New Traffic Generated by Cousins Proposed Development of the Marshall Tract

Cousins plans for development of the Marshall Tract include two office towers (7 and 5 story) with 375,000 square feet of office space and a senior living center with approximately 100 residents.

According  to the Institute of Traffic Engineers Trip Generation book, the office towers will generate 3,700 trips daily, and the senior living center will generate 350 trips daily.

The traffic for the office towers will enter and exit through Las Cimas so there will be no direct impact on Lost Creek Blvd. traffic. However, it will increase traffic on Loop 360 by 8%. The traffic from the senior living center is planned to enter and exit through Lost Creek Blvd. This traffic will increase traffic on Lost Creek Blvd by 3%. These are based on data obtained from TxDOT as shown below.

This analysis is based on average daily traffic counts. Because of morning and evening commuting, there are times when traffic is heavier than at other times. We do have traffic counts on Lost Creek Blvd. by hour and these are shown below.

These were measured in the summer and therefore are understated because it does not include school traffic. The senior living center peak traffic in the morning is estimated to be 6 and the evening to be 8. Neither will impact congestion on Lost Creek Blvd. significantly. However, there may be a safety issue related to the placements of two cuts into Lost Creek Blvd.

We do not have equivalent data from TxDOT on Loop 360.

In 2011, my wife Barbara and I, made a study of traffic on Loop 360 and Lost Creek Blvd. What we found was that there was 1.2M square feet of offices in the immediate area generating traffic that came through the intersection of Lost Creek Blvd. and Loop 360. The two office towers will add 375,000 square feet of office space bringing the total to almost 1.4M square feet, a 31% increase. This increase in office space will bring the office generated traffic on Loop 360 from 9,040 to 12,731 cars per day.