Are you one of the many who are frustrated by traffic in Plano? LegacyConnect was born when Legacy-area leaders came to understand how bad traffic was going to become.
“As this study [Legacy Mobility Study] progressed, it became apparent that the peak hour congestion within the Legacy Area will increase steadily as the area approaches build-out,” states the Legacy Business Area Mobility Study.
“The traffic analysis for the future built-out condition shows that demand will increase to a point where infrastructure improvements alone will not be able to provide the capacity needed for efficient operation. As such, the solution to easing the congestion and sustaining mobility must look beyond traditional capital improvements,” the study reports.
The Legacy Area isn’t finished building and growing, and we already have 100,000 employees working here. That’s more than downtown Austin. We will soon surpass the number of employees in downtown Dallas, as well. Unlike either Austin or Dallas, most of Legacy’s employees have to drive. But, we simply don’t have — and can’t build — the roads needed to handle all that driving., So people are getting frustrated as travel times get longer and longer. It’s pretty straightforward math. Check it out.
The Math
The absolute maximum capacity of a highway lane (think Dallas North Tollway or Sam Rayburn) is 2,600 cars per hour.
Let’s say all 100,000 Legacy-area employees drive to work alone and arrive between 8 and 9 a.m., we would need 38.5 inbound highway lanes in the morning and 38.5 outbound highways lanes in the afternoon.
Currently, we have 12 highways. Next year, that will expand to 14 in each direction.
What’s more: each of our major arterials (Legacy, Headquarters, Parkwood, and Tennyson) has a maximum capacity of 1,200 cars per lane, per hour (or roughly 3,600 cars per hour).
But, each controlled intersection can only allow 800 vehicles through the intersection per hour. So, each roadway actually only allows 2,400 vehicles per hour to arrive or leave work.
We would need 41.5 of these arterial lanes in each direction. We only have roughly 18 arterial lanes for inbound and another 18 for outbound.
Here is the good news: until a roadway is 80% full, travel times remain pretty consistent whether you’re the only vehicle on the road or you’re joined by 1,900 others. It’s when that final 20% (around 480 others) start driving that traffic and extended travel time really kicks in.
So, if we can find other ways for a mere 480 people to get to and from Legacy, everyone’s commute improves.
Whether it’s through a shift in arrival time, remote work hours, rideshare, or public transit, happiness prevails!
Building all the additional lanes we need would take billions of dollars and several decades, but it would also mean bulldozing the built environment, including neighborhoods. Plano would be sacrificing the prosperity and quality of life that Legacy already enjoys in favor of wider roadways.
What’s more: building all those new roads doesn’t ensure the problem will go away. When Houston widened I-10 to 18 highway lanes with 8 access road lanes, it only took 5 years for travel times to become worse than they were before the expansion.
LegacyConnect is transforming transportation and making it easier to get to, form, and around the Legacy Area — we call that mobility!
When we talk with individual commuters or conduct surveys, the answer is consistently the same: 3 out of 4 people are frustrated with transportation and think commutes are getting worse.
A lot of work must be done to turn this around, and change is never easy. But, we know this challenge has a solution, and it’s already being tackled in U.S. cities of all sizes.
The pain (congestion and wasted time, money, or both) and the gain (improved quality of life and continued prosperity) are too important to not solve this challenge.
That’s why, in our first year of existence, some of Legacy’s large employers became members.
Most of our members offer employees mobility solutions to help them find and utilize commute alternatives.
Sometimes HR even offers commute incentives and promotions and even allows flexible scheduling and remote work options. But most people still drive because change isn’t easy.
We began Col-Lab so our employer members could network, discuss challenges, explore potential collaborations, and identify specific ways LegacyConnect could assist. Together, we have already built a common employee survey tool, established a 2020 Calendar of Mobility events, and arranged for specific improvements like new bus shelters.
Col-lab members are currently identifying how LegacyConnect could offer employees new services/benefits rather than the current company-by-company approach: exploring economy of scale opportunities for connected shuttle services and engaging on new infrastructure/services being considered in partnership with DART, City of Plano, and Collin County.
Our members who build and operate things — private developers as well as the public agencies —— see the opportunities, and they are willing partners in changing the way we build.
LegacyConnect’s members are leading efforts to manage parking more efficiently; to build safe and attractive sidewalks, mixed-used paths, and bicycle lanes without reducing road capacity for drivers; to bring new private transport services to Legacy; and maybe even to build a system that’s so convenient that people wouldn’t even consider driving for short trips.
When LegacyConnect makes it easier and more attractive to walk or use a scooter, bike, shuttle, we can reduce short car trips (48% of all trips) and help reduce traffic for those who have to drive.
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