Departures, Not Kickoffs: What Stadium Traffic Means for Your Routes

Your technician is 20 minutes from the next job. The stadium two exits up let out half an hour ago. Nobody on your team scheduled around it, because the game ended before the job started.

That gap is exactly where a new study from Michelin Mobility Intelligence found traffic does its worst. Moving Millions: What Major Events Reveal About Transportation Resilience used anonymized, aggregated driver behavior data to measure what happened to roads around this summer's international soccer tournament matches in seven U.S. host markets: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey and Seattle. Each match window was compared with the same day and time on a normal week.

The report was written for transportation agencies. Its findings read just as clearly from the driver's seat of a service van.

When is traffic worst around major events?

The worst traffic comes after the event, not before. In five of the seven markets, the biggest speed drops hit during the departure surge, typically 30 to 75 minutes after the match ended. Arrivals spread out over hours. Departures happen all at once.

How far from the venue does event traffic reach?

The pain is concentrated, then it spreads. Impacts were strongest within one mile of the venue, moderate from one to three miles out, and low from three to nine miles. A route that clips the edge of an event zone loses minutes. A route through the core can lose an afternoon.

Does event traffic affect driver safety?

Slowdowns and hard braking show up together. Harsh braking rose in the same windows and places where speeds fell, especially during peak arrival and the departure surge. The study treats harsh braking as a signal of stressed driving conditions, not a measure of crashes. For a fleet manager, that distinction matters less than the pattern: stop-and-go traffic near crowds is where drivers brake hard.

One more finding fleets should note. Pedestrian activity stayed high long after roads returned to normal, because fans lingered near venues. A street that looks clear can still be full of people stepping off the curb.

How should fleets plan routes around major events?

Every market has its own version of a match day: a college football Saturday, a holiday parade, a playoff run, a New Year's Eve countdown. Here is how to plan for them.

1. Plan for both ends of the event, and guard the back end hardest. Arrivals build for a couple of hours before start time, so expect slower routes near the venue well before kickoff. Departures are worse: everyone leaves at once, and the sharpest slowdowns came 30 to 75 minutes after the final whistle. Keep stops near the venue light before an event, and clear them entirely for the hour after it ends.
2. Treat the first mile as a no-go zone. Route around the venue core during event windows, even if the detour looks longer on a map.
3. Budget two to three hours for recovery. Traffic took two hours or more to return to normal in most markets. Late-day jobs near a venue may need to move to the next morning.
4. Brief drivers before big events. Expect sudden stops, heavy foot traffic and confused out-of-town drivers.
5. Check your own data. Your telematics already records where and when your drivers brake hard. Look at it around the last big event in your area and you will likely see the same pattern.

Want to see how your own fleet moves through event traffic? Talk to the Michelin Connected Fleet team.

Michelin Mobility Intelligence is not affiliated with the tournament or its organizers. Figures are from Moving Millions: What Major Events Reveal About Transportation Resilience (Michelin Mobility Intelligence, September 2026).