will attend the event,” said UCI COO Tim Miller that will include the local population as well as out of town visitors, and it includes the count of people that will be on site each day.”
• Peak times are the first Sunday, the first Wednesday, and the last weekend.

VIP Access

• Hospitality tents will be located on Broad Street, atop Libby Hill, and somewhere in the vicinity of the 23rd Street Hill.

Countdown

• As of today, August 5th, we’re 44 days out.
• Yikes!

August 5, 2015 5:07 PM · in East End Daily, Fan of the Fan, and more 0