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So my dad and I decided to go to the Opening Day game a few hours before start time, and I figured I'd share the experience of getting to the park, as well as some other more general thoughts on the park.
We ended up leaving close to 2:45 or so I think with the game starting at 4:10, so granted had we left earlier, this whole story may not have happened, but even so, it's still worth mentioning.
We live in Fort Lauderdale. Traffic on 95 wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. We hopped in the express lanes, which definitely helps getting to Miami, but when exiting them, sheesh that was terrible. The 836 has two west bound lanes. Both were bumper to bumper, essentially parked on the highway. It was only complicated by the fact that people in the third most right lane (which continues on south) were trying to merge into the left west bound lane, resulting in 3 lanes of traffic squeezing into two. We must have spent at least 20 minutes waiting to get off the highway.
We finally get off the highway, and signs indicated all parking closer to the park over the bridge was full, but they had parking for $10 in a lot if you went straight off the exit ramp. Knowing traffic over the bridge was bad and not wanting to have to potentially deal with having to come back to this same lot, we simply went straight at the light and parked in the lot (under the 836). Simple enough. We then saw that they had about 20 charter buses parked on the side of the lot acting as shuttle buses to the park - awesome, less walking we thought! So after waiting a few minutes with 2 bus drivers sitting in the front row but not leaving, 15-20 people end up on the bus. Only a few minutes later does a third bus driver end up on the bus and we finally leave after waiting a good 5-10 minutes. Despite having 15-20 buses there, ok, I guess I can understand they don't want to run a huge charter bus with only a few people on it - makes sense. But instead of turning right to head toward the ballpark, the driver heads north away from the park. Only after we drive 2 blocks north does he inform everyone that there are 5, yes FIVE, additional stops the shuttle has to stop at before heading to the park. It was 4:00 at this point and he estimated it would take another 25 minutes at best to go to the stops, not including traffic and those of you that went know how bad traffic was. We and several other people ended up getting off the bus and walking (well, jogging, actually) to the park and got there around 4:15 or so.
Bottom line is - the shuttle system they set up is terrible. What's the point of having 15-20 buses sitting there to act as shuttles if they're 1) not going to be leaving constantly meaning virtually no wait time to leave, and 2) each have to run the entire route resulting in an extra 25+ minute trip? Or at the very least they could inform us before we get on the bus so we don't waste 10 minutes sitting there on the bus before realizing there's a route. It just makes absolutely no sense.
Which brings me to my next point......the All Star game in 2017. They better figure something out with traffic, parking, shuttles, etc. by then, because it'll be terrible in that area with a capacity crowd like the ASG will have (that we never have regularly).
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Side note - I'd imagine they're going to really try to fill those parking garage shops before the ASG - it'd look bad to have empty shops 5 years after the park opens.
We ended up leaving close to 2:45 or so I think with the game starting at 4:10, so granted had we left earlier, this whole story may not have happened, but even so, it's still worth mentioning.
We live in Fort Lauderdale. Traffic on 95 wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. We hopped in the express lanes, which definitely helps getting to Miami, but when exiting them, sheesh that was terrible. The 836 has two west bound lanes. Both were bumper to bumper, essentially parked on the highway. It was only complicated by the fact that people in the third most right lane (which continues on south) were trying to merge into the left west bound lane, resulting in 3 lanes of traffic squeezing into two. We must have spent at least 20 minutes waiting to get off the highway.
We finally get off the highway, and signs indicated all parking closer to the park over the bridge was full, but they had parking for $10 in a lot if you went straight off the exit ramp. Knowing traffic over the bridge was bad and not wanting to have to potentially deal with having to come back to this same lot, we simply went straight at the light and parked in the lot (under the 836). Simple enough. We then saw that they had about 20 charter buses parked on the side of the lot acting as shuttle buses to the park - awesome, less walking we thought! So after waiting a few minutes with 2 bus drivers sitting in the front row but not leaving, 15-20 people end up on the bus. Only a few minutes later does a third bus driver end up on the bus and we finally leave after waiting a good 5-10 minutes. Despite having 15-20 buses there, ok, I guess I can understand they don't want to run a huge charter bus with only a few people on it - makes sense. But instead of turning right to head toward the ballpark, the driver heads north away from the park. Only after we drive 2 blocks north does he inform everyone that there are 5, yes FIVE, additional stops the shuttle has to stop at before heading to the park. It was 4:00 at this point and he estimated it would take another 25 minutes at best to go to the stops, not including traffic and those of you that went know how bad traffic was. We and several other people ended up getting off the bus and walking (well, jogging, actually) to the park and got there around 4:15 or so.
Bottom line is - the shuttle system they set up is terrible. What's the point of having 15-20 buses sitting there to act as shuttles if they're 1) not going to be leaving constantly meaning virtually no wait time to leave, and 2) each have to run the entire route resulting in an extra 25+ minute trip? Or at the very least they could inform us before we get on the bus so we don't waste 10 minutes sitting there on the bus before realizing there's a route. It just makes absolutely no sense.
Which brings me to my next point......the All Star game in 2017. They better figure something out with traffic, parking, shuttles, etc. by then, because it'll be terrible in that area with a capacity crowd like the ASG will have (that we never have regularly).
--
Side note - I'd imagine they're going to really try to fill those parking garage shops before the ASG - it'd look bad to have empty shops 5 years after the park opens.
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