Assessing Travel Demand Management for the Summer Olympic Games

Abstract

The Summer Olympic Games present the largest-ever transport challenge for host cities that are often already facing aging infrastructure and congestion pressures. This paper reviews approaches to travel demand management (TDM) for travel related to the Olympic Games and assesses documented evidence on travel impacts. The review aims to inform future planning for the games but also to provide lessons for general urban planning. This paper is part of a wider research project applying transport lessons from Olympic Games to the Hajj–Omrah pilgrimage in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Five Olympic TDM measures are described: travel capacity creation, travel behavior change, traffic efficiency, traffic bans, and public transit emphasis. Different approaches and their impact on travel are discussed, with particular emphasis on how base-load nongames travel is reduced. In general, more recent games have emphasized significant investment in high-capacity transit infrastructure and much stronger measures for reducing car use than conventionally occurs in host cities because of the relative capacity efficiency of these modes. There is some evidence that more recent games have adopted more subtle TDM approaches such as test events and communications strategies to reduce base load travel. Evidence suggests that reductions of up to 30% occur in systemwide base-load demand and that localized impacts can be up to 40%. The games provide a practical case study for general urban planning because strong TDM practices are applied to achieve significant change in congested cities. These changes provide an excellent basis to inform planning for congested cities facing similar challenges in general urban transport.