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

DART
Around Dallas

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 fastest-growing, 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

DART AROUND DALLAS

Over 2.5 million residents live in Dallas, and in 2015 we celebrate its 174th 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?
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
20th 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 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,

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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). 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-oil-addiction-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.

DART AROUND DALLAS

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

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

DART AROUND DALLAS

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 1901-09). 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 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

DART AROUND DALLAS

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.

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.

DART AROUND DALLAS

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 Staff

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 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

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10

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

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

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11

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, 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.

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12

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-an-increasingly-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
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/transportation/20101215-commutes-in-dallas-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_Health_Benefits_Li
tman.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

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13

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/2014/07/dfws-bumpy-congested-roads-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-have-the-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-worth-commuters-waste-
20-6-hours-a-year-stuck-in-traffic-which-is-much-better-than-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-count-507397-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