How the Fastest Growing U.S. Metro Area is Managing High Density Traffic

Between 2010 and 2016, close to a million people ditched The Big Apple, recording the biggest loss of residents by any major U.S. metro area in that period – but where’d they all go?

Well, Dallas seems likely. The city added the most residents during that timeframe, compelled by an economic increase of four percent annually on average and the addition of almost 100,000 jobs a year. The job growth is closely tied to relocations of large companies from other parts of the country, some of the most notable being Jamba Juice’s corporate headquarters, divisions of mobility greats including Toyota and Boeing and even Jacobs’ own relocation of our corporate headquarters from Pasadena, California, to Dallas in 2016.

Reminiscent of Los Angeles’ expansion in the late 1970s and 80s, Dallas’ growth, despite being impressive, could signal future headaches for the city, including increases in traffic congestion, housing costs and pressures on other critical infrastructure such as water and power systems.

But what if we showed you how Automated Transportation System (ATS) technologies – being studied in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex with Jacobs’ guidance – could be the city’s best response to connecting Dallasites, keeping them on the move for years to come?

More than eight years ago, city planners began visualizing a new development and redevelopment of Dallas Midtown, a significant regional center of the city, to ensure long-term economic vibrancy and environmental sustainability. Embracing their spirit of encouraging development patterns for mixed-use without causing impacts on surrounding areas, the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) connected with the City of Dallas, its developer and neighborhood stakeholders to recommend an ATS that meets the high-density future condition of the Dallas Midtown area, and provides connections to the regional rail network.

Located at intersecting regional highways, the Dallas North Tollway and the LBJ Expressway (I-635), and eight miles from downtown, the Dallas Midtown development district’s closest regional transit connection is more than three miles away. NCTCOG’s study, for which they partnered with us in early 2018, will evaluate and determine feasibility of regional connectivity to the Dallas Midtown development, which includes plans for hike and bike trails connecting to White Rock Lake, parks and open space, interactive water features throughout, luxury hotels, condos and office space, athletic and wellness facility and expansive shopping, restaurant and entertainment options.

The study will also explore options for automated transportation systems for the region, including technologies (automated people movers, personal and group rapid transit, monorail and cable-propelled systems), alignment and operational characteristics; review the ATS interaction with existing and future parking structures and strategies; and identify potential funding and implementation strategies.

Throughout 2018, we worked with NCTCOG to develop a formatted transit modeling tool tied to the regional model that can be used on future locations in the region. The tool will also be input into a TransCAD regional planning model and allow NCTCOG to quickly reanalyze Dallas Midtown in the future should significant build changes in the development occur. This flexibility is especially important because of sustained regional growth expected and changing mobility perceptions, such as improvements in smart vehicle technologies and automated vehicles, millennials changing mobility patterns and growth of affordable rideshare services as last-mile connections, influencing travel patterns and future demand.

An ATS would provide for a more cohesive journey throughout Dallas Midtown and surrounding areas made entirely on public transit, helping reduce the number of cars on roadways. With less cars on the roads, there’d also be less needed parking spaces in the new district – an estimated nearly $1 billion in parking construction savings achieved through right-sizing parking to demand, increasing occupancy ratios of parking spaces and reducing spatial need by roughly 3 million square feet.

Using feedback gleaned from a series of public open houses and listening sessions and research into various ATS concepts, the team will look to select the recommended solution and develop implementation steps before making a final recommendation for a system in Dallas Midtown that will provide more than 1,300 estimated rides per day.