Saturday night traffic

[Ravenboy2003]

I rarely go to preseason games and this past weekend was the usual - gave my tix to some "needy" teenagers. LOL. I rarely have traffic issues as we tailgate 3 hours prior and then take our old sweet time leaving after games.

Anyway, my inlaws got free tix to the game at the last minute. They are 80ish and me and the wife didn't want them driving downtown nor did we want them on the Light Rail alone, so I told them I'd drive them down.

Long story short, I hit the 295 North exit off the beltway at about 6:15 and made it to the stadium 90 MINUTES later!

Is this normal? I never take 295 on regular season game days... just assumed I could get CLOSE to downtown before the traffic would backup by leaving when I did to drop them off. What a mess. And I felt sorry for them as they missed all the Ravens scoring by the time they got to their seats.

[The Fanatic]

I think it's got to do with all the work being done on I-95 north causing more traffic on 295 which is a much narrower freeway.
Haven't been down there this year (donate my tickets to Fred) but the 295 route is what I've been taking the past 2 years and have never had a problem.
This does not sound good!!

Kudos to your in-laws attending a game in their 80s.

I'll be shocked if I'm still alive at 80 much less doing something like a Raven game.

[skjwood]

The games vs the Skins are always bad traffic, because of the influx of DC customers. I know a lot of people who usually use the MARC train, buses, etc gave their tickets away to people who drove from the Baltimore/DC area. Worst traffic I've seen in a long time....

[HKusp]

The Saints game I was on the exit at 7:02 and didn't hit my seat with my ass until 8:10, so I am going to say, yes, that must be normal. I too usually am there to tailgate at least 3 hours early so that was a real eye opener for me.

[ERey]

I took 295 for the Saints game and it was bad. But I just assumed that was due to it being rush hour. Sunday mornings aren't really that bad on 295.

[Ravenboy2003]

The games vs the Skins are always bad traffic, because of the influx of DC customers. I know a lot of people who usually use the MARC train, buses, etc gave their tickets away to people who drove from the Baltimore/DC area. Worst traffic I've seen in a long time....

The 295 influx from DC area makes perfect sense.

I could have just swung around the beltway to I-95 and come in Caton Ave to Washington Blvd to Ostend like I do on game days. Would have been there in 30 minutes as opposed to 90. Always avoid 295 and 395 at all costs on regular game days.

[Mista T]

I came in on 295 around 5pm. I normally bail out at the Waterview or Westport exit to sneak past the I-95 /MD 295 merge, but there was no traffic, so we just kept going. Big mistake .... we hit a wall of standing traffic jam at the I-95 exit, which took us the better part of 1/2 hour to clear the interchange to the Haines Street exit (Greyhound Terminal) to slip into the Casino garage.

Sitting under the I-95 viaduct, the I-95 through traffic was traversing at freeway speed while the northbound exit ramp was crawling, but continually in motion. We figured that the biggest problem was the traffic cheating by taking the Monroe Street "must exit" lane, then pinching themselves into the right lane of MD 295 just before the exit. Many of these were Redskins fans, obviously unfamiliar with the quirky merge onto Russell Street or just being belligerent dickheads. Not a traffic cop anywhere along MD 295/Russell Street.

Getting to the Casino (where I have bought the season valet pass for the same price as the stadium lots) I discovered the root cause of the worse-than-usual traffic mess: the Casino was celebrating its 1st anniversary with a $100,000+ jackpot, resulting in a mob scene. Blending the Saturday night gamblers with Ravens & Redskins fans created chaos entering the garage. (I was temporarily refused entrance to valet parking -- no supervisor in sight -- had to tip well to secure my so-called "reserved" spot). Post game, I discovered that the previously closed Lot J had been opened sometime after 6 pm and was letting out a few hundred cars post-game - obviously Casino overflow (the Casino runs Lot J now).

Five cops working traffic duty for two/three hours pre-game could have averted the mess: one at each of the three traffic signals on Russell in front of the Casino - hustling traffic, and two standing along the Monroe Street exit lane handing out tickets.

There are no more Saturday night games scheduled, so hopefully this was a one-time occurrenece. Any chance that the City will have any lessons learned from this embarassing fuck-up?

And do something about it?

[Rosdaman]

I also parked in the Casino garage and drove to the game from the DC area. Won free parking there in the PSL lottery.

I took 95N and the exit to Russell Street that I had planned to take was backed up and at a near standstill. Was lot of late lane changing until the police on motorbikes came into view.

Rather than attempt a late lane change, I instead took the exit off of 95N to MLK Blvd, which goes up and over some of the lots. On this exit ramp there is another exit to Russell Street .... it is a kind of a sharp peel off to the right. At the end of this exit there is a stop light controlled by traffic officers; cars were allowed to take the left, which put me on the road that bisects Ravens walk with intermittent traffic heavily controlled by officers. At the end of this road, I was able to turn left onto Russell Street. So I approached the Casino along Russell Street, but from the north rather than the south.

Fortunately there is a left turn green arrow on Russell Street at the Casino entrance that lets about 6 cars through per cycle. Only had to wait 2 or 3 cycles to enter the Casino property. From there, was smooth sailing.

I'll probably take this route in the future because I have never seen the MLK Blvd exit of 95N backed up. I exited I-95 at about 5:50 pm and was inside the stadium by 6:30 pm.

[JohnBKistler]

We didn't notice much traffic coming in, although we bypassed the normal Russell St. exit off of 95 (which was jammed solid) and took 395 into the city and then double-backed to the tailgate lot off of Ostend.

Leaving the game we were not so lucky. We assumed (incorrectly) that with many people leaving the game early that traffic would have cleared out by the last few minutes of the 4th quarter. Getting out of the East lots around towards the casino and out on to 95 was a nightmare. Maybe the special event Mr. T mentioned had something to do with it. I hope that is not a foreshadowing of things to come....

[Mista T]

I hope that is not a foreshadowing of things to come....

I suspect that it was one-time occurrence due to the Casino anniversary coupled with the rare Saturday night exhibition game. However, keep in mind that the Casino garage holds close to 4,000 vehicles, while the stadium lots IIRC hold just 8,000. If there were proper reaction by the City to the shifts in parking location and a real game plan for parking traffic direction by City cops (coupled with attitude adjustment for many of them), we should be blessed with one of the better NFL stadiums for freeway accessibility. But if last Saturday was a sneak preview of what's in store for the future, we would be no better tha other NFL stadiums with weekly traffic nightmares, such as FedEx and Gillette.

[Section 120 View]

The Light Rail was TERRIBLE leaving the game. Probably should have drove even with the problems you guys had. South bound was backed up almost to the entry of the Light Rail gate. Like normal MTA stays on it's every 30 minute schedule still running every other train to the BWI airport. I was glad we were staying to tailgate with some old friends. They dropped off at Cromwell or we may still be waiting. It would not be a Ravens game without piss poor service by the MTA. I have stopped calling the Ravens and the MTA to complain because never one of them CARE!!!!

[Ngata Yard]

Pre-season traffic leaving the Bank is usually bad but this year has been exceptionally so.
We tailgate off Sharp so head toward the Casino to access Russell Street. The previously mentioned "former bus lot" is being used and empties out on what used to be two/three lanes heading toward Horseshoe. Pedestrian traffic in that area isn't governed (which causes more issues) and- with the defined bicycle paths this year- it's all a single lane until the Casino parking garage.
Fingers crossed they get the hang of it soon- otherwise, good times ahead...