Ultra Music Festival contemplates rideshare service ban for Miami iteration
Ultra Music Festival‘s (UMF) flagship Miami edition will entail a learning curve of a production capacity, as the festival looks ahead to its first iteration at its new home of Virginia Key. Transportation to and from Virginia Key will likely comprise the crux of this learning curve. As in past years of UMF Miami operation, Ultra and Miami officials alike expect more than 60,000 people to attend the festival, but unlike previous UMF installments, ticket holders who opt to travel by car will only be able to access the grounds via the Rickenbacker Causeway. The lack of alternate routes renders traffic and congestion primary concerns for Ultra and Miami government personnel.
Although Ultra organizers have yet to finalize a transportation plan, a ban on rideshare services like Uber and Lyft is an option that Ultra coordinators are currently considering. The festival’s prohibition of rideshare services would prevent attendees from departing from Virginia Key all at once, thereby preventing gridlock.
“We have no idea whether it’s going to be one person using a rideshare company or 500,” Key Biscayne Police Chief Charles Press said.
UMF will utilize more than 200 buses to transport ticket holders to and from Virginia Key. Attendees will have the ability to board the buses at three different locations: the American Airlines Arena, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, and the former site of the Old Miami Herald. Ultra will additionally oversee the 24-hour service of Miami-Dade County’s Metrorail. Ultra-goers will also have the ability to take ferries to and from festival grounds.
The festival has already preemptively denied mass parking, to discourage travel by car.
“For the convenience and safety of our patrons, and to reduce the local impact of carbon emissions and traffic, there will be no general admission parking available to patrons,” Ultra spokesman and security chief Ray Martinez said.
Ultra staff will expectedly issue their decision regarding rideshare service access to and from Virginia Key soon.
H/T: Miami Herald
Photo credit: Rukes
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