Public Transportation during the Athens 2004 Olympics: From Planning to Performance Evaluation

Transportation during large sporting events is always a major concern for the organizers and a phenomenal challenge for both transportation planners and operators. Such was the case for the 2004 Olympic Games, where public transportation was planned to transport more than 90% of all of the spectators, volunteers and employees. This paper describes and briefly analyzes the transportation planning process and assesses both the performance of the system during the Games as well as important system-wide behavioral data that can be a useful tool in organizing similar events in the future.