Among the many questions surrounding the 76ers' proposed arena in Center City, how to manage transportation logistics and parking are some of the most pressing challenges the team and city will face if the project ultimately moves forward.

On Monday night, Philadelphia released four long-awaited impact studies — including one addressing traffic and parking — that were conducted by independent consultants hired to assess various aspects of the 18,500-seat arena. The studies were overseen by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. and paid for by the 76ers, an arrangement the city described as typical of large projects as a way to prevent using taxpayer money for such research.

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The $1.55 billion arena is proposed on Market Street between 10th and 11th streets, where it would replace a portion of the existing Fashion District mall. At the north end of the site, near the former Greyhound bus station, the team's plan also calls for a 400-unit residential tower. The Sixers have pledged to privately finance the project with the goal of completing the arena by the start of the NBA season in 2031. That's when the team's current lease at the Wells Fargo Center expires.

The transportation impact study breaks down various scenarios for how fans attending games and concerts at the new arena would most likely travel to get there. The study analyzes expected congestion along key routes, parking options in Center City and ways public transportation can be incentivized to reduce the impact on surrounding neighborhoods like Chinatown, Washington Square West and Midtown Village.

If the team and city planners account for these factors, Center City has enough parking garage spaces to meet the demands of cars driving to the arena, the study found. But unless strategies are adopted to keep congestion from packing nearby streets and crowding out residents, traffic could regularly overwhelm the area of the arena before and after events.

The consultants who studied the arena's transportation impact used a series of underlying assumptions about how people will travel to Center City. They estimated 40% of fans would drive to the arena in cars, another 40% would take public transportation, 10% would walk directly and 10% would take a taxi or rideshare.

Between the arena and the residential tower, the project would require about 3,470 parking spaces for sold-out events. That's using a baseline of 65% of spaces being filled at each garage location, the study found. Most of the 21 garages surrounding the arena site are within a 5-10 minute walk, including 15 within 1,000 feet.

If more than 40% of fans drive to the arena – even marginally more – that increase in the number of cars on the roads could disrupt traffic at Center City intersections and along corridors used to access Philadelphia from the surrounding suburbs, the study states.

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Recommendations in the study include providing free transit passes with all tickets, restricting street parking in surrounding neighborhoods and adjusting how parking garages are priced based on how far they are from the arena.

The Sixers did not immediately comment on the specifics in any of the impact studies.

"Our parking and traffic assumptions are achievable and these findings are more evidence that 76Place can be developed in a way that protects our neighbors and maximizes benefit to Philadelphia," a spokesperson for 76DevCo, the team's development arm, said Tuesday.

In November, the 76ers struck a deal with Parkway Corp. – the largest owner of Center City parking lots and garages – to manage parking during events at the new arena. The team says there are at least 29 lots within walking distance of the arena that combined have 9,000 spaces. Parkway Corp. would work with the team to develop technology that lets fans reserve spaces at lots when they buy tickets. An app could be used to optimize where fans park based on where they're arriving from and to monitor in real time the available garage capacity at lots in Center City.

Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, the consultant that did the traffic study, said the Sixers must do more to encourage people to take public transportation. The team proposed including SEPTA and PATCO transit passes for season ticket holders, but the study suggests also covering transit for anyone who uses them to attend games.

For fans who do drive, parking garages could be priced higher the closer they are located the arena, the study says. This would help preserve enough spaces for the most impacted neighborhoods and reduce the number of cars clogging streets immediately around the arena before and after events.

"We've told the 76ers that if we have 10 concerns about the arena, the top four are (about) traffic and parking," John Chin, executive director of the nonprofit Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp., said Tuesday after the impact studies were released. "This project is so complicated. A solution creates other problems to solve. If you increase prices on parking closer to the arena, then that dissuades customers from coming to Chinatown."

The traffic study found that parking garages and lots in Chinatown are underutilized most of the time. A majority of drivers who visit Chinatown stay for less than two hours, and street parking in Chinatown also tends be more available during evening hours. Greater competition for parking spaces comes from garages used by patrons of theaters in Center City, like the Walnut Street Theatre and the Kimmel Cultural Campus.

To keep parking spaces available in Chinatown and Washington Square West, the study recommends discouraging Sixers fans from parking on streets. This could be done with two-hour restrictions in areas where current parking rules would allow fans to stay in spaces without getting ticketed during game times. Based on current usage of these spaces, the impact on neighborhood residents would be minimal during typical event times, the study states.

To refine the way traffic and parking are managed, the study also recommends the team and city conduct regular surveys of fans to learn more about where they're traveling from, how they're getting to the arena and what resources they use once in Center City.

As part of the 76ers' commitments to traffic management, the team also has said it will make all truck access underground for loading and unloading. Most activity would be limited to overnight and off-peak hours.

Chin remains concerned the Sixers and the city will underestimate effects the arena has on life in Center City, especially in Chinatown, he said. The Sixers expect the arena will be in use at least 150 days per year among basketball games, concerts and other events.

"From Chinatown's point of view, this volume of cars and this volume of pedestrians — 18,000 people leaving events from that arena — I just don't understand how that's managed," he said. "The infrastructure is not designed to handle that many cars and people at 10th and Market streets. Maybe it can be managed by police traffic control. ... We haven't even gotten into how it impacts the SEPTA buses along Market Street. Do these buses just stop when people are coming and leaving? That seems pretty disruptive to me."

Chin also believes the existential threat to Chinatown is not overstated.

"I think we have to look at the context of how Chinatowns operate," he said. "Philadelphia's Chinatown now has other competing locations where there's free parking. Authentic Chinese restaurants and services can be found in other neighborhoods across Philadelphia, one being Northeast Philadelphia, which has a growing Chinese population. Chinatown needs parking that is very, very affordable as enticement for visitors to come."

The impact studies are a key step in the process city leaders are following to determine whether or not to approve the arena project. Chin said he was among a small group of Chinatown leaders who met Mayor Cherelle Parker on Monday to discuss their perspectives on the arena.

"She did not make a decision on the arena, but all the input she heard yesterday will be part of her evaluation," Chin said. "That's where she left it. I felt that she was genuine in her engagement with us and honest with explaining her decision-making process."