The city of Plano is coordinating with corporations in the Legacy business area in an effort to improve worsening traffic conditions around the employment hub.

The city has partnered with employers and property owners like FedEx Office, the Campus at Legacy West, Liberty Mutual and Toyota. Stakeholders will meet April 30 to discuss alternate forms of transportation. Plano Mayor Harry LaRosiliere said the group aims to use technology to help alleviate traffic.

“Our innovation will center around meeting the changing demands of our commuters by delivering flexible and multi-modal mobility options,” LaRosiliere said. “We are excited to collaborate with our businesses to create new and exciting solutions.”

Ignacio Herrera is a project manager with KDC, a commercial real estate developer. Herrera is serving as the chair of the transportation management association, which has been named LegacyConnect.

“The private sector is already playing a major role in changing the way people travel,” Herrera said. “Uber, Lyft, and electric scooters have disrupted traditional services. Employers are also taking less obvious steps to reducing traffic like building new parking garages, providing shuttle services or offering benefits for employees who take advantage of these new available options.”

A federal government grant would provide roughly $686,000 to help get the transportation management association off the ground.

The Plano City Council approved an $80,000 expenditure in December to begin organizing the transportation management association in advance of receiving the federal funding.

A delay in forming an agreement had pushed back the anticipated disbursement date of those funds, Plano Director of Special Projects Peter Braster said in a public memo to City Manager Bruce Glasscock.

"The delays were due to many factors, a majority of which was outside the City’s control,” Braster said in the letter. "While we now have come to terms with TxDOT, the funding will not be available until May 2019."