Synthesis of Transport Planning Approaches for the World's Largest Events

This paper explores transport planning approaches adopted for the Summer Olympic Games (SOG) and identifies lessons learned for planning of the world's largest regular special event; the Hajj/Umrah Pilgrimage in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The Hajj/Umrah Pilgrimage has been held annually for many centuries. Major growth has occurred in recent decades with some 6 million visitors p.a. including 3 million during the week of the Hajj event and 1 million during Ramadan. These events now represent the largest regular special event in history and are expected to grow substantially into the future. SOG is probably the second largest regularly held major event, held over 2 weeks in major host cities every 4 years. Olympic host cities commonly already exhibit congested transport networks but must cope with over 40 000 Olympic officials and athletes in addition up to 8 million ticketed spectators. Olympic transport planning is a critical factor in games performance. This paper describes the context for each event and the nature of transport demand and supply and outlines the transport planning approaches used. A major aim is to synthesize lessons learned between events and to illustrate the performance of alternative strategies.