The Prevalence and Impact of Congestion in Australian Running Events: An Analysis from The Perspective of Race Directors

Abstract

This qualitative study aimed to examine the views of Australian race directors regarding the prevalence of congestion and its impact on runners during running events. Five race directors who organise large running events in Australia were interviewed in a focus group setting. Thirty-five Australian race directors also completed an electronic survey examining their experiences with congestion during running events they organise. Similar themes emerged from findings gathered in the focus group and survey. Race directors in Australia receive negative feedback from runners regarding congestion. Furthermore, race directors indicated congestion impacts runner safety resulting in incidents and injuries to runners during events. Congestion was also reported to reduce runner satisfaction with the event when runners are unable to run at predetermined paces. This study provides foundation evidence identifying congestion as an issue in running events, with congestion subsequently leading to negative consequences from the perspective of race directors.

Implementation of Congestion-Related Controls Improves Runner Density, Flow Rate, Perceived Safety, and Satisfaction during an Australian Running Event

“…In turn, most of these survey respondents (73%) indicated that their experiences with congestion had impacted their event satisfaction, with many (47%) highlighting that race congestion (via previous experience or feedback from others) has led to them not participating in an event [5]. Indeed, race directors acknowledge that runner congestion negatively impacts the safety and satisfaction of participants during the events they organize and emphasize the need for guidelines to be established that help them manage runner congestion [4]. Accordingly, this study provides an initial source of evidence to support the development of such guidelines regarding the use of control strategies that may subsequently improve runner congestion during running events.…”

“…Overcrowding, or runner congestion, during running events, can potentially cause injuries to participants via slips, falls, being trampled, and being crushed [2,3]. In this regard, survey data provided from 35 race directors with experience coordinating large running events in Australia indicated that almost half of the respondents (43%) had received feedback from runners related to congestion during their events, with this feedback mostly related to the impacts of congestion on runner satisfaction (94%) and safety (62%) [4]. Likewise, survey data from 222 runners who have participated in running events indicated most of them had experienced congestion when waiting for race commencement (93%), as the race commenced (97%), and on-course during the race (88%), with their experiences encountering congestion "somewhat" to "extremely" impacting (i.e., rating of at least 3 on a 5-point Likert item) their satisfaction (73%) and safety (43%) during the event [5].…”

“…When quantifying runner congestion during running events, it is important to consider the congestion-related controls implemented by race directors, as they each will likely impact the resultant runner density and flow rate data. In this regard, control options have been adopted in practice by race directors to mitigate congestion during running events, with most (74%) of the 35 race directors surveyed in a recent study indicating they have made changes to their event to reduce the impact of congestion [4]. More precisely, race directors indicated a preference to use wave starts (52%), limit the number of runners permitted to participate (43%), and change the course or start corral design (35%) as controls during the running events they have organized [4].…”

“…In this regard, control options have been adopted in practice by race directors to mitigate congestion during running events, with most (74%) of the 35 race directors surveyed in a recent study indicating they have made changes to their event to reduce the impact of congestion [4]. More precisely, race directors indicated a preference to use wave starts (52%), limit the number of runners permitted to participate (43%), and change the course or start corral design (35%) as controls during the running events they have organized [4]. Similarly, a high proportion of the 222 runners surveyed in a separate study identified that seeding runners based on previous run times (91%), using wave starts (91%), and optimizing course design (89%) were effective ways to reduce congestion during running events [5].…”

“…Similarly, a high proportion of the 222 runners surveyed in a separate study identified that seeding runners based on previous run times (91%), using wave starts (91%), and optimizing course design (89%) were effective ways to reduce congestion during running events [5]. Although the preferred controls to combat congestion during running events have been identified from race director [4] and runner [5] perspectives, the impacts of implementing suitable controls on runner congestion during running events have not been directly examined. Regarding the prominent controls preferred by race directors [4] and runners [5], the use of waves to facilitate crowd movement [12] and modification of physical design for exits (e.g., guiding system, width adjustment, buffer zones, funnel-shaped bottleneck) [13] have been regularly assessed for application in pedestrian scenarios, but not running events.…”