For those who have gone to the Thanksgiving Day parade downtown, are there any areas along the route where there aren’t as many people?

I’ve never been to the parade before, and I can get claustrophobic in heavy crowds. I surprisingly did well at the Astros parade, because we managed to find a place in front of a restaurant where we were maybe 15-20 deep, and that’s being generous. I saw pictures of the crowds and it blew my mind.

But back to the question at hand- my old HS band is marching (I was also in band), so I would like to show my support, but I’m also not trying to have a panic attack. 😅

I’ve looked at the route, and I would like to stay on the “right side” of the route (somewhere down Milam for a quick escape to Travis or other ways), but since I haven’t been, I don’t know if there are any dead/small amounts of people areas.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!! Thank you!