Santa Clara mayor warns of Taylor Swift traffic mess
Santa Clara and Levi’s Stadium are expected to see a traffic apocalypse on Friday and Saturday with pop superstar Taylor Swift bringing her Eras Tour to town.
“Don’t drive. Take public transportation or be dropped off at a specific spot,” said Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor. “Driving to a park-and-ride lot and taking public transit to the concert is the best. It’s a very transit rich area around Levi’s Stadium.”
If you are planning to drive, you need to have a pre-paid parking lot ticket (find them at Levi’s Stadium’s website) to one of the official lots. “You won’t be able to park in the neighborhoods,” Gillmor told SFGATE on the phone. “They’ll be blocking entrances to the neighborhoods, unless you live in the neighborhood.”
The parking lots open at 2 p.m., the stadium gates at 4:30 p.m. and the show begins at 6:30 p.m. Gillmor said The Levi’s Stadium website is the go-to source for all information on the stadium and the concert, including parking, public transit, bag policy and permitted and prohibited items.
If you’re planning to take public transportation, it’s wise to plan and buy tickets tickets ahead. Valley Transit Authority offers light-rail service to and from the show along with several park-and-ride lots. If you’re taking BART, you can connect to VTA at the Milpitas Transit Center. VTA said it will run 30% more light-rail trains than it usually does for a Levi’s Stadium concert. You can buy VTA tickets ahead of the show and find information at vta.org.
BART is also operating additional trains and said it will be running two trains past the usual closing time on both nights. The two limited-stop trains are scheduled to depart Milpitas Station at about 12:30 a.m. BART is also ramping up security for the concerts and safety parking lot escorts are available after midnight. You can find more information at BART.gov.
Fans can also take Caltrain to VTA’s Mountain View Station. Get details at caltrain.com.
Gillmor said the concert will be highly attended by young people, and a special parent drop-off point has been created. Parents should be prepared to sit in traffic even getting to and from the drop-off. The drop-off is on Great America Parkway by Tasman Drive and Old Glory Lane, while the pick-up spot is on Patrick Henry Drive. You can find more information and maps at levisstadium.com.
Nearly 60,000 people are expected to attend each show, but Gillmor said thousands more without tickets will be traveling to Levi’s Stadium in hopes of scoring a ticket. Many people will be coming to Levi’s Stadium for the first time.
“Come early so you can familiarize yourself with the stadium,” she said. “You don’t want to miss a single song. Many people have been looking forward to this for years, it’s a concert of a lifetime. It’s a generationally important concert, be prepared.”
She added, “This is hands-down the most talked about, anticipated concert in the history of Levi’s Stadium.”
Source: SFGATE
