Plano's $3 billion Legacy West is driving big business and thousands of new jobs to the growing city.

But that growth -- as it's doing in much of the rest of Collin County -- is also steering more traffic to Plano as well. Lots more.

In an effort to ease congestion around the mixed-used development that is now home to companies such as Toyota, Liberty Mutual and JPMorgan Chase, Plano city officials are looking for ways to get residents out of their cars.

Last month the city wrapped up a traffic study that took officials more than a year to complete.

“That area historically has been very low-density,” said Matt Tilke, the city’s senior traffic engineer. “Before we turn into gridlock, which we don’t want to have happen, the study is intended to look at the pieces and what causes congestion and look at ways to mitigate that and prevent it.”

The number of people living in the Legacy West corridor at build out, which city officials expect to happen in the next 10 years, is expected to be somewhere between 6,000 to 8,000 residents.

And while widening the roadway may be an an option to relieve congestion, there’s only so much that can be done because right-of-way space is limited. So the city is also turning to the businesses to work together to encourage employees to pursue alternate transit options.

“When we think about solving transportation, we think about what are the things we can do. More roads? More buses? Mass transit? All the things we can physically do, but I think it really comes down to behavioral [changes] and the question was how do we get people out of their cars? That was pretty striking to me," Mayor Harry LaRosiliere said earlier this month. “Our message will be talking about changing that mindset of getting out of cars and it means a lot of different things."

Figuring out a plan

For the study, officials created two committees made up of representatives from the cities of Plano, Frisco and The Colony, the North Texas Tollway Authority, Texas Department of Transportation, and the North Central Texas Council of Governments, among others.

One committee looked at relieving congestion through infrastructure, like widening roadways and adjusting the timings at intersections, Tilke said. But building would be limited since the area is bounded by the Dallas North Tollway and the Sam Rayburn Tollway.

“We are limited in what we can do,” he said. “So the infrastructure committee looked at what is out there today, what opportunities are there for improvement and developing an understanding of where the limitations are.”

The second committee looked at transit and demand management, or how to get people to use their cars less.

“We looked at it very plainly, when it’s time to go to work, or time to go to lunch, what is the first thing you do? You grab your keys,” Tilke said. “So that’s the paradigm shift we are looking for. That shouldn’t happen. You grab your wallet, go downstairs and there should be a way to get where you are going without having to get in a personal vehicle by yourself.”

As part of that effort, Deputy City Manager Jack Carr said officials from various stakeholders are working to establish a Transportation Management Association.

Cars drive along west Legacy Drive near The Shops at Legacy during the morning rush hour in Plano. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer)

The North Central Texas Council of Governments has funding mechanisms in place to help start-up the private group, which would be a membership based association where representatives from businesses and governments could have a "collective voice to solve transportation concerns."

For example, Tilke said the transportation management association could play a key role in adjusting work schedules so not everyone arrived or left at the same time.

"Instead of everyone dumping out at 5 p.m., if you make that happen between 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., every 15 minutes someone different lets out," he said. "Think of a funnel. If you take a five gallon bottle and dump it, it all backs up and nothing works. But if you pour slowly, it all goes through just fine."

City Manager Bruce Glasscock said the transportation management association was going to be "key to getting the collaboration of those companies."

"The city can't require employers to adjust the hours of their employees," he said. "It's going to take commitment on their part."

Other transportation methods

Throughout the study, Plano city officials worked closely with Dallas Area Rapid Transit, which has been looking for ways to provide more transportation options to Plano residents.

The transit agency plans to extend bus route 208 past the Northwest Plano Park and Ride in order to serve corporate campuses in the Legacy West area.

Traffic flows along west Legacy Drive and Parkwood Boulevard near The Shops at Legacy in Plano. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer)

DART spokesman Mark Ball said the agency is also implementing a new nonstop bus line, Route 211, to “provide a faster, more direct connection between the Parker Road station ad major corporate campuses in northwest Plano.” That express service would run every 15 minutes.

There are also plans to consolidate bus routes 346 and 348 to circulate within Legacy, just east and west of the tollway, in order to serve the remaining Legacy destinations, he said.

Those routes are scheduled to be running in the spring, Ball said.

One idea to ease congestion that did not come from the mobility study, is a city-wide plan to re-time Plano's approximately 235 traffic signals.

Tilke said the project is going one corridor at a time and should be completed in the summer. The Legacy corridor aspect of the project should be finished by the spring.

But as the city works to change its signals, he indicated that traffic may get worse before it gets better.

“There will be a temporary difference where things may not line up like they used to. It might be temporarily worse," Tilke said. "But as you get more and more" signals retimed, the traffic "will get better and better.”