Handling Hoth Conditions At PAX East 2015

The enormous gaming convention that is PAX East starts this Friday, March 6, and for the first time in its six-year history, snow will be a problem. We asked some people in the know what this will mean, and below are their answers. The Tl;dr version — travel in Boston will still suck, and be prepared for delays in almost everything you do.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, Boston already has experienced the second greatest amount of snowfall in the history of recordkeeping in the city. According to local TV station WBZ, a total of 104.1 inches has fallen, just 3.6 inches below the record set in 1995-96. If you are familiar with Boston’s old, narrow, winding streets, you can imagine how much that amount of snow has crippled travel in the city.

In four days, PAX East will add more than 75,000 people to that already stressed infrastructure. Some people, like Katie Hauser, the Director of Communications for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, think that the city is as ready for it as it can be.

“We are anticipating maybe a few more drivers because of the reality that the commuter rail is not running at 100 percent capacity,” Hauser said in a phone interview. Because of that, the MCCA and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center — the South Boston facility that houses PAX East — are suggesting some innovative ideas for getting to the BCEC if you are staying in the city.

“We are encouraging the use of Uber and Lyft. We’ll be touting those more because our taxi services will be pretty tight.” That said, Hauser added, “Our parking lots are totally clear.”

But if you do plan on parking at the facility, you had best get there early, Hauser said. Even though BCEC staff helped the city out by clearing metered parking spaces on D street and surrounding major streets, any smaller side streets and the surface lots will likely be still affected by the snow.

“Our parking lots will fill up — they will all fill up,” Hauser cautioned.

Speaking of those surface lots, there are even fewer spaces available in South Boston this year than just last year, as more construction goes on in what is called Boston’s “Innovation District.” True, there are a number of new subsurface parking garages under some of those new office buildings, but the cost is usually double or triple that of what the surface lots in the area charge. And finding them is not as easy as driving into the area and seeing all the cars in a fenced-in surface lot.

According to Kirby Chin, an event planner whose work regularly takes him into the South Boston Seaport and Innovation District, travel will be challenging, but not as much as it was just a week ago.

“The main streets are much better. They were in the process of clearing the spots in front of meters,” Chin said, something that Hauser also mentioned. “All in all it seems to be getting back into normal shape. The T is still a bit slow but much better than before. The construction and development in that area has reduced some of the open lots. The sidewalks are passable. Snowbanks have begun to melt, but they are still big.”

While I did not receive a response from an email inquiry for comment from PAX, it does have a page on the website dedicated to weather information for the upcoming event.

As we put the final touches on PAX East, we’ve gotten a lot of questions about the weather situation. Although it’s currently forecast to be in the 20s to 40s, you never know for certain this far out.

PAX suggests that attendees might want to wait until after the show floor opens at 10 before coming to the convention, to avoid standing in a queue line that could “extend from the queue hall to outside of the building before the show opens.” That doesn’t jibe with Hauser’s warning about the BCEC lots filling up fast, if you are driving in, but both PAX and Hauser agree that it will be cold, and waiting in line outside would not be fun.

“If you are planning to come and you are going to wait outside, I would bundle up,” Hauser said.

Speaking of being outside, this year the BCEC has arranged for food trucks to line up in the outside park-like space on the east side of the facility, Hauser said. The whole park area won’t be clear of snow, but the staff has made the best of the situation by building a snow maze. And there will be some outside seating, for those daring enough to brave the cold temperatures with their food truck goodies.