His company handled transportation for 39 conventions last year. For a recent 30,000-attendee neuroscience convention here, Weathers used 56 buses. They hit hotels every eight minutes during peak hours, he says, and every 24 minutes during non-peak times. It's not uncommon for buses to be called in from Los Angeles for large conventions, and that will be the case for the Republican Convention. Problems can arise, however, with bus drivers unfamiliar with the city.
Weathers plans to have a local volunteer in every bus.
Most will have three or four stops and represent about 1,000 hotel rooms. The drop-off stops at the Convention Center will be at least two blocks away. That distance is due to a lengthy fence that will encircle the center, the media trucks parked on Harbor Drive and security concerns. Nary a parking spot will be available near the Convention Center. In light of car-bomb incidents in Oklahoma City and at New York's World Trade Center, the thought of having vehicles parking under the possible future leader of the free world was a tad unsettling.