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AMD: Improving Traffic and Air Quality in Austin
As a leading employer in the Austin community for more than 25 years, Advanced Micro Devices has helped the city grow into one of the most desirable cities in the nation. Now more than one million citizens strong, the Austin metro area faces the challenges commonly associated with population growth, including congested traffic and diminished air quality.
In 2004, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce completed a survey of 55 Austin CEO’s. The generally positive survey about Austin’s economic environment found that “traffic control” received the lowest rating of all public services in the region and “transportation/traffic/infrastructure challenges” were considered the region’s greatest weakness (http://www.austin-chamber.org/).
In May 2005, Austin was ranked as the most congested medium-sized city in American, according to the 2005 Urban Mobility Report by the Texas Transportation Institute (http://mobility.tamu.edu).
Further, Austin is classified as an “early action compact” area by the EPA, meaning it is on course for non-attainment status with the EPA’s Clean Air Act. If air quality continues to degrade:
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the region could lose billions of dollars in federal highway funding, and traffic congestion problems will grow worse.
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the costs of treating lung disease — the fastest-growing cause of death in the U.S. — will grow higher than ever.
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health and mobility challenges will constrain efforts to bring new business to Central Texas and ensure the city’s continued prosperity.
Envision Central Texas, an organization helping to manage development and growth in the region, calls on employers to locate closer to their employees to reduce traffic and improve air quality. AMD is answering the call of organizations such as Envision Central Texas to improve the quality of life in Austin by relocating its Austin based non-manufacturing operations to a single campus in Southwest Austin. Today, 31 percent of local AMD employees live in the Oak Hill neighborhoods that immediately border Lantana and 58 percent currently live within a 10 mile radius of the new campus.
In addition, AMD was named to the Top 20 Best Workplace for Commuters list by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation. AMD plans to expand this award-winning “Commute Solutions” program, which encourages employees to use car and van pools, mass transit, bicycling and telecommuting, to a goal of 10 percent of the employee population at Lantana.
Travel pattern analysis conducted by WHM Transportation Engineering shows that by creating a single AMD campus in southwest Austin:
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AMD will eliminate 10,000 vehicle miles per day from Austin-area roads. This represents a reduction in vehicle miles traveled per day by 16 percent compared to the existing site.
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On Austin’s most critical roadways, such as IH-35, US 183, SH 71, Loop 360, Loop 1 and US 290, the move to Lantana has an even greater effect on traffic patterns. These congested roadways will experience a 40 percent reduction in vehicle miles traveled compared to the existing site.
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The Lantana site will reduce vehicle emissions by approximately 7 percent compared to the existing site, reducing the amount of hazardous pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides and hydrocarbons from entering Austin’s environment.
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AMD’s traffic will have a minimal impact on Southwest Parkway and the new site plus forecasted traffic volumes will be well below the capacity of Southwest Parkway. Upon AMD’s occupancy of the site, AMD-related traffic will only account for 2.5 percent of traffic on Southwest Parkway west of William Cannon and 7.7 percent of traffic east of William Cannon.
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AMD traffic will be primarily counter cyclical and flow in the opposite direction of the majority of traffic during peak periods on Southwest Parkway. The majority of AMD traffic will be headed west on Southwest Parkway in the morning and east on Southwest Parkway in the evening. This traffic flow is directly opposite of most motorists who currently live near Southwest Parkway and drive into Austin in the morning and return home in the evening.
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AMD will generate 30 percent less traffic in the area than a shopping center on the same site. Upon occupancy, AMD will generate approximately 9,370 two-way trips per day. A 287,000 sq. ft. shopping center on the site would generate approximately 13,476 two-way trips per day.
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