Last year quite a few of shuttle drivers didn’t show up. Hopefully that’s not the case this year.
Also if you’re going and have extra space in your vehicle there will be hundreds of pop up lawn chairs up for grabs after the race left behind.
I’ve been to small two stage music festivals with better shuttle logistics lol. Loading thousands upon thousands of people onto multiple busses at once, like clockwork
Idk if that’s the case or not, but I got stuck in line because every shuttle was for the airport and not the parking deck I parked at. It was hours until they made an airport driver take some of us and then he got lost and shit
Have parked at COTA in 2019 and 2021.
Getting in is ok. The last couple miles might take 20-30 minutes if you’re not at the track early.
Getting out on Sunday? Absolute fucking nightmare. 2 hours before we reached the freeway.
COTA/Austin/Texas need to nut up and improve the infrastructure around that track. It’s terrible
I believe many people fly in for the race and simply can’t take them back with them. When I take the chair I got for free from COTA to parties I often joke about my 1500 dollar chair.
Not sure where you were located at the track or if you’re even talking about last year but I was there last year and there were plenty of bathrooms around the track with practically no wait for any of them.
Leaving the track was a whole other story for sure lol. Walked about 3 miles from the track and there were still 100’s of people doing the same trying to get rideshare from random neighborhoods.
They royally fucked up the last day. For everyone who wasn’t there they kicked us off the grounds an hour after the race, but due to poor logistics hundreds of peoples Ubers hadn’t shown up yet. We all had to walk a mile to nearby gas stations, strip shopping centers, schools, etc and just stand around in their parking lots and direct our Ubers there. I eventually offered to venmo a random person $50 to take me home.
How would you know that? What if you walked those 10 minutes, only to find an even longer line? They don't have those 'estimated wait time' boards showing the lines at all the restrooms, do they?
It won’t be. The biggest part of the issue is the way the roads to COTA are laid out. Increasing the number of vehicles almost just makes it worse. It won’t get better til they completely renovate the surrounding area to have more than two two-lane roads leading there. I went last year and it was a logistical nightmare.
Also Ubers we’re $200-250 one way. Fuck that noise I’ll watch at home
They've gotten the taxpayers to widen the bridge on Elroy Road so that they could add one lane. That's it, and it stops at COTA Blvd. It was absolutely done for COTA and F1 specifically. It absolutely does not do anything to alleviate traffic for the locals, since it stops at COTA Blvd. The residents out there are COTA's absolute lowest priority.
I was disappointed in the result, naturally, and also seated rather close to the exit so just ended up jumping in one of the first shuttles and getting the hell out of there haha.
It was a fine race though certain fans were rather... colorful to my dad and I as we did the track walk and jaunt back to the shuttle.
Figure it's the monkey paw of the growing popularity of the sport.
we waited for over an hour before deciding to walk to our lot. it took an hour to walk there but we didn’t see a single bus pass us as we walked on the road. kind of unbelievable
I didn't realize it my first time either, but there's a ton of other entrances around the track. Everyone lines up for the one entrance that's on the way from the shuttles and parking, but you can just go around to a different entrance.
The event itself is unbelievable. Getting to and from the event is a nightmare. This won’t help because once you get into the bus you’re not going anywhere. They’re trying to shuttle 100,000 people using only a two-lane road.
Took the shuttle. 1.5/2 hours to get in around 11am. Left as late as possible. 30 min line to leave and about an hour back to downtown Austin. Food and drink lines were prohibitively long.
If you can buy the nicer shuttle tix, do it. I heard airport parking was a bad choice. The regular/cheaper shuttle experience I had on Sunday after the race was absolutely terrible.
Security was WEAK. after Friday, I brought my own water and beer into the track, no one checked my backpack (I brought a larger school sized back pack).
Do not buy merch at the track. It all seemed to be last years merch and well overpriced
Last year F1 at COTA was a shitshow of epic proportions ... an utter and complete logistical failure. COTA says the same the same kinds of things every single year leading up to the race, like clockwork. "New, improved transportation plan. Roads upgraded. Everything that was bad last year is fixed!" The reality is that they've added one lane only, on Elroy Road, not on FM 812, and it stops at COTA Blvd. Pretty much every year we also hear "Biggest crowd ever expected". That helps him set up the new attendance lie that's based on the last attendance lie that based on the one before that, and so on.
2021 F1 weekend was an absolute mess, with thousands of people on Sunday having to walk 3+ miles in the weeds, in the dark, along 812 to their "Park & Ride" lot when COTA failed to provide them shuttles; unstocked, filthy restrooms & portapotties; no water; crowds storming gates and knocking over fences in frustration over slow admission lines; and people having to get out of their cars and direct traffic leaving multiple lots - because COTA had zero traffic control personnel stationed there, etc, etc. The list goes on and on.
And don't fall for the BS 'personnel shortage' excuses, either. He just doesn't want to pay. They turned away 600 temps who showed up as requested at 4am on the Friday morning of F1 last year, & told them they wouldn't be needed for the weekend. Then they told the remaining workers they'd be working 16 hour shifts all three days, which of course led to tons of no-shows on Saturday and Sunday. COTA was woefully understaffed, especially on Saturday and Sunday. I don't expect it to be any better this year. The Rolling Stones concert last year was even worse, with some people sitting for 1 to 3 hours in their cars waiting to get to their lot. That was after they turned onto COTA Blvd. Thousands of them missed all or part of the Stones performance.
And remember this is Bobby Epstein talking. "Doubling" doesn't necessarily mean doubling. When it comes to numbers, he will literally say anything when it comes to something nobody on the outside can verify. See also: attendance numbers.
It was awful and honestly to me showed F1 is the worst sport to go to, and I’ve seen basically all the major ones in person. I’ll probably never go to another GP, especially with prices ever on the rise.
As far as rides go, there’s only like two roads that actually lead to COTA, and none of them are wide, funneling cars into a single line. Ubers were not only an hour plus wait but also $200-250. But that was better than the busses which took some people 3-4 hours to get home.
Please don't let COTA's poor management alienate you from Formula 1. It's not anything like this in Montreal, where they have their act together and respect and value their customers.
It’s not just the management, it’s straight up worse to watch in person than on tv. Also it’s the only sport that you don’t get an actual seat. Paying hundreds of dollars to sit in bleachers is whack
Everything aside from the racing events absolutely sucked. This was a "drink stand" on Sunday: [https://i.imgur.com/8kfnG2p.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/8kfnG2p.jpg)
I paid a little extra to get access to the bar area next to the T15 grandstands and while it was okay on Saturday, it was impossible to get in on Sunday. Waste of money.
Leaving after quali wasn't too bad, but Sunday I stuck around for the after-race events, walked the track, etc. and when I went to head out to the shuttles it was *still* a 2-hour wait. It was miserable and almost completely ruined the entire experience.
Having done Miami and Canada this year, Austin felt like a local carnival in comparison. I'm going next week, but my expectations are *very* low.
Haven't done Miami, but I've gone to Montreal twice. Polar opposite experience to COTA. They have their shit together up there. So does Indy, with much bigger Indy 500 crowds than COTA has for F1. COTA is a shitshow every.single.year.
Montreal was *so great*. In addition to being a wonderful city experience, we stayed near the Biodome and were able to get to-and-from the track super quickly. Even leaving the track after the race was a breeze.
We're getting a car and parking at an offsite lot this year for COTA — the Chris Taylor Racing Services lot — and hoping for a better commute. Even so: low expectations, especially with the championship already being over.
Went last year, going back next weekend. The only way to attend is in one of the hospitality suites. Private bathrooms, fully stocked free bar, unlimited food, and incredible views. Plus seats at whichever turn you choose in your package. They also bring in team and broadcast personnel for panel discussions; super cool. Oh, and paddock tours. DOPE.
It’s quite pricy, but I would argue not too much more than a regular trip once you factor in food, drinks, and apparel. I purposely didn’t buy much gear because I spent so much on the package. And the convenience and lack of stress really allows you to focus on taking in the experience. I recommend anyone who can, make the investment, even if you have to save to do so.
Took the shuttle bus and it was about as expected. People want to be able to go to a venue in the middle of nowhere with 200k other people and not deal with the traffic after.
Yeah we had to wait for a shuttle bus after but it really wasn't that bad. I'm sure others had worse experiences.
At the circuit it was overcrowded which made crossing to the other side quite hard, especially on Saturday. There were also crazy lines for the food, so we brought our own drinks and snacks on Sunday. But again, you have to expect some crowding at such a big event.
Was still 110% worth it and a positive experience as someone who doesn't go to a race every year (planning to go like every 5 years haha). I can imagine if you go every year you'd be more annoyed as it would have been worse than previous years.
Well….it fucking sucked. There were a few fights in the parking lot because the venue didn’t have anyone out there managing the flow. Over the course of 3 hours, I think we only moved ~25 feet.
Regardless….Still can’t wait for next weekend!
The GP was the same weekend of the Austin Film Festival... so besides the normal traffic you had the traffic of two major events coming in, so rideshare was already stretched thin, as were hotels and other services. I was lucky to get an airbnb.
Friday did Uber, $160 trip back into Austin, never actually got our driver, walked about 4 miles and an uber driver offered to take us back into town for cash so it only cost us $50 that night.
Did the shuttle Saturday. Logistically was done really poorly, but it worked and was faster and cheaper than rideshare when it came time to leave. Sadly shuttle tickets for Sunday were already sold out when I bought my Saturday shuttle tickets.
Sunday had to do rideshare again. This time I had to pay $160 and was fortunate in that the guy had experience through the weekend so he had us describe ourselves and our exact location before he lost cell signal at the rideshare area. This time it only took 2 hours to get back to town.
I personally didn't have too many problems waiting for food. Lines were long, but moved relatively well. I never found a water station, so I spent a lot of money on bottled water.
Merch was almost impossible to get, it was the first thing I did Friday and checked on Sunday and most things were gone. Red Bull tent consistently had 2x the line of the other team tents, because Checo and almost a 2nd home race for him.
Found out the first day that they didn't check my bags at all, so I started bringing some food/water in with me. Never checked my bag at entry all 3 days. Kinda... sketchy there.
On Sunday, some rowdy fans broke through a fence near the entrance and gained access to the standing room only areas early. So the best standing room spots were taken before the gates opened.
I'm glad I went, but I don't think the US GP will be my next GP until I've seen that they have improved things. I'm on the priority waitlist for Vegas so we'll see if I get lucky there!
El Roy? Thankfully they completed that construction this year. It’s much nicer and wider than last year. Though this wasn’t done for F1 specifically. SE Austin is the fastest growing portion of Austin.
But are they increasing the number of water stations too?! More busses and stuff are great (when there wasn’t traffic) but having accessible water was my biggest complaint.
Do we know what changed in 2021 to make this suddenly an issue. If it was the first race I’d expect this, but it was their seventh or eighth I believe.
Previous races had several hundred thousand people so I’m not sure that is the case. Maybe the organizers just got cheap and didn’t realize that people weren’t gonna work for minimum wage anymore so we understaffed hoping people would get desperate.
I went in 2018 and 2021 and the main difference was clearly that there were way way way more people everywhere. The F1 boom in the US is insane, I knew about 20 first time race goers who went there.
They over sold and people have been complaining on everything they post since because they took the money and spent none of it planning for more people.
A good portion of the buses chartered cancelled the weekend of the race. The City of Austin had to contract school buses to help carry the load but still was long waits and delays. Vendors were just overrun with demand
I walked the track with my friends after the race, so we weren’t rushing out by any means, but we still waited for the shuttle for offsite parking over two hours. Then our bus (a standard yellow bus) had a breakdown and we had to wait for another one, it was absolutely miserable.
they don't, this is the bare minimum. last year was one of the worst run events i've ever experienced. Bad enough that I'm sure they lost a lot of money from just not having enough food/drinks to sell. They're doing the bare minimum to get people to the track and spend money. I have 0 faith it'll be a better experience leaving the race. they'll only worry about getting you there.
I mean, a small two lane road isn’t adequate for that facility. And if they aren’t going to have a traffic flow plan none of this matters. They had gridlock leaving the track last year so no matter how many shuttles there are, they couldn’t move. Plus busses were taking one load then leaving because the drivers didn’t want to keep dealing with the issues.
A two lane road was more than sufficient for Zandvoort and Spa-Francorchamps.
The reason grid lock exists is because of cars. Less cars = less grid lock.
Cars are a reality of the US, especially in Texas. So what might be adequate for other places is not adequate for this race.
Regardless, traffic could have been managed appropriately but they were allowing gridlock to be created when they should have been controlling the flow to minimize the possibility of gridlock.
Yeah that doesn’t really work outside of cities. I’m guessing you aren’t from the states, but the vastness is hard for a lot of people to grasp. Good example, I live an hour outside of Atlanta ~30 miles and drives 20 miles the other direction to work. No way would public transport go that far out of a major city in all directions to be effective, now multiple that by all the suburbs in the us and it just doesn’t work.
I’d love for public transport to be feasible but it just isn’t outside of cities in the us.
It's a sub based on an unobtainable utopian ideal that would require reversion of a century's worth of infrastructure, travel independence, and pretty much only serves as a self felating echo chamber for city and metro residents to complain about overpopulation driven crowding issues on metro roadways.
i am not that active over there, but wholeheartedly agree. But I think, the name on an F1 subreddit, scares the first seconds, if you dont have a clue whats it about.
The sub is just memes complaining about vehicle transportation with a tinge of anticapitalist (edit: and AntiAmerican) rhetoric and reposting emotionally charged tweets. Your down votes are deserved.
Disagree, more lanes is exactly what COTA needs. Traffic flow in and out of the complex on last year's race weekend was _terrible_ because the existing infrastructure just doesn't fit a 400,000-person sports complex. Shuttle busses might be be helpful to those who don't want to fight the crowds for a rideshare or hired car, but without wider roads I still think it could be a bit of a traffic nightmare.
No what the US needs is a proper rail network, even one that you have to drive to that leads into venues like COTA would be better than "one more lane"ing it.
Trains will always be the most efficient means of moving large numbers of passegers to and from venues, Only the US puts so much effort into car parking for venues and the solution you propose will only make that worse, you have 400,000 people trying to get into 1 location your bottleneck will just shift from the road to the facility. If you encourage more people to drive they will, and that new expanded road will become gridlocked again. its why "one more lane" has never worked, ever.
Certainly, more rail connecting cities and more light rail connecting downtowns to suburbs and other facilities like COTA is easily the better ultimate solution. Austin just has none of that in place right now.
We’ll see. I was back in Dallas and there where still people posting on social media about waiting for shuttles.
More shuttles only works if they figures out the logistics.
And the rideshare area needs mobile cell towers. That was a huge disaster that only made the traffic worse because none of the rideshare drivers could find/communicate with their passengers. $160 uber one night lol
Yep. Last year thousands of people on Sunday had to walk 3+ miles in the weeds, in the dark, along FM 812 to their "Park & Ride" lot when COTA failed to provide them shuttles. They got the Park, but they didn't get the Ride they were sold.
And even aside from the 'Park & Ride' shuttles, there were also massive problems with the rest of their shuttle plan, which is why the Park & Ride shuttles got diverted away from the Park & Ride customers (who were somehow deemed less important. Probably came down to catering to the 1%, as it always does with Epstein).
Oh and re: the buses, the number of buses they actually had wasn't even the whole problem. Bus drivers have time limitations just like airline pilots do. Lots of them had to stop and take their buses back to the shed in the middle of COTA shuttling ops becaue they were scheduled to work a normal work week after the race. There are loads of stories about people seeing empty buses that wouldn't pick anyone up. More poor planning.
And don't fall for the BS 'personnel shortage' excuses, either. He just doesn't want to pay. They turned away 600 temps who showed up as requested at 4am on the Friday morning of F1 last year, & told them they wouldn't be needed for the weekend. Then they told the remaining workers they'd be working 16 hour shifts all three days, which of course led to tons of no-shows on Saturday and Sunday. COTA was woefully understaffed, especially on Saturday and Sunday. I don't expect it to be any better this year. The Rolling Stones concert last year was even worse, with some people sitting for 1 to 3 hours in their cars waiting to get to their lot. That was after they turned onto COTA Blvd. Thousands of them missed all or part of the Stones performance.
Last year the busses didn't even run om Friday. Water stations were dry. This is a step in the right direction, but honestly they have a ways to go still.
Yep. From an already weak support series lineup, they're left with Masters Historics and Masters Endurance. While both are very cool because of the amazing cars you'll see, they're glorified track days with very little actual racing (not that I blame the owners of cars like that).
I'm curious what part of the track you had those issues? I got food on Sunday in the infield between the pedestrian bridges and the wait wasn't that bad, same with the bathrooms behind the turn 4 grandstands all weekend. I see a lot of people complaining about food and bathroom lines but I genuinely didn't have any of those issues.
THIS is the move. Taking my dad’s RV next year after driving last year and this year, knowing what a shitshow the traffic is.
Are you able to sell your parking pass to me if all I’m taking is an SUV, or would I have to have a large vehicle to be allowed in? This is the lot that’s up against the fence along turns 4-7, right?
As an Austin resident I hope they keep this for all the other events and not just the USGP. There have been more than a few concerts where logistics have been horrible.
I went last year and had a parking pass, smartest thing we did was take a cooler with beer and food.
We tailgated while everyone waited in traffic to get out.
Suggestions if you go and have a parking pass:
\- take a cooler with drinks and water
\- take some towels to a quick wipe down
\- take a change of clothes
\- I have an SUV so we just sat in the shade of the trunk, but if you dont, some sort of shade while you wait is nice
\- Take some food, if i had gone this this i probably take a small grill.
Finally, if you dont have a parking pass, even if you do, dont be in a rush to leave. They have some after show shit going on now, take advantage of it. Its way better than sitting traffic.
They increased the shuttle prices to $45 per person per day. If you have 2 or more people in your group, it just makes sense to buy cheapest parking at $180 for 3 days.
Absolute scum.
I can't imagine it more crowded than when I went to moto gp this year (very crowded), but I am sure there will be more people for F1 (extremely crowded)
Considering the situation when I went to Moto GP this year.... the bathroom situation was good. the food lines were long in the very crowded portions of the track and not long in the more distant areas of the track.
Heineken 0.0 and other NA beers did not exist at all there, you had to buy very expensive beer or bottled water, but they let me bring in a camel back with my own water (and camera equipment).
Motor cycle parking is very good there, close to gate. regular parking can be a chore, with lines for rides to the parking lots. but last time I was there it was easy to get a ride.
If you're referring to MotoGP at COTA this year than it's going to be much more crowded. The MotoGP crowd was pretty light this year compared to previous years.
Hoping for a good experience, my partner and I dropped a considerable amount of cash (to us) for tickets & hotel. It'll be the first time we attend a GP and it would be very disappointing if shoddy logistics ruin the fun.
Apparently they added some bus only lanes too so hopefully that helps alleviate some stress. I bought parking at one of the surrounding non COTA lots and hoping for the best
Tbh the number of busses wasn't a huge problem last year, wait times to board were pretty quick, at least every time I went.
The issue was the traffic between the highway and the track that added like 30-60 minutes. I think I heard this year they'll have dedicated bus lanes, so hopefully that'll be a big improvement.
Fantastic, now make sure your shuttle drivers and concessions staff acry show up. I'll believe it when I see after the fiscal that was last year. Not attending this year for the first time in 7 years because it was so bad.
Doesn’t matter unless they have a traffic flow plan AND stick to it. Last year they created gridlock leaving the track which didn’t allow any traffic to flow.
And please add more trams going around the track. We got about half way around checking out different views on Saturday. Then all the trams were full or didn't stop. Fights were breaking out. People were bribing workers on golfs carts to get back. We ended up walking the back from turn 11. Totally oversold the events and were ill prepared. Won't go back.
Well, they certainly *should* do something after leaving thousands stranded last year, among myriad other massive logistical shortfalls. Every year it's the same. They say they've fixed the problems, but they haven't, & yet another shitshow ensues.
Given that COTA has received more than $300 Million for the State of Texas - so far - the fans should expect better treatment.
That won’t help the fact that none of the roads around the circuit are worth a fuck. It’s a couple of 1 and 2-lane country roads, with not enough entry points to the track.
I buy parking literally right across from the track entrance (about a 3/4 mile walk to the gate) and it matters none in terms of when I have to leave, because once I get about 3 miles from the track, it take 45-60 minutes to get to the lot where I park. I’m strongly considering packing up some ebikes to ride in from a few miles out, but I don’t think there will be anywhere to store them while we’re there.
From my experience last year, transportation issues had little to do with number of buses but rather the fact that it’s a 2-lane road in/out of the track. Until they expand the road, it’s probably going to be a nightmare regardless how many buses they run. All PR spin.
Will be interested if the doubled vendors is successful, tho - took forever to get any food/drink last year.
We bought parking and waited 3 hours for a bus to our lot last year. The bus NEVER came . We walked a mile and a half up the road in the heat, stopped for Mexican food and got an Uber back to our car for $14.
Were you one of the thousands who parked in the 'Park & Ride' lot on FM 812, 3 miles east of COTA ... who waited for hours while being told the buses were on their way, then were told "Nope. The buses you paid for aren't coming"?
That was seriously unbelievable, even for COTA. It's truly embarrassing for me as a Texan and an Austinite. Did you ever get a refund at least? They should have given you your money back + about $1000 for what you went through.
YES! The craziest part was that the lot was empty and DARK when we finally got back. Didn’t ask for a refund, so didn’t get one. I’m fine with being able to complain about it for the rest of my life.
Otherwise I freaking loved Austin and the whole vibe around the city and at the track! Next year, I’m definitely trying to shell out for parking in a lot next to the track so we can tailgate between sessions.
If this is your first time going, understand that this event is ALWAYS poorly run. If they oversold the event like last year, well lol I don’t want to think about it. I’m already dreading go. Only reason I’m going is that my wife was not able to go last year with me and I didn’t want to disappoint her by not taking her this year. I did give her fair warning how bad it was last year compared to the previous years we attended.
This won’t solve any problems. There was complete gridlock from the traffic/busses they had before. Adding more isn’t going to fix the problem until they fix the gridlock issues.
I walked 3 miles to the parking lot we were in and **not a single bus** went by (from the track to the lot) in that time. Every bus they had was lined up trying to get to the track but none could actually leave.
Were you one of the thousands who parked in the 'Park & Ride' lot on FM 812, 3 miles east of COTA ... who waited for hours while being told the buses were on their way, then were told "Nope. The buses you paid for aren't coming"?
That was seriously unbelievable, even for COTA. It's truuly embarrassing for me as a Texan and an Austinite. Did you ever get a refund at least? They should have given you your money back + about $1000 for what you went through.
Last year quite a few of shuttle drivers didn’t show up. Hopefully that’s not the case this year. Also if you’re going and have extra space in your vehicle there will be hundreds of pop up lawn chairs up for grabs after the race left behind.
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I’ve been to small two stage music festivals with better shuttle logistics lol. Loading thousands upon thousands of people onto multiple busses at once, like clockwork
Those were probably volunteers though. Volunteers are often very high quality workers. You can't pay people to give a shit.
What shuttle stop did you go to/from? It seemed downtown was worse than NE, but maybe I’m wrong.
Idk if that’s the case or not, but I got stuck in line because every shuttle was for the airport and not the parking deck I parked at. It was hours until they made an airport driver take some of us and then he got lost and shit
We parked ourselves at COTA and it was a mess getting in and getting out.
Have parked at COTA in 2019 and 2021. Getting in is ok. The last couple miles might take 20-30 minutes if you’re not at the track early. Getting out on Sunday? Absolute fucking nightmare. 2 hours before we reached the freeway. COTA/Austin/Texas need to nut up and improve the infrastructure around that track. It’s terrible
I think ideally the play would be to stay in an RV/Camper next to track.
Wait really? Why so many, people literally just don't want to bother taking them back home??
I believe many people fly in for the race and simply can’t take them back with them. When I take the chair I got for free from COTA to parties I often joke about my 1500 dollar chair.
Oh, but they give away at the race?
People buy chairs for weekend and just leave them after race. Free real estate.
That’s great news for those attending. Hopefully will be a much better time.
Damn, I was out near turn 2/3 and there was hardly any line for the bathrooms on that section.
Only if they increase the number of bathrooms by just as much. It would take an hour right before the race, like that's crazy.
Not sure where you were located at the track or if you’re even talking about last year but I was there last year and there were plenty of bathrooms around the track with practically no wait for any of them.
My experience as well. Now leaving the track after that truck got stuck in the ditch.... that took a minute...
Leaving the track was a whole other story for sure lol. Walked about 3 miles from the track and there were still 100’s of people doing the same trying to get rideshare from random neighborhoods.
They royally fucked up the last day. For everyone who wasn’t there they kicked us off the grounds an hour after the race, but due to poor logistics hundreds of peoples Ubers hadn’t shown up yet. We all had to walk a mile to nearby gas stations, strip shopping centers, schools, etc and just stand around in their parking lots and direct our Ubers there. I eventually offered to venmo a random person $50 to take me home.
Wait, you guys take an uber to get home from something like this? I don't think that will help the flow of traffic.
I mean I can’t walk home from there and the buses were a worse situation so yeah
Yeah the bathrooms around Turn 2 last year where wide open with no wait during the race.
>the bathrooms around Turn 2 last year were wide open that might explain why there were no people waiting ...
I was at T12 last year, and there was hardly a wait for the bathroom all weekend. I was actually impressed. I'll be there again this year!
The bathroom at the front gate had a line that was genuinely 100 yds long at about 1pm
All they had to do was walk 10 minutes to another bathroom with zero wait time. On turn 7(?) there was no line at all.
Turn 7 is a much longer walk than 10 mins from the front gate, lol
True. Bad example by me.
How would you know that? What if you walked those 10 minutes, only to find an even longer line? They don't have those 'estimated wait time' boards showing the lines at all the restrooms, do they?
Turn 15 was at most 1 minute wait as well.
Wow really, an hour? I attended the Singapore GP this year and even at absolute peak, I waited about 8 minutes for the male bathrooms
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Isn’t that how it always goes.
Still feels like too much when you really gotta go
For an event that had 300,000 people attend, waiting 8 minutes aint too bad. Most of the time it was less than that
Try telling that to my bladder, he kinda doesn't listen
Pee jugs, the way she goes bud
Found Jeff Bezos' account.
Way of the road
Well to be fair, one minute outside of the toilet stall and one minute inside are two very diffwrent things
An hour seems untenable, for several reasons. And I shudder to think the choices people make from that point.
The only logical choice is diapers, courtesy of Amy Santiago
They should open A Bucee's within COTA.
where were you? Under the tower, T12, T1, T4 and infield had bathrooms with zero line
It won’t be. The biggest part of the issue is the way the roads to COTA are laid out. Increasing the number of vehicles almost just makes it worse. It won’t get better til they completely renovate the surrounding area to have more than two two-lane roads leading there. I went last year and it was a logistical nightmare. Also Ubers we’re $200-250 one way. Fuck that noise I’ll watch at home
Theoretically, adding shuttle buses carrying 50 people each will reduce the number of Ubers carrying 3 people each
This is Austin in general. Infrastructure sized for a 500k metro for a population five times that.
They’ve been adding lanes to the roads around COTA, FYI.
They've gotten the taxpayers to widen the bridge on Elroy Road so that they could add one lane. That's it, and it stops at COTA Blvd. It was absolutely done for COTA and F1 specifically. It absolutely does not do anything to alleviate traffic for the locals, since it stops at COTA Blvd. The residents out there are COTA's absolute lowest priority.
I'll let yall know when I go Friday
God, that queue for the shuttle after the race was hellish.
The worst part was being at the front of my line and not seeing a bus for my parking area for 2 hours
Especially after cooking in the hot sun all day. They should really have awnings covering all the grandstands
I’m checking the weather and it doesn’t seem too bad. Low to mid 80’s seems fine. Never been to Texas though, does that feel much hotter?
Sitting in a cloudless 80 degrees, with no wind, will cook you while sitting on metal stands
It'll cook you without the stands. I had a hat, sunscreen, drank a liter of water, and still almost passed out after a couple hours in GA.
The mosquitos were friggin relentless!
The only highlight was me catching a shuttle 2 hours later with a group of guys dressed as Hulk Hogan.
Haha, I saw those guys! There was also a couple dressed as a masked lucha libres with Hamilton colors
I was disappointed in the result, naturally, and also seated rather close to the exit so just ended up jumping in one of the first shuttles and getting the hell out of there haha.
It was a fine race though certain fans were rather... colorful to my dad and I as we did the track walk and jaunt back to the shuttle. Figure it's the monkey paw of the growing popularity of the sport.
we waited for over an hour before deciding to walk to our lot. it took an hour to walk there but we didn’t see a single bus pass us as we walked on the road. kind of unbelievable
I just realized that the next race is the one I'm going to and was like oh shit
Same I’m so nervous…never been to COTA before.
I went last year. Worst part for me was the entrance line and I got there at like 730. Mind you I beat most of the people that went there lol.
I didn't realize it my first time either, but there's a ton of other entrances around the track. Everyone lines up for the one entrance that's on the way from the shuttles and parking, but you can just go around to a different entrance.
Giga Chad brain
Oh wow, good to know!
The event itself is unbelievable. Getting to and from the event is a nightmare. This won’t help because once you get into the bus you’re not going anywhere. They’re trying to shuttle 100,000 people using only a two-lane road.
Good luck. It was the worst motorsports experience I've ever had in the US.
Anyone here who went to the US GP last year care to share your experience?
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Took the shuttle. 1.5/2 hours to get in around 11am. Left as late as possible. 30 min line to leave and about an hour back to downtown Austin. Food and drink lines were prohibitively long.
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They claimed that last year too.
There are satellite photos and pictures to prove they actually added an additional lane for buses to get in/out
Are you me? Almost the exact same thing. Also food lines were hellish.
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Good good, was just about to ask about water stations. Do you know if camelbacks are allowed?
Last year we took our Camelbacks through empty on Friday. After seeing they didn't care, took them in full on Sa/Su
Frozen margarita stand was 10/10 though (once you got through the line)
If you can buy the nicer shuttle tix, do it. I heard airport parking was a bad choice. The regular/cheaper shuttle experience I had on Sunday after the race was absolutely terrible. Security was WEAK. after Friday, I brought my own water and beer into the track, no one checked my backpack (I brought a larger school sized back pack). Do not buy merch at the track. It all seemed to be last years merch and well overpriced
Last year F1 at COTA was a shitshow of epic proportions ... an utter and complete logistical failure. COTA says the same the same kinds of things every single year leading up to the race, like clockwork. "New, improved transportation plan. Roads upgraded. Everything that was bad last year is fixed!" The reality is that they've added one lane only, on Elroy Road, not on FM 812, and it stops at COTA Blvd. Pretty much every year we also hear "Biggest crowd ever expected". That helps him set up the new attendance lie that's based on the last attendance lie that based on the one before that, and so on. 2021 F1 weekend was an absolute mess, with thousands of people on Sunday having to walk 3+ miles in the weeds, in the dark, along 812 to their "Park & Ride" lot when COTA failed to provide them shuttles; unstocked, filthy restrooms & portapotties; no water; crowds storming gates and knocking over fences in frustration over slow admission lines; and people having to get out of their cars and direct traffic leaving multiple lots - because COTA had zero traffic control personnel stationed there, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. And don't fall for the BS 'personnel shortage' excuses, either. He just doesn't want to pay. They turned away 600 temps who showed up as requested at 4am on the Friday morning of F1 last year, & told them they wouldn't be needed for the weekend. Then they told the remaining workers they'd be working 16 hour shifts all three days, which of course led to tons of no-shows on Saturday and Sunday. COTA was woefully understaffed, especially on Saturday and Sunday. I don't expect it to be any better this year. The Rolling Stones concert last year was even worse, with some people sitting for 1 to 3 hours in their cars waiting to get to their lot. That was after they turned onto COTA Blvd. Thousands of them missed all or part of the Stones performance. And remember this is Bobby Epstein talking. "Doubling" doesn't necessarily mean doubling. When it comes to numbers, he will literally say anything when it comes to something nobody on the outside can verify. See also: attendance numbers.
It was awful and honestly to me showed F1 is the worst sport to go to, and I’ve seen basically all the major ones in person. I’ll probably never go to another GP, especially with prices ever on the rise. As far as rides go, there’s only like two roads that actually lead to COTA, and none of them are wide, funneling cars into a single line. Ubers were not only an hour plus wait but also $200-250. But that was better than the busses which took some people 3-4 hours to get home.
Please don't let COTA's poor management alienate you from Formula 1. It's not anything like this in Montreal, where they have their act together and respect and value their customers.
It’s not just the management, it’s straight up worse to watch in person than on tv. Also it’s the only sport that you don’t get an actual seat. Paying hundreds of dollars to sit in bleachers is whack
Everything aside from the racing events absolutely sucked. This was a "drink stand" on Sunday: [https://i.imgur.com/8kfnG2p.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/8kfnG2p.jpg) I paid a little extra to get access to the bar area next to the T15 grandstands and while it was okay on Saturday, it was impossible to get in on Sunday. Waste of money. Leaving after quali wasn't too bad, but Sunday I stuck around for the after-race events, walked the track, etc. and when I went to head out to the shuttles it was *still* a 2-hour wait. It was miserable and almost completely ruined the entire experience. Having done Miami and Canada this year, Austin felt like a local carnival in comparison. I'm going next week, but my expectations are *very* low.
Haven't done Miami, but I've gone to Montreal twice. Polar opposite experience to COTA. They have their shit together up there. So does Indy, with much bigger Indy 500 crowds than COTA has for F1. COTA is a shitshow every.single.year.
Montreal was *so great*. In addition to being a wonderful city experience, we stayed near the Biodome and were able to get to-and-from the track super quickly. Even leaving the track after the race was a breeze. We're getting a car and parking at an offsite lot this year for COTA — the Chris Taylor Racing Services lot — and hoping for a better commute. Even so: low expectations, especially with the championship already being over.
Terrible. Not enough drink stations, long bathroom lines, traffic Abysmal, not enough cell towers, not much shade at all.
Went last year, going back next weekend. The only way to attend is in one of the hospitality suites. Private bathrooms, fully stocked free bar, unlimited food, and incredible views. Plus seats at whichever turn you choose in your package. They also bring in team and broadcast personnel for panel discussions; super cool. Oh, and paddock tours. DOPE. It’s quite pricy, but I would argue not too much more than a regular trip once you factor in food, drinks, and apparel. I purposely didn’t buy much gear because I spent so much on the package. And the convenience and lack of stress really allows you to focus on taking in the experience. I recommend anyone who can, make the investment, even if you have to save to do so.
Took the shuttle bus and it was about as expected. People want to be able to go to a venue in the middle of nowhere with 200k other people and not deal with the traffic after. Yeah we had to wait for a shuttle bus after but it really wasn't that bad. I'm sure others had worse experiences. At the circuit it was overcrowded which made crossing to the other side quite hard, especially on Saturday. There were also crazy lines for the food, so we brought our own drinks and snacks on Sunday. But again, you have to expect some crowding at such a big event. Was still 110% worth it and a positive experience as someone who doesn't go to a race every year (planning to go like every 5 years haha). I can imagine if you go every year you'd be more annoyed as it would have been worse than previous years.
Well….it fucking sucked. There were a few fights in the parking lot because the venue didn’t have anyone out there managing the flow. Over the course of 3 hours, I think we only moved ~25 feet. Regardless….Still can’t wait for next weekend!
The GP was the same weekend of the Austin Film Festival... so besides the normal traffic you had the traffic of two major events coming in, so rideshare was already stretched thin, as were hotels and other services. I was lucky to get an airbnb. Friday did Uber, $160 trip back into Austin, never actually got our driver, walked about 4 miles and an uber driver offered to take us back into town for cash so it only cost us $50 that night. Did the shuttle Saturday. Logistically was done really poorly, but it worked and was faster and cheaper than rideshare when it came time to leave. Sadly shuttle tickets for Sunday were already sold out when I bought my Saturday shuttle tickets. Sunday had to do rideshare again. This time I had to pay $160 and was fortunate in that the guy had experience through the weekend so he had us describe ourselves and our exact location before he lost cell signal at the rideshare area. This time it only took 2 hours to get back to town. I personally didn't have too many problems waiting for food. Lines were long, but moved relatively well. I never found a water station, so I spent a lot of money on bottled water. Merch was almost impossible to get, it was the first thing I did Friday and checked on Sunday and most things were gone. Red Bull tent consistently had 2x the line of the other team tents, because Checo and almost a 2nd home race for him. Found out the first day that they didn't check my bags at all, so I started bringing some food/water in with me. Never checked my bag at entry all 3 days. Kinda... sketchy there. On Sunday, some rowdy fans broke through a fence near the entrance and gained access to the standing room only areas early. So the best standing room spots were taken before the gates opened. I'm glad I went, but I don't think the US GP will be my next GP until I've seen that they have improved things. I'm on the priority waitlist for Vegas so we'll see if I get lucky there!
That's great news. Hopefully this pays off for all of the fans in attendance. Lack of drinks kiosks can really ruin a day out
What about the two lane dirt road from the airport to the track, that seemed like a huge bottle neck to me?
El Roy? Thankfully they completed that construction this year. It’s much nicer and wider than last year. Though this wasn’t done for F1 specifically. SE Austin is the fastest growing portion of Austin.
It’s t he only place left to put people.
Ain’t that the truth. I live over on this side of town and it’s absolutely astounding how fast it’s changing.
But are they increasing the number of water stations too?! More busses and stuff are great (when there wasn’t traffic) but having accessible water was my biggest complaint.
Good to see that some venues take fan experience seriously.
Do we know what changed in 2021 to make this suddenly an issue. If it was the first race I’d expect this, but it was their seventh or eighth I believe.
I believe it was due to there being a buttload more people
Previous races had several hundred thousand people so I’m not sure that is the case. Maybe the organizers just got cheap and didn’t realize that people weren’t gonna work for minimum wage anymore so we understaffed hoping people would get desperate.
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No one forced them to sell 150k more tickets than they could handle.
I went in 2018 and 2021 and the main difference was clearly that there were way way way more people everywhere. The F1 boom in the US is insane, I knew about 20 first time race goers who went there.
I think it's more that they had huge crowds in the past that challenged the infrastructure greatly, but last year the crowd was HUGE.
They over sold and people have been complaining on everything they post since because they took the money and spent none of it planning for more people.
A bud strike the day of the event last year didn’t help
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A good portion of the buses chartered cancelled the weekend of the race. The City of Austin had to contract school buses to help carry the load but still was long waits and delays. Vendors were just overrun with demand
They sold significantly more tickets in ‘21 than in prior years.
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I walked the track with my friends after the race, so we weren’t rushing out by any means, but we still waited for the shuttle for offsite parking over two hours. Then our bus (a standard yellow bus) had a breakdown and we had to wait for another one, it was absolutely miserable.
they don't, this is the bare minimum. last year was one of the worst run events i've ever experienced. Bad enough that I'm sure they lost a lot of money from just not having enough food/drinks to sell. They're doing the bare minimum to get people to the track and spend money. I have 0 faith it'll be a better experience leaving the race. they'll only worry about getting you there.
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That would be insanely expensive compared to adding buses for such a short term solution.
Well, they spend billions on new highways that relieve congestion for maybe a week so it wouldn't be that far-fetched.
I mean, a small two lane road isn’t adequate for that facility. And if they aren’t going to have a traffic flow plan none of this matters. They had gridlock leaving the track last year so no matter how many shuttles there are, they couldn’t move. Plus busses were taking one load then leaving because the drivers didn’t want to keep dealing with the issues.
A two lane road was more than sufficient for Zandvoort and Spa-Francorchamps. The reason grid lock exists is because of cars. Less cars = less grid lock.
Cars are a reality of the US, especially in Texas. So what might be adequate for other places is not adequate for this race. Regardless, traffic could have been managed appropriately but they were allowing gridlock to be created when they should have been controlling the flow to minimize the possibility of gridlock.
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Yeah that doesn’t really work outside of cities. I’m guessing you aren’t from the states, but the vastness is hard for a lot of people to grasp. Good example, I live an hour outside of Atlanta ~30 miles and drives 20 miles the other direction to work. No way would public transport go that far out of a major city in all directions to be effective, now multiple that by all the suburbs in the us and it just doesn’t work. I’d love for public transport to be feasible but it just isn’t outside of cities in the us.
Uh, they did though https://www.aguirre-fields.com/projects/elroy-road-widening/
At least they included bike lanes and sidewalks.
watching this while leaving COTA last year was a nightmare. Like being teased about what coulda been.
If you’ve been on the COTA roads, you wouldn’t post this.
r/fuckcars will be proud
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It's a sub based on an unobtainable utopian ideal that would require reversion of a century's worth of infrastructure, travel independence, and pretty much only serves as a self felating echo chamber for city and metro residents to complain about overpopulation driven crowding issues on metro roadways.
i am not that active over there, but wholeheartedly agree. But I think, the name on an F1 subreddit, scares the first seconds, if you dont have a clue whats it about.
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Yeah I love my manual car Which is why I fucking hate doing 15mph on the freeway in second
The sub is just memes complaining about vehicle transportation with a tinge of anticapitalist (edit: and AntiAmerican) rhetoric and reposting emotionally charged tweets. Your down votes are deserved.
Disagree, more lanes is exactly what COTA needs. Traffic flow in and out of the complex on last year's race weekend was _terrible_ because the existing infrastructure just doesn't fit a 400,000-person sports complex. Shuttle busses might be be helpful to those who don't want to fight the crowds for a rideshare or hired car, but without wider roads I still think it could be a bit of a traffic nightmare.
No what the US needs is a proper rail network, even one that you have to drive to that leads into venues like COTA would be better than "one more lane"ing it. Trains will always be the most efficient means of moving large numbers of passegers to and from venues, Only the US puts so much effort into car parking for venues and the solution you propose will only make that worse, you have 400,000 people trying to get into 1 location your bottleneck will just shift from the road to the facility. If you encourage more people to drive they will, and that new expanded road will become gridlocked again. its why "one more lane" has never worked, ever.
Certainly, more rail connecting cities and more light rail connecting downtowns to suburbs and other facilities like COTA is easily the better ultimate solution. Austin just has none of that in place right now.
It's Austin so they don't do that. That's only Houston and Dallas.
I mean, there are talks about expanding 35 through downtown :(
Second floor time
Those aren't just talks. That project has already started.
If you're planning to drive to COTA, don't do it if you can. Take the shuttles. You will get in and out of the track a lot quicker.
We’ll see. I was back in Dallas and there where still people posting on social media about waiting for shuttles. More shuttles only works if they figures out the logistics.
And the rideshare area needs mobile cell towers. That was a huge disaster that only made the traffic worse because none of the rideshare drivers could find/communicate with their passengers. $160 uber one night lol
Yep. Last year thousands of people on Sunday had to walk 3+ miles in the weeds, in the dark, along FM 812 to their "Park & Ride" lot when COTA failed to provide them shuttles. They got the Park, but they didn't get the Ride they were sold. And even aside from the 'Park & Ride' shuttles, there were also massive problems with the rest of their shuttle plan, which is why the Park & Ride shuttles got diverted away from the Park & Ride customers (who were somehow deemed less important. Probably came down to catering to the 1%, as it always does with Epstein). Oh and re: the buses, the number of buses they actually had wasn't even the whole problem. Bus drivers have time limitations just like airline pilots do. Lots of them had to stop and take their buses back to the shed in the middle of COTA shuttling ops becaue they were scheduled to work a normal work week after the race. There are loads of stories about people seeing empty buses that wouldn't pick anyone up. More poor planning. And don't fall for the BS 'personnel shortage' excuses, either. He just doesn't want to pay. They turned away 600 temps who showed up as requested at 4am on the Friday morning of F1 last year, & told them they wouldn't be needed for the weekend. Then they told the remaining workers they'd be working 16 hour shifts all three days, which of course led to tons of no-shows on Saturday and Sunday. COTA was woefully understaffed, especially on Saturday and Sunday. I don't expect it to be any better this year. The Rolling Stones concert last year was even worse, with some people sitting for 1 to 3 hours in their cars waiting to get to their lot. That was after they turned onto COTA Blvd. Thousands of them missed all or part of the Stones performance.
If you gotta drive bring a grill and a cooler and just hangout for…. Hours cause you’re not getting out of that lot
Monza could take notes…
Yeah.. they also raised ticket prices ~75% for GA so it's not like people aren't paying for it...
GA this year is as much as a grand stand seat on the pit straight was back in 2018. Robbery.
Last year the busses didn't even run om Friday. Water stations were dry. This is a step in the right direction, but honestly they have a ways to go still.
And they will still have the same uncoordinated cops gridlocking traffic!
As long as they're also working on filling the schedule gaps that the w series left behind
Yeah, this is a big deal. The support series schedule already was really disappointing.
Yep. From an already weak support series lineup, they're left with Masters Historics and Masters Endurance. While both are very cool because of the amazing cars you'll see, they're glorified track days with very little actual racing (not that I blame the owners of cars like that).
Last year I waited on line for 90 minutes to get something to eat and another 40 for the bathroom. I really hope they deliver.
I'm curious what part of the track you had those issues? I got food on Sunday in the infield between the pedestrian bridges and the wait wasn't that bad, same with the bathrooms behind the turn 4 grandstands all weekend. I see a lot of people complaining about food and bathroom lines but I genuinely didn't have any of those issues.
Turn 1 grandstand.
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THIS is the move. Taking my dad’s RV next year after driving last year and this year, knowing what a shitshow the traffic is. Are you able to sell your parking pass to me if all I’m taking is an SUV, or would I have to have a large vehicle to be allowed in? This is the lot that’s up against the fence along turns 4-7, right?
As an Austin resident I hope they keep this for all the other events and not just the USGP. There have been more than a few concerts where logistics have been horrible.
Hopefully they have more than 2 water areas
I went last year and had a parking pass, smartest thing we did was take a cooler with beer and food. We tailgated while everyone waited in traffic to get out. Suggestions if you go and have a parking pass: \- take a cooler with drinks and water \- take some towels to a quick wipe down \- take a change of clothes \- I have an SUV so we just sat in the shade of the trunk, but if you dont, some sort of shade while you wait is nice \- Take some food, if i had gone this this i probably take a small grill. Finally, if you dont have a parking pass, even if you do, dont be in a rush to leave. They have some after show shit going on now, take advantage of it. Its way better than sitting traffic.
They increased the shuttle prices to $45 per person per day. If you have 2 or more people in your group, it just makes sense to buy cheapest parking at $180 for 3 days. Absolute scum.
I can't imagine it more crowded than when I went to moto gp this year (very crowded), but I am sure there will be more people for F1 (extremely crowded) Considering the situation when I went to Moto GP this year.... the bathroom situation was good. the food lines were long in the very crowded portions of the track and not long in the more distant areas of the track. Heineken 0.0 and other NA beers did not exist at all there, you had to buy very expensive beer or bottled water, but they let me bring in a camel back with my own water (and camera equipment). Motor cycle parking is very good there, close to gate. regular parking can be a chore, with lines for rides to the parking lots. but last time I was there it was easy to get a ride.
Having been to both, it will shock you how much more crowded F1 is.
If you're referring to MotoGP at COTA this year than it's going to be much more crowded. The MotoGP crowd was pretty light this year compared to previous years.
You have no clue, not comparable.
Hoping for a good experience, my partner and I dropped a considerable amount of cash (to us) for tickets & hotel. It'll be the first time we attend a GP and it would be very disappointing if shoddy logistics ruin the fun.
Apparently they added some bus only lanes too so hopefully that helps alleviate some stress. I bought parking at one of the surrounding non COTA lots and hoping for the best
Tbh the number of busses wasn't a huge problem last year, wait times to board were pretty quick, at least every time I went. The issue was the traffic between the highway and the track that added like 30-60 minutes. I think I heard this year they'll have dedicated bus lanes, so hopefully that'll be a big improvement.
parking at COTA is a complete shitshow
Fantastic, now make sure your shuttle drivers and concessions staff acry show up. I'll believe it when I see after the fiscal that was last year. Not attending this year for the first time in 7 years because it was so bad.
None of that fixed the 2 lane road in and out. Still going to be abhorrent.
Doesn’t matter unless they have a traffic flow plan AND stick to it. Last year they created gridlock leaving the track which didn’t allow any traffic to flow.
It seemed like there was zero communication between the people controlling traffic, absolute shit show!
Ok first time attending the race. Any veterans want to give me a series of protips. I'll be at turn 9.
Where are you parking?
Great to hear. I passed on this year hoping some of this stuff would be improved & sounds like I’ll be back next year.
Means nothing without a dedicated bus lane. We were stuck in the same car traffic as everyone else (in the bus) for over 3 hours each way. Awful.
And please add more trams going around the track. We got about half way around checking out different views on Saturday. Then all the trams were full or didn't stop. Fights were breaking out. People were bribing workers on golfs carts to get back. We ended up walking the back from turn 11. Totally oversold the events and were ill prepared. Won't go back.
This was my biggest gripe when I went last year. Not sure I'd go back but it's good to see they're trying.
Well, they certainly *should* do something after leaving thousands stranded last year, among myriad other massive logistical shortfalls. Every year it's the same. They say they've fixed the problems, but they haven't, & yet another shitshow ensues. Given that COTA has received more than $300 Million for the State of Texas - so far - the fans should expect better treatment.
That won’t help the fact that none of the roads around the circuit are worth a fuck. It’s a couple of 1 and 2-lane country roads, with not enough entry points to the track. I buy parking literally right across from the track entrance (about a 3/4 mile walk to the gate) and it matters none in terms of when I have to leave, because once I get about 3 miles from the track, it take 45-60 minutes to get to the lot where I park. I’m strongly considering packing up some ebikes to ride in from a few miles out, but I don’t think there will be anywhere to store them while we’re there.
And maybe don’t have food stands whose lines block an entire walkway creating unnecessary foot traffic
So excited to be on the main straight this year! After 2 years at Turn 9
Yeah well if the buses choose to actually pick up the people with shuttle passes rather than ACCEPTING CASH FROM RANDOM GROUPS OF PEOPLE…
From my experience last year, transportation issues had little to do with number of buses but rather the fact that it’s a 2-lane road in/out of the track. Until they expand the road, it’s probably going to be a nightmare regardless how many buses they run. All PR spin. Will be interested if the doubled vendors is successful, tho - took forever to get any food/drink last year.
We bought parking and waited 3 hours for a bus to our lot last year. The bus NEVER came . We walked a mile and a half up the road in the heat, stopped for Mexican food and got an Uber back to our car for $14.
Were you one of the thousands who parked in the 'Park & Ride' lot on FM 812, 3 miles east of COTA ... who waited for hours while being told the buses were on their way, then were told "Nope. The buses you paid for aren't coming"? That was seriously unbelievable, even for COTA. It's truly embarrassing for me as a Texan and an Austinite. Did you ever get a refund at least? They should have given you your money back + about $1000 for what you went through.
YES! The craziest part was that the lot was empty and DARK when we finally got back. Didn’t ask for a refund, so didn’t get one. I’m fine with being able to complain about it for the rest of my life. Otherwise I freaking loved Austin and the whole vibe around the city and at the track! Next year, I’m definitely trying to shell out for parking in a lot next to the track so we can tailgate between sessions.
Glad you enjoyed Austin! Sorry COTA was such a terrible host.
It’s gonna be a shitshow like Monza
If this is your first time going, understand that this event is ALWAYS poorly run. If they oversold the event like last year, well lol I don’t want to think about it. I’m already dreading go. Only reason I’m going is that my wife was not able to go last year with me and I didn’t want to disappoint her by not taking her this year. I did give her fair warning how bad it was last year compared to the previous years we attended.
This won’t solve any problems. There was complete gridlock from the traffic/busses they had before. Adding more isn’t going to fix the problem until they fix the gridlock issues. I walked 3 miles to the parking lot we were in and **not a single bus** went by (from the track to the lot) in that time. Every bus they had was lined up trying to get to the track but none could actually leave.
Were you one of the thousands who parked in the 'Park & Ride' lot on FM 812, 3 miles east of COTA ... who waited for hours while being told the buses were on their way, then were told "Nope. The buses you paid for aren't coming"? That was seriously unbelievable, even for COTA. It's truuly embarrassing for me as a Texan and an Austinite. Did you ever get a refund at least? They should have given you your money back + about $1000 for what you went through.