The Get Motivated business seminar in downtown Providence did not deliver the traffic mess officials feared.
State transportation officials said it was smooth sailing on area roads as people filed into the Dunkin' Donuts Center on Monday to attend the daylong conference.
Officials had estimated at least 12,000 people would join daily commuters in search of 12,000 parking spaces in Providence, with 80 percent of those taken by tenants, businesses and other regular uses.
"If you go back three or four years as this event transpires around the country, you'll read first about how great it was and how good the speakers were, and then it's how bad the traffic was. So we're like, 'Holy Mackeral'" said Peter Gaynor of the Providence Emergency Management Agency.
The city planned and put on 27 Providence police officers and eight Rhode Island state troopers to direct traffic downtown. It also delayed school for two hours to reduce traffic.
"We have never seen school delayed in any other city," said Brian Forte of Get Motivated.
State Department of Transportation spokesman Charles St. Martin III said parking was tight around the arena.
He also said more commuters used public transportation.
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