Interactive website, map encourage “Know Before You Go” to UCI World Championships
An interactive web platform now details all aspects of navigation during the UCI World Championships cycling race will take place in Richmond the last week of September.
Photo by Julie Tripp
Margo Maier
News editor
An interactive web platform now details all aspects of navigation during the UCI World Championships cycling race will take place in Richmond the last week of September.
City officials and Richmond 2015 board members unveiled Navigate.Richmond2015.com at a Transportation Briefing on Aug. 5, to help community members and UCI World Championship attendees better understand road closures and race routes in September.
The Championship is the premier international bike race taking place Sept. 19-27 in downtown Richmond and parts of Henrico County. More than four years of planning have gone into making the event a reality, and the anticipated spectator attendance is estimated at 450,000 during the week of the race.
“The website is designed for this information to help people get to the event, and it is designed to help people get around the event,” said Richmond police captain William Smith. “We want to minimize the disruption to the normal population as much as possible.”
City officials have been focused on planning for what Smith referred to as “Maximize Access, Minimize Impact.”
Smith said timing, course crossings, and road closures are his top concerns, and he and the rest of the police force have navigation planned out as precisely as possible.
For VCU students, the race has already made a significant impact on the Fall semester, as the earlier start date of Aug. 19 accommodates the full-week closure of the Monroe Park campus for the race.
MCV students will have varying closure schedules depending on their department, and should consult their advisors individually.
Race information meetings will be held more frequently in the coming weeks, according to vice president of Marketing and Business Development for Richmond 2015, Lee Kallman.
“We have a robust schedule for our transportation meeting over the next two weeks to answer any questions residents might have,” Kallman said. “And now that the website is live it should help address any concerns that our meeting in Richmond, Henrico and Hanover did not cover.”
Kallman added that these meeting should offer area residents the opportunity to learn more about the easiest ways to enjoy the race, and still carry on their daily routines without difficulty.
Although the last information meeting in Richmond City was held on VCU Freshman move-in day, Aug. 13, Kallman pointed out that call center representatives for Richmond 2015 are trained on the website platform and should be able to address any concerns that the website does not cover as well as assist in navigation.
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