Following a flood of community concern about traffic and parking problems at Aloha Stadium, the stadium authority has released a new plan to help prevent gridlock at this weekend's Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl.

With the bowl game scheduled just two weeks after the sold-out U2 concert, which turned H-1 and surrounding surface streets into virtual parking lots, stadium officials are urging fans to consider alternate parking sites and shuttle buses from neighboring areas.

"The stadium has 50,000 seats and 8,000 (parking) spaces. Until people start catching shuttles and until they start using alternate parking spaces ... we're going to continue to have this problem," said Patrick Leonard, spokesman for the Aloha Stadium Authority.

William Clark, chairman of the 'Aiea neighborhood board, said traffic is not normally a problem during the regular football season. Traffic generally gets worse during sold-out or nearly sold-out events such as the Dec. 9 U2 concert and the Dec. 2 University of Hawai'i vs. Oregon State football game, he said.

"It hasn't been an issue addressed by the board in about three years," Clark said.

Nevertheless, traffic and parking are known problems at the stadium, and the authority has created the following procedures for the Christmas Eve game: