Half of all car trips are between one and three miles and could easily be accomplished on foot, bikes, or scooters, according to a recent study by INRIX.
Simply shifting these trips off of four wheels could make a huge difference in Legacy area traffic and parking.
Today, scooters (and, really, all short-trip transit alternatives) have a troubled history in Legacy.
But, unlike those faced in denser areas like downtown Dallas, it’s not piles of urban debris, crashes, injuries, or even collisions with cars. The Scooter problems in Legacy are very specific — and very fixable.
Currently, the City of Plano has an ordinance in place prohibiting the parking of scooters on public property in the area where they would be most useful: the rectangle that includes Legacy West, TownCenter, and Shops of Legacy. Under these rules, the only places scooters can be placed are the green boxes in the map below.
To identify how to make scooters a more accessible transit alternative in the Legacy area, we asked Lime — the only scooter company with actual experience in Legacy — to estimate how scooters should be distributed. Below is a map for where to stage or park scooters every morning. See the blue pins.
Lastly, commuters have very few options when it comes to using scooters in and around the Legacy area.
State law prohibits scooters on streets with posted speed limits of 45 MPH or more. That includes Legacy, Headquarters, Tennyson, Parkwood, and others. Further, Plano prohibits scooters on 5-foot-wide pedestrian sidewalks.
That means the only place to ride scooters is on low-speed roads. As a result, it’s not possible to travel from Legacy West to Legacy Town Center, or from any outside company to either of these destinations.
The Solutions
LegacyConnect is working with the City of Plano, scooter companies, and property owners to find solutions that allow more scooters into Legacy. After all, Electrek says they’re the future of urban transportation.
LegacyConnect is asking for a change in the current ordinance allowing transportation staff to work with Lime and allow the staging of scooters on public properties (See the red boxes in diagram 1).
Lime, meanwhile, is on its own to negotiate with private property owners for the staging of scooters in any of the grey boxes.
We are also working with the city to build infrastructure for connectivity like mixed-use paths on Parkwood Parkway and Legacy Drive.
Once we find the scooter solution, a number of the transport providers will line up to bring scooters to Legacy.
A change like this requires thoughtfulness, so we are working with the transportation department to implement a third-party service that can verify and report data to both ensure compliance and track just how much more easily scooters are letting commuters get around Legacy.
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