When festival fans parked
on the streets in the residential
neighborhoods, traffic lanes
became narrow and routes more
congested as people tried to leave
rodeo performances and concerts.
Shuttle buses were delayed by traffic
backups; drivers sometimes had
difficulty negotiating streets that
were crammed with parked cars. At
times, traffic to and from Frontier Park
caused backups on Interstate 25.
Starting in early 2017, Ayres
reviewed data from past Frontier Days
celebrations, conducted one-on-one
interviews with event organizers and
stakeholder agencies, and examined
Frontier Park, the surrounding
neighborhoods, and portions of the
City that were affected by the festival.
During the 2017 event, Ayres’ field
observations included traffic and
pedestrian counts at 14 intersections
and aerial imagery of parking and
traffic/pedestrian activity.
One thing soon became clear,
Davis said. “We needed to separate
movements and different kinds of
traffic, such as pedestrian traffic
and vehicle traffic, and not have
everything converging on one point.
And there were so many modes of
travel: pedal taxis, park-n-ride shuttle
buses, party buses ferrying people,
trailers with horses, horses with
riders. We needed to channel that
activity better.”
Implementing recommendations
could have posed an additional
challenge, due to the sheer number of
agencies and funding sources involved
in making the festival a success.
“So many agencies are involved,”
said Ken Voigt, an Ayres senior
traffic engineer. “City departments,
the school districts, the Wyoming
Department of Transportation, the
Cheyenne Frontier Days organization
– many agencies and people. They
were not in the practice of meeting
as a whole to discuss concerns, plans,
By the Numbers:
The 2018 Cheyenne Frontier Days…
Made an estimated
Recorded
$28 million
543,705
impact on the
local economy
total attendance
Registered more than
Attracted
101,462
rodeo fans to
performances
over nine days
Included
more than
6,000
head of
livestock,
including
rodeo stock
1,200
rodeo contestants competing for
$840,031
in prize money
Brought
115,214
people into the
stands for
evening concerts
Drew
more than
90,000
spectators to
four parades
Served Welcomed
23,138 47,611
pancake breakfasts
over three days visitors to the festival’s
Indian Village
Attracted was made possible
through the help of nearly
18,836
spectators to the USAF
Thunderbirds air show
3,000
volunteers
Source: cfdrodeo.com
(Note: the population of the City of Cheyenne is approximately 64,000,
and the urban area is approximately 85,000)
AyresAssociates.com
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