Game Time in Arlington: Tight Contests, Tighter Traffic

ARLINGTON -- Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams, a civil engineer with an affinity for transportation issues, compares the state of getting around his city today to the "the flip-phone stage of cellphone technology."That was until a transit official told him, "No, sir -- we're in the rotary-dial stage."But that stodgy, old-school approach to solving transportation problems -- building new roads or widening existing ones to accommodate more vehicles -- is about to change if Williams has anything to say about it. "It's a new day in transportation," said the mayor, who enthusiastically envisions a wave of autonomous, driverless vehicles bringing as many as 23 passengers at a time to a Texas Rangers or Dallas Cowboys game, or a greater alliance with ride-sharing companies such as Uber or Lyft.Others say that futuristic view needs to go even further. "By hook or by crook, we need to build some type of line that runs from TRE to the entertainment district seven days a week," said Jim Monroe, 83, a retired pastor and a member of an advisory committee formed last year to study Arlington traffic issues.With a new, $1 billion stadium on the way to town for the Rangers, Williams' city of 388,000 will once again face modern-day adjustments in managing traffic at some of its busiest venues -- the new retractable-roof baseball stadium, AT&T Stadium, the forthcoming Texas Live! mixed-use development and Six Flags Over Texas.  Continue reading...