Dallas area transit prepares for World Cup, asks locals to drive

Central Texas is gearing up to welcome millions of World Cup visitors. Can a state notorious for a lack of comprehensive public transit handle the influx of car-free domestic and international soccer fans?

According to a Governing article by Jule Pattison-Gordon, the Dallas area alone expects over one million visitors. The region's transit agency, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, is adding World Cup-specific directions and translations to its transit app and working with other navigation apps to ensure the special shuttle service shows up. "The train and shuttle will be especially important for international visitors, who won’t be coming with cars, so officials are encouraging local fans to drive to free up space." According to Pattison-Gordon, "Officials have prepared a backup 'bus brigade' that could take over if the commuter rail service that transports people to the shuttle cannot run for some reason or hits maximum capacity." 

Natalie Bettger, senior program manager at North Central Texas Council of Governments. says the series of World Cup matches offers an exciting opportunity to adjust transportation policy in real-time. "Usually we do it one time, and we get one chance, and we learn from it, but here we have nine times within five weeks, which is really cool, because you usually don’t get that opportunity," said Bettger.