Across North America, event volumes have rebounded to, and in many cases surpassed, pre-2019 levels. Corporate meetings, live entertainment, sports, and large-scale brand events are back, but the transportation ecosystem supporting them has not expanded at the same pace.
Benchmark data highlights several converging pressures:
- Demand spikes are sharper and more synchronized than before, reported by PredictHQ.
- Driver supply and curb infrastructure remain constrained, as reported by Fehr & Peers - San Francisco Curb Study
- Information latency has increased as programs grow more complex, as reported by the Federal Highway Administration - Planned Special Events Guidance.
These insights are based on the Event Mobility Benchmarks in North America report. See how drvn supports event mobility: Explore our Event Transportation Solutions →
Table of contents
What Data Are Event Planners Collecting and Why?
By utilizing advanced collection methods, ranging from AI-powered video analytics to UHF RFID smart badges, organizers can now capture high-intent first-party data that reveals exactly how an attendee navigates a space. This shift is driven by the need for deeper personalization and the rising pressure to provide sponsors with granular "proof of value" rather than vague attendance estimates. For major global gatherings, such as the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup, this data is the backbone of "Smart Mobility," allowing logistics teams to optimize transport routes and safety protocols by analyzing real-time passenger counts and density patterns.
The primary goal of collecting mobility data is to transform the venue into a responsive environment. Planners use this information to identify "dead zones" in exhibit halls, alleviate registration bottlenecks, and dynamically adjust staffing levels based on live footfall. This data also enables hyper-personalized attendee journeys (e.g. if mobility signals show an attendee spending significant time in a specific niche technology zone, AI-driven platforms can push real-time session recommendations or networking matches tailored to that specific interest). This ensures that even large-scale, 1,000-person events feel intentionally designed for the individual.
Mobility data also serves as a critical asset for safety and risk management. By monitoring origin-destination flows and crowd density, organizers can proactively manage surges during peak departure times and ensure emergency exit paths remain clear. Industry leaders now treat events as data engines, where the captured movement and engagement patterns provide a level of reliability and compliance that third-party trackers cannot match. Ultimately, this data allows planners to make evidence-based decisions that improve the attendee experience while maximizing the event's overall ROI
Event Mobility Data Matrix for Planners
What the Benchmarks Actually Show
Most large-scale event programs will also track a combination of operational and behavioral metrics: vehicle arrival times, pickup window adherence, curb dwell and clearance times, passenger readiness, resequencing activity, and exception volume. Airport-heavy events layer in flight arrival data to account for schedule volatility.
Federal Highway Administration guidance on planned special events emphasizes clearance time, queue length, and curb throughput as primary indicators of success. Demand-responsive transit benchmarks focus on on-time performance within pickup windows rather than exact timestamps. Ride-hail and urban mobility studies consistently analyze post-event surge behavior, dwell time, and volatility.
When viewed together, several patterns consistently emerge:
- Surge is predictable: Post-event egress routinely generates roughly four times normal baseline demand, sustained for 60 to 90 minutes. This isn’t a surprise condition; it’s a known operational reality that must be designed around.
- Reliability expectations remain high: Despite these conditions, managed event transport programs typically target 90–95% on-time performance within defined pickup windows. These expectations align with standards used in premium and demand-responsive mobility services.
- Planning lead times matter more than vehicle count: Large corporate events generally require months (not weeks) of transportation planning. Permitting, curb allocation, staffing, and manifest development are among the least flexible components of an event. Delaying decisions compresses operational slack and raises risk.
The data makes one point clear: performance outcomes are shaped long before the first vehicle arrives.
Where Event Mobility Breaks First
When event mobility breaks down, the earliest warning signs appear in the data before guests experience delays.
Across studies and aggregated operations data, failures consistently surface through measurable signals: rising dwell and clearance times, compressed pickup windows, increased resequencing, and growing exception volume. These indicators reveal both where systems are stressed and why reliability degrades.
- Curb congestion: Curb space is frequently the binding constraint. Studies indicate that a single active passenger loading zone can require 40-60 feet of curb, and significantly more when multiple vehicles arrive simultaneously. Adding vehicles without addressing curb throughput often worsens delays.
- Late or incomplete manifests: Incomplete passenger data forces real-time resequencing. Every late addition or unverified detail increases dwell time, missed pickups, and cascading delays across the system.
- Last-minute changes: Uncontrolled exceptions consume the slack designed to absorb variability. Once that buffer is gone, even well-resourced programs become brittle.
Why These Failures Cascade
Event mobility systems are tightly coupled. Small disruptions propagate quickly when timing, data, curb access, and human behavior intersect. Benchmark data consistently highlights several common cascade patterns.
Curb saturation → schedule compression
Rising dwell times compress pickup windows and push downstream routes off schedule, even when fleet size is adequate.
Manifest inaccuracy → dispatch instability
Late changes force resequencing, increasing dwell and disrupting vehicles already en route.
Information latency → effective capacity loss
Delayed or inaccurate updates create rework and manual intervention, degrading performance as effectively as removing vehicles from service.
Exception volume → loss of slack
Once exceptions consume built-in buffers, even minor disruptions cascade rapidly.
Human non-compliance → throughput breakdown
Missed instructions, incorrect zones, and late arrivals introduce friction that scales quickly without staffing and enforcement.
What Planners Should Take Away
Several clear conclusions emerge from the data.
- Reliability is designed upstream: On-time performance is shaped by early decisions around curb strategy, manifest discipline, staffing, and data governance, not by last-minute execution on show days.
- Vehicles are rarely the constraint: Most failures originate in throughput, information quality, and coordination. Adding vehicles without addressing these factors often worsens outcomes.
- Data reveals risk early: Metrics like curb dwell time, resequencing volume, and pickup window compression surface problems before they become visible to attendees, creating opportunities to intervene early.
- Exceptions are structural risk: Late changes and ad-hoc requests are inevitable, but unmanaged exception volume quickly destabilizes even well-resourced programs.
- Event mobility is a strategic function: Transportation failures carry reputational, safety, and financial consequences. Treating mobility as a core operational discipline reduces risk and improves outcomes at scale.
For Planners Looking To Go Deeper
The findings summarized here are based on aggregated public studies and event operations benchmarks. The full report, Event Mobility Benchmarks in North America, expands on the data, performance targets, and planning implications behind these conclusions.
Need a mobility plan that works under pressure? Talk to our event logistics team →
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