Commuters need a game plan for World Cup traffic

As World Cup visitors descend upon the Houston area, they're joining an already crowded slate of summer activities for the Bayou City.

To help commuters, the Houston-Galveston Area Council has launched a website commutegameplan.com. It combines all of the city's biggest events onto one calendar, showing the busiest days.

Robyn Egbert is warning of the serious uptick in congestion as matches will sometimes happen during the work week, and the Fourth of July will include a Round of 16 match, an Astros game, the Fan Festival, and Freedom Over Texas.

"Our first game is June 14th, and our last game is July 4th.FanFest opens June 11th, goes to July 19th," Egbert said. "We don't stop for 39 days, and so it's really how do we support our commuters, our region as a whole, so that we can continue on with our day-to-day lives."

The Council is hosting workshops for employers to encourage critical questions.

"How do your business operations align with your match days? Do you have deliveries? When are your deliveries coming? Can you consolidate them? Can you push them on different hours? How are you supporting your employees coming in?" Those are the kind of questions being asked by Annie Ortiz, who spends her days closing real estate deals at Chicago Title in EaDo, within view of Shell Energy Stadium and the site of the FIFA Fan Festival.

As June draws near, Ortiz is hearing more about the thousands of visitors headed her way daily.

"Number one, safety, and number two, is actual access to my front door for me, for my employees, for our clients, and just being able to commute in and out as needed," Ortoz said.

Ortiz added she's opening a conversation with her company's management about how to remain available for customers and make sure her own employees can come and go as needed for work and family. When she reached out to organizers, they said she could get placards for her own employees to guarantee access to their office.

"That is a huge concern of ours, is that our clients get here and are able to sign when they need to, here, in-person," Ortiz explained.

Egbert said this is a chance for people to try a new transit option.

"It's an opportunity to drive behavior change that when you know the World Cup is over, maybe it's someone who's now more comfortable taking the bus, maybe someone who is more comfortable with taking carpool," Egbert said.