DART AROUND DALLAS

DART Around Dallas

Nhi Nguyen, Luke Mullen, Alex Asefaw and Jim Ingalls
BCOM 3311.501, Business Communication
Professor Elizabeth Bruce
2015, April 30

DART Around
Dallas

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Figure A. Image of logo. From Dart, Logo image #1
https://www.dart.org/newsroom/imagelibrary.asp

Its 5 p.m. on Friday and your weekend has officially started; just one
problem, the highway is a parking lot. You want nothing more than to be
home and relax but instead you are sitting still on the highway. It is only 10
miles to the house but it will take you an hour to get there. Your stress levels
are rising and your blood is starting to boil, as everyone around you is
honking and just as frustrated as you are. If only this dreadful event could be
avoided. Fortunately for you, it can.
Public transportation is the backbone of every great city in the
America. Getting people from point A to point B while avoiding heavy traffic
and promoting a more environmentally friendly lifestyle are the selling points
to a great public transportation system. Dallas-Fort Worth is the fastestgrowing, fourth-largest and fifth most-congested metro in the country. The
need for a greater reliance on the public transportation system in Dallas is
evidenced by the high congestion on our roadways and growing pollution
concerns. It is going to take a small effort of everyone in the Dallas
community to help this problem.
Dallas History
Over 2.5 million residents live in Dallas, and in 2015 we celebrate its
174 birthday. John Neely Bryan, Indian trader, farmer, and lawyer who
founded Dallas in 1841 after realizing its potential for becoming a town. Its
wild to think that our robust city of Dallas started out as 640 acres of land, a
hand drawn sketch with a designated courthouse and 20 streets (Sims,
2012). Sims also observes... One has to wonder what John would have said
about how accurate his guess was about Dallas being a prime location to
start
a
town.
Or information about developments?
th

In the 19th century the Federal Reserve, Southern Methodist University,

Dallas Love Field Airport, and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport would
put Dallas on the map. During the 20 th century Dallas redefined luxury when
Neiman Marcus opened in downtown, which led to the prestigious shopping
development we know as Highland Park. The East Texas Oil Field which was
the largest known petroleum deposit at the time was discovered.
The 21st century would describe Dallas as a city that harvests
entrepreneurs pursuits, style, innovation, and high accessibility. Fortune
magazine named Dallas/Fort Worth as the number one business center.
Today Dallas is one of the leading convention destinations thanks to its
facilities, restaurants, recreational opportunities and wide variety of
entertainment. Dallas is a fairly new city, which covers about 343 square
miles. Dallas has established many brag worthy milestones within the last

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few decades, but along with all of this success is traffic comes pollution that
harms our health, environment, and economy. Dallas is home to some of
Americas worst traffic jams. Dallas area drivers have it worse than anyone in
the country. (Michael Lindenberger, 2010).
Did i follow the correct format for section headings?
Health and population
The luxury of privacy and convenience that comes from driving our
cars comes at the cost of our health, environment, and economy. We may
not recognize it as a problem yet because it seems to be a problem for the
next generation to worry about. but our goal at the Richards Group is to take
preventative action as opposed to reactive steps to avoid paying with our
health, and economy.
You may be wondering, How am I possibly paying for something with
my health? Vehicles emit numerous carcinogenic chemicals in the air such
as Acetaldehyde, acrolein, carbon monoxide, benzene, 3-butadiene,
formaldehyde, diesel exhaust, and volatile oxides of nitrogen (UCSUSA,
2014). As vehicles emit particles into the environment, the surrounding
residents inhale the chemicals that will deeply penetrate lungs and inflame
the circulatory system. From here, we experience short term damage such as
asthma or allergies which is our bodies way of rejecting the toxins.
Short term effects on our health include asthma, and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), such as bronchitis. Asthma and
COPD can mean anything from irritated, itchy, red, watery eyes, sinus
headaches and infections, to excessive mucus production. One study shows
that Children are 40 % more likely to have an attack on high outdoor
pollution days(Wargo, 2006).
Long term effects range from birth defects, cardiovascular disease,
cancer, and diabetes. Carbon monoxide is nearly undetectable as it does not
have an odor, or color but it hinders our body by keeping our blood from
carrying oxygen to the brain, heart and tissues. The specific carcinogenic
causing cancers are benzene, formaldehyde, and 3-butadiene. EPA
estimates that vehicle emissions account for half of all cancers attributed to
outdoor air pollution, killing more Americans than breast and prostate
cancers combined (Wargo, 2006).
An increase in jobs and residents as big name corporations relocate to
Dallas results in more people, cars, and ultimately congestion on the roads.
At the beginning of each day the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that,
507,397 people who live in other counties fire up their cars, and go to work
in Dallas County. On the other side of the highway there is 173,836 Dallas
County residents driving to their jobs someplace else (Michael Young, 2013).

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Even if we plan to build more highways to accommodate for this growth, the
environment will still suffer from the extra pollution.
Real Estate at a bargain is another reason Dallas is a desirable location
when looking for a home, causing drivers to be more willing to commute
farther to work. This is part of what makes the commute so congested.
Housing options that stretch into the prairie, offering more square footage
and cheaper prices (Michael Lindenberger, 2010). Our region is relatively
flat in Dallas, making everything very accessible since we have the freedom
to locate and grow anywhere since we dont have physical barriers like
mountains to limit us.
Individual Economy and Environment
Congestion significantly reduces a citys economic growth. Statistics
rank Dallas is the fifth most congested city in the country, only behind Los
Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. (Wilonsky, 2013).
Except we have not adopted public transit into our daily routine unlike most
of these other cities. It may seem like common sense to say that the more
cars that are on the road, the higher levels of air pollution that area will
experience. However, do you realize that as you accelerate, decelerate, and
sit idle in what seems to be parked stuck in traffic we are wasting more fuel
and creating more man made pollution than if we were to drive at a constant
speed?
Ask yourself how many times you pumped on the brakes, and stepped
on the gas pedal today. Think about how many times your neighbor did, in
addition to everyone in your neighborhood, and city. We may not realize the
harm in our single handed contribution to man-made pollution because it
seems irrelevant to count one persons pollution trail but given the prolific
rate that Dallas has evolved in terms of population, size, and economy.

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Table 1. Image of gas consumption. From Streets blog,

http://usa.streetsblog.org/2012/09/28/which-counties-have-the-biggest-oiladdiction-problem-we-still-dont-know/
This table illustrates the top ten counties in the nation with the highest
gas consumption. Dallas ranks fourth out of ten counties for dependency on
gas,

Measuring the cost of congestion on the economy

To put a hypothetical situation to project our concept I want you to
image that 50 internal combustion engines idling in traffic with 50
passengers versus 50 single engine busses each carrying 35 passengers and
not idling in a traffic jam because now the freeway is cleared of 1,750 cars
(50 busses x 35 passengers = 1,750 cars). One of the benefits from less cars
on the road would be less frequent oil changes in cars. In a year, it is
estimated that we drive 15,000 miles (Federal Highway Administration,
2015).
On average when we change our oil every every 7,000 miles and
using 5 quarts of oil. If commuters on DART save 5 days per week of
personal miles driven, then we could see a 71.23% reduction in miles driven.
(12,000/365= 32.876 miles per day), (32.876 X 5 days= 164.38 miles per
week), 164.38 x 52=8,547.95 mile per year), (8,547.95/12,000=0.7123).This
71% reduction in fuel and motor oil consumption would save time, money,
and reduce significant pollution, while increasing efficiency.

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Any economics course will teach you the laws of supply and demand,
and the relationship between buyers and sellers. With these laws in mind,
wouldnt it make sense to emphasize the need for an ideal environment
where efficiency is maximized while loss, and wastes were minimized? On
average a Dallas motorist spends 20.5 hours stuck in traffic a year. (Robert
Wilonsky, 2013). Which amounts to about 1,700 dollars in wasted fuel
(Nicholas, Sakelaris, 2014). Whether this amount of time and money is large
or not is relative to each individual, but i have yet to meet anyone who would
turn down nearly a full day with $1,700 to spend as they wish.
Dallas economic growth
Dallas is currently the fourth largest metropolitan area in the United
States, which is a prolific growth rate considering we are not even 200 years
old. John Neely Bryan would be pleased to know that his instincts about
Dallas having the potential to be a successful town were 100% correct.
Dallas currently leads as a top city with 18 area businesses that were named
Fortune 500 companies.
Here are multiple new developments that will contribute to the
exponential growth Dallas is about to experience: Toyotas new $350 million
North American corporate campus, Nebraska Furniture Mart, State Farm
Insurances new regional corporate hub, The Star which is the Dallas
Cowboys new training complex, and FedEx Offices new corporate campus
will redefine this status. This is promising for our economy, but without the
efficient planning of resources and transportation Dallas could potentially
become overwhelmed and lose our potential to be a top city.
In a study that determined drive time for both congested and free flow
traffic conditions, there was a relationship between traffic congestion and
productivity rates. As traffic congestion increases, destinations become less
accessible which will stunt the growth of our economy and productivity.
Dallas could potentially increase its economic productivity by $46 billion
dollars annually, and it is projected that this amount could be $64.4 in
twenty years (David Hartgen, 2009) as a result of free traffic flow
conditions.
In 2014, More trips were taken on public transit than any other time,
in 60 years- nearly 11 billion rides nationwide (Art Guzzetti, 2015). It
appears to be a trend, and Dallas needs to focus on our public transit
situation for than ever. With Dallass health, population, and economy in
mind, The Richards Group would like to present our proposal to harbor the
trend of public transportation in Dallas with Dart Around Dallas.
The Richards Group Proposal

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Our proposal, to address the current and growing problem of traffic
congestion, is to initiate a paradigm shift in the planning and development of
public transportation. The current paradigm is wait and see, and build and
pay as you go while trying to not overextend their meager ration of tax
dollars. Rather than the current evolutionary planning process were are
proposing the implementation of a revolutionary planning process. Rather
than wondering what Dallas will look like in the future, lets decide what
Dallas will look like 200 years from now and start laying the groundwork for
that vision today.
Being Proactive
Possibly, many off you have heard the old story of how the Allen
brothers were ridiculed for making the streets in historic Houston so wide.
Back in 1836, Im sure that they seemed ridiculously out of scale. As we
drive through Houston today it is manifestly obvious, in spite of their best
attempts to be visionary, and to allow for the future growth of their new
town, that they werent visionary enough. How about New York Citys Central
Park? How over-the-top crazy did that seem back in 1857? In the sketches
and drawings of the early stage development of Central Park, it wasnt
central to anything. It was raw land which was essentially located out in
the middle of nowhere. Only with the fulmination of time and future
development was its location and ultimate destiny able to be fully
appreciated for the intellectually-farsighted genius that is was.
How much do we appreciate our National Parks System? What might
have become of all of that natural wilderness beauty without the vision of
presidents Grant (Yosemite 1872), and Roosevelt (Yellowstone et al 190109). While considered by many at the time, to be unprecedented and
unconscionable land grabs by the Federal Government, I doubt in todays
world that many (if any) would care to second guess the wisdom of those
decisions.
Now lets consider:The Transcontinental Railroad, Hoover Dam,
Eisenhowers Interstate Highway System, putting a man on the moon, the
Hubble telescope, the Human Genome Project, and the Mars Rover. Just by
way of touching on our achievement- high-points, are a good representative
sampling of the things we have been able to accomplish when we
collectively put our effort, and more importantly our collective financial
support, towards a goal.
So, what is the difference between being a visionary and being a
lunatic? Success is the ultimate dividing line between the two concepts. Why
do some visionary undertakings succeed while others fail is the real

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question, and the answer to this question is two fold. First, and most
importantly is continuity of leadership. Secondly is having sufficient funding
to make the vision a successful reality.
In order to facilitate Dallas and the Dart Agencys ability to be
successful visionaries, The Richards Group proposes to create a charitable
foundation whose purpose and stated mission is to promote the use and
development of mass transportation in the Dallas area.The Richards Group
will operate The Foundation for Public Transportation and contribute The
Richards Groups professional marketing skills and leadership services to
design, develop and initiate the implementation of a branding and
marketing campaign. The campaign will be designed to create a high level of
civic pride, civic financial support and increased demand for public
transportation. The foundation will be the custodian of the proceeds from the
marketing campaign, with DART being the targeted beneficiary. Contingent
to The Richards Group donating its time, talent, and money to establish both
the campaign and the foundation will be a contract between DART and The
Foundation. This contract will provide for The Foundation to continue to
manage the marketing campaign after its initial launch for a period of 5
years. Renewal of the contract is contingent upon the success of campaign
and continued cooperation of DART with The Foundation.
Extent of The Richards Group Give Back
The Richards Group will perform comprehensive secondary research
from the historical origin of public transportation through, and including, a
comparison and contrast of current public transportation systems throughout
industrialized urban centers around the world. We will identify all known
strengths and weaknesses, as well as solutions. Additionally, The Richards
Group will provide acquisition of all primary research data including; surveys,
interviews, and focus group sessions in order to determine emotional and
psychometric obstacles to citizen adoption and participation in public
transportation. Once all of the research has been compiled, a comprehensive
branding and marketing campaign will be designed and presented to DART
for approval.
The comprehensive marketing campaign (once approved) will
encompass: the branding concept , print material, a web site, television
advertising, radio advertising, outdoor advertising and a social media
campaign. Following the information acquired from the primary research the
approved branding concept will be developed into logo wear and product
design. which will be featured in all advertising.

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Our main goal in branding will be to present public transportation as
something that is; cool, smart, socially responsible, convenient, safe, and
something to be both civically as well as individually proud to support. All
logo wear will be sporty,classy and useful such as backpacks, umbrellas,
travel mugs, rubber dress overshoes (for rainy days) etc.
The print material will initially be limited to program specific tri folds
and posters. The tri folds will be used for solicitation of individual business
participation in and with the fundraising marketing campaign. These will be
placed in the hands of outside sales personnel who will be going door-to-door
throughout the Dallas business community soliciting merchant participation.
This effort will be all-inclusive, ranging from charitable foundations to major
corporations to small business owners. The posters will be distributed to
participating businesses for them to display, touting their participation and
financial contributions to the Dart For Dallas project.
The web site will be for disseminating information, accepting
donations, and selling logo wear and products. Participating business
community members will be featured dominantly throughout the web site.
Links to their individual web sites will be presented as well as locator maps
that will actively provide directions as well as rail and bus connection points,
and other necessary route information, to ease the use of public
transportation.
Television, radio advertising will be targeted toward reinforcing the
branding message of how smart, cool, convenient, and economical it is to
use DART.
The social media campaign will be targeted toward branding, raising
awareness, heightening social consciousness, and planning social events
utilizing Dart transportation. Here also, there will be mention, links, and
advertising for participating business members.
Staffing
Staffing costs will born by The Richards Group as outlined in the budget
section of this proposal. In essence the Richards Group will donate the cost of
its employees compensation up to the limit as outlined in the budget.
The Richards Group Staf
Since strong and continuous leadership is so crucial to the success of
any visionary type undertaking, we will provide all experienced and
professional employees necessary to carry out the design, development, and
implementation of the branding and marketing program up the point where it
has generated $500,000.00 in revenue. At This point our BGB component

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ceases and our contract as marketing consultants takes precedence. As such
we would continue to manage and operate the marketing/fundraising
program on a contingency fee basis of 40% of annually produced revenue
from the marketing program, or $3,000,000.00 per year, whichever is less.
DART Staffing
Existing DART staff requirement will be uneffected. Any additional
hiring by DART will be solely as a function of growth in ridership and the need
for additional routes to handle growth and expansion as a whole. Any
increase in operating costs for DART will be as a marginal function of their
increased business, and will thusly be self funded by increased payment of
fares.
Budget
Our budget projections are tabulated in table 1, on page 8. The
Richards Group is committing to a financial contribution that amounts to
just under $2,000,000 in employee salaries and actual cash expenditures to
cover daily operational expenses toward this project. The actual
development, design and implementation cost is $1,485,884.80.There is a
potential contractual performance liability on our end which could be the
additional amount of $500,00.00, bring us to our maximum business give
back limit of $1,985,884.80. This maximum expenditure would occur in the
case that the success of the project simply became untenable and The
Richards Group had to contribute the $500,000 to satisfy the campaign
revenue generation goal; essentially buying ourselves out of the project. The
budgetary particulars are enumerated below.

Budget
# of employees

Position

Compensation

Subtotal

secondary
research

$15.00/hr
(40x12)

15,484.80

primary research

$20.00/hr
(40x12)

6,1920.00

graphic artist

$40.00 (40x12)

41,280.00

production
designer

$50.00 (40x12)

103,200.00

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20

outside sales

$20.00 (40x52)

894,400.0

Misc: room rental

10,000.00

Misc: refreshments

10,000.00

Trifolds

500.00

Posters

1,000.00

Initial inventory of logo products

Web site development and hosting

10,000.00
5,000.00

Outdoor advertising (6 signs@1200/ month x12

months)

86,400.00

Radio spots (150.00 per,3x day,

56,700.00

TV Commercials
Total budgetary commitment of The Richards Group

200,000.00
1,485,884.80

We are allocating 12 weeks each, for the secondary and primary

research projects. These two activities will run sequentially to each other. We
want all of the secondary research performed first so all involved research
staff can share and analyze the data prior to beginning the primary research.
This will necessarily need to be performed in order to design a targeted and
effective primary research program. Once the target issues have been
identified and the psychometric evaluations synthesized, primary research
can begin to be gathered.
In light of all the evidence in consideration we at The Richards Group feel
that this proposal represents a no-lose situation for DART. The project will
costs DART nothing to participate in, other than their consultation time. The
potential financial upside for DART is budgetarily very significant. The
establishment of The Foundation for Public Transportation creates a separate
entity capable of independently continuing to solicit funds from; other
charitable institutions, wealthy individuals, corporations, small business,
individual donors, as well as possible receipts from government grants. If the
branding and marketing campaign works as planned then it becomes
financially self funding, also generating perpetual funding directly to the
foundation, and subsequently to DART. The directed gifting from the
foundation to DART would be a non budgetary source of income for DART,

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and as such could not be used against them in government funding
applications. The benefits to the individual citizens of Dallas is also a win-win
scenario. Those willing to participate in public transportation will benefit
directly, by having a better public transportation system. Those citizens who
steadfastly refuse to use DART will benefit indirectly in supporting the cause,
by having thousands fewer drivers competing against them for space on the
roadways. And the potential savings on fuel consumption, air pollution and
human capital (in the form of saved person-hours) benefits society as a
whole.

References
Figure A. Image of logo. From Dart, Logo image #1
https://www.dart.org/newsroom/imagelibrary.asp
Figure
Guzzetti, A. (March 9, 2015). Transit group says buses, trains an increasingly
popular option. CBS Chicago. Retrieved from
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/03/09/transit-group-says-buses-trains-anincreasingly-popular-option/
Hartgen, D. (August 25, 2009). Gridlock and growth: The effect of traffic
congestion on regional economic performance. Reason. Retrieved from
http://reason.org/files/ps371_growth_gridlock_cities_full_study.pdf
Lindenberger, M. (December 15, 2010). Commutes in Dallas-Fort Worth are
worst in U.S., study says. Dallas News. Retrieved from

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http://www.dallasnews.com/news/transportation/20101215-commutes-indallas-fort-worth-are-worst-in-u.s.-study-says.ece
Litman, Todd. (June 2010). Evaluating public transportation health benefits.
Victoria Transport Policy Institute. Retrieved from
http://www.apta.com/resources/reportsandpublications/Documents/APTA_Hea
lth_Benefits_Litman.pdf
Sakelaris, N. (June 23, 2014). DFWs bumpy congested roads are jolting your
wallet for $1,700 a year, report says. Dallas Business Journal. Retrieved from
http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/2014/07/dfws-bumpy-congestedroads-are-jolting-your-wallet.html?page=all
Sims, J. (December 24, 2012). Today in Dallas photo history 1810: Dallas
founder John Neely Bryan born in Fayetteville, Tennessee. Dallas News.
Retrieved from http://usa.streetsblog.org/2012/09/28/which-counties-havethe-biggest-oil-addiction-problem-we-still-dont-know/

Wargo, J. 2006. The harmful effects of vehicle exhaust. Eviroment and

Human
Health,
Inc.
Retrieved
from
http://www.ehhi.org/reports/exhaust/summary.shtml
Wilonsky, R. (April 2013). Study: Dallas-Ft Worth commuters waste a 20.6
hours a year stuck in traffic, which is much better than it used to be. Dallas
News.
Retrieved
from
http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/04/study-dallas-fort-worthcommuters-waste-20-6-hours-a-year-stuck-in-traffic-which-is-much-betterthan-it-used-to-be.html/

Young, M. (March 5, 2013). Census commute count: 507,397 coming into

Dallas County each morning. Dallas News. Retrieved from
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/census/20130305-census-commute-count507397-coming-into-dallas-county-each-morning.ece

(February 20, 2015). Average annual miles per driver by age group. Federal
Highway Administration. Retrieved from
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm

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