Folks,
the number of people registered for conf dinner is now >+25% of the
initial plans, and we need to rethink to adjust for this new size.
Furthermore, during yesterday's visit, we were informed about the
traffic situation around the hostel. Due to the university and the
nearby clinic, regular delays of 10–20 minutes each way can be
expected during the times we were planning to head to the venue,
meaning that it might well take twice as long to shuttle all the
people.
We will need to consider other solutions, which could be:
1. 2–3 Large busses run as shuttles between the hostel and the
Tiefburg (https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/24837546), where
attendees switch to smaller busses for the critical part of the
journey that the large busses can't manage. This would be quite
costly (large busses in addition) and it's quite complex, as it
requires a change between busses half way.
2. I've inquired whether we could have 2–3 additional 20-seaters
so that we could ferry 120–160 people in each go, meaning we
could do it in 3 runs. Each run takes 30 minutes return, or an
hour if traffic's bad. If the first bus left at 16:30, then the
last bunch of people will arrive just in time for dinner to
start at 19:00, missing the first set of the band (the event
starts at 18:00). This is far less complex than the first
option, and the additional busses are somewhat offset by the
additional people.
3. The solution that would IMHO work best is making attendees walk
ca. 1.5 km to leave the university area
(https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/25238615 or the nicer path
https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/2865558575) and then have
small busses run from there directly. A small number of
attendees we could pick up directly as well, but most would
need to walk. This solution would require as many busses as (2)
but it would be the most reliable and allow us to have everyone
at the venue not long after 18:00.
I am strongly in favour of (3) if we get additional busses. If not,
then we'll have to work with (1). I don't think (2) is going to
improve things enough.
I also believe 1.5km is a reasonable distance to walk once — we
won't have the problem returning. For reference, the walk at DC14
from dormitory to Punchbowl Social was around the same distance and
it's my understanding that most people walked. But as said, we can
have a shuttle available for those who cannot manage this distance.
Btw, if the weather's okay, I will happily lead a group of walkers
to further ease the situation. The direct way is 5km with a rather
steep 400 metres-of-height ascent at the end (nothing that can't be
compensated with a cold beer on arrival).
Cheers,
--
.''`. martin f. krafft <madduck@debconf.org> @martinkrafft
: :' : DebConf orga team
`. `'`
`- DebConf15: Heidelberg, Germany: http://debconf15.debconf.org
DebConf16: Cape Town: https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf16
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