TRANSPORTATION PLANNING FOR CASINO NIAGARA

From a transportation perspective, the planning for a major casino in Niagara Falls, Ontario, presented many unique challenges. Foremost was the prospect of establishing a world class gaming complex in a city that is already a major tourist destination. The Falls draws approximately 12 million visitors a year and the City often experiences severe traffic congestion along the main tourist routes during the summer. With forecasts of an additional 5 to 8 million visitors to the casino, there were many concerns expressed by the general public, police officials, and government agencies regarding the potential for traffic and parking chaos. The anticipated traffic problems included gridlocked freeways, city streets, and international bridges, insufficient parking and illegal street parking, a deluge of charter bus traffic, and streets overrun with pedestrians. This paper provides a synopsis of the transportation issues addressed during the planning of Casino Niagara and information from monitoring studies undertaken during the first year of the casino's operation. It also provides "before" and "after" data to compare pre and post casino operating conditions and to review assumptions made during the planning of Casino Niagara with actual visitation and travel characteristics.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Full conference proceedings available on CD-ROM.
• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)

  Washington, DC  United States 
• Authors:
  • Allingham, D
  • Pappin, G
  • THOMPSON, J
• Conference:
  • 68th Annual Meeting of the Institute of Transportation Engineers
  • Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Date: 1998-8-9 to 1998-8-12
• Publication Date: 1998

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 14p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Before and after studies; Buses; Casinos; Charter operations; Parking demand; Pedestrians; Tourism; Tourists; Traffic congestion; Transportation planning; Travel
• Uncontrolled Terms: Gridlock
• Geographic Terms: Niagara Falls (Canada)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00807101
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 28 2001 12:00AM