Man Hit and Killed Crossing Near Hersheypark Stadium

[paintervision]

Article from PennLive, tourist from New York was killed crossing Hersheypark Drive, where they have concert parking.
Police identify man hit, killed walking across highway near Hersheypark Stadium

Here's a shot from the Stevie Nicks concert parking, also from PennLive to illustrate the intersection from above, seen last month:



Posting my comment that I put on Reddit, in case it gets removed by the Mods over there:

For years, the entertainment complex has pushed parking across the street for concerts and events. This creates huge traffic jams along Hersheypark Drive and caused issues with people walking up and down the street. Now, this has led to a death at one of the pedestrian crossings.

It’s terrible that that happened, especially when there’s usually Cops all over the place during events like this. My condolences go out to the family.

This really highlights the need for parking garages and/or pedestrian bridges around the parking lots at Hersheypark. Safety will always be a concern with intersections that aren’t built with sidewalks and crossing signals.*

At the very least, a pedestrian bridge/tunnel would prevent such a thing from happening again. That could provide access directly next to the parking lot behind the stadium, and make overflow parking safer to get to.

But a 3-4 story parking garage (or two) would also provide more parking capacity in the space of the large surface lots to allow the park, Stadium, and/or Giant Center to operate concurrently. It could also provide shade during hot Summer days or rain cover, and if they put solar panels on the roof, it could also generate electricity.

I think this would be a huge investment, clearly. But the benefits to the guest experience would be immediate. Parking in the Sweet Lights field or the old Air Strip shows that they have exceeded the limits of their existing lot, and need to grow to meet the guest demands and safety expectations of today, and tomorrow.

*To clarify: During the Antique Auto and RV show, there are other crossings further up that do not have crosswalks painted on the pavement. These lead directly into the parking lots for the Giant Center, through bridges built over landscaping. See parking map here:

 

[warfelg]

Tragic that this happened.

One thing I always took advantage of is that when you have concert tickets to a show at HP Stadium, you get discounted tickets to HP for the day. I've always done that going in about noon and spend the day in the park up until the time of the show. This typically made me avoid having to run across the highway. It's dangerous because there's also outlets along that stretch (granted not busy when shows let out), and local businesses often allow cheaper parking and for people to walk.

The fact that their overflow parking is across the highway on the old airstrip and there's no tram or pedestrian bridge of tunnel is mind blowing. Forget it when there's a Bears game and/or the RV show going on about parking because they actually shut down parks of the lot for parking for those events and it's the park that misses out on parking spots.

 

[paintervision]

The fact that their overflow parking is across the highway on the old airstrip and there's no tram or pedestrian bridge of tunnel is mind blowing. Forget it when there's a Bears game and/or the RV show going on about parking because they actually shut down parks of the lot for parking for those events and it's the park that misses out on parking spots.

It's been this way since the Giant Center opened in 2002. The only evolution of this whole setup has been the moving of Hotel Rd to form a 4-way intersection at the bottom of the hill, which cuts across the old Air Strip.

1999 from Google Earth:



2003:


2024:


Over at the Med Center, they have a parking garage which can handle 1,236 cars on 17 acres - two garages on the space below could be put a big dent in the parking needs of the whole complex:

 

[warfelg]

I’m well aware of that, but it doesn’t really change much about what I’m saying. Unless you are on that “inside” loop on the HP said, their parking situation is very dangerous in regards to pedestrian safety.