When the work day ends in the Legacy business district, sometimes the work begins to get home.
Cell phone video shot recently along a one-mile stretch of Legacy Drive between the Dallas North Tollway and Highway 121 shows drivers in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
It’s the main roadway connecting Toyota, JP Morgan Chase and Liberty Mutual, businesses helping bring about 20,000 jobs to Legacy West by the year 2020.
“Traffic in North Texas isn't just one city or one office building, it's a regional problem,” said Peter Braster, Plano’s Director of Special Projects.
From a room in city hall, he says a full-time staff is constantly monitoring traffic hot spots, including Legacy Drive.
The recent back-ups, he says, are the result of a few things.
The first is the increase in cars on the road.
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The second, Braster says, is a traffic light timing problem on Legacy Drive that can't be fixed for a few more months.
“The implementation has to wait for construction so we just have a little chicken and egg problem,” he said.
A third reason for the back-ups, he says, is the slow start to the “Transportation Management Association,” or TMA.
The TMA is a group of businesses located in the Legacy business district tasked with coming up with solutions to traffic problems.
The TMA was announced in June 2017 but Braster says the city is in a holding pattern itself, waiting for funding.
“It's taking a little longer than anticipated but we see the light at the end of the tunnel and I think we'll get that wrapped up pretty soon,” he said.
In the meantime, Braster says the city is working on ways to keep traffic problems minimal.
Dart On Demand is available to encourage driers to ride the bus.
There are also bike sharing and carpooling programs.
Companies, like Toyota, have said they will allow employees to stagger start times to keep as many people from converging on the area during rush hour as possible.
