Story On Dallas Light Rail

[MaxConcrete]

I'm working a contract in Dallas right now so I've seen the DART light rail in action. The system is far superior to what Houston will ultimately have - it's fast (on dedicated right-of-way except for downtown) and covers a wide area.

Still, ridership is quite low, around 60,000 boardings per day last time I checked. This particular article by the Dallas Observer (equivalent to the Houston Press) complains about the lack of transit oriented development at stations. Sure, there's Mockingbird Station, but having been there several times I can assure you just about all patrons are from the big-bucks Park Cities and SMU dorms, and they're not coming in by rail. I still need to check out downtown Plano. Other stations especially in Richardson have no transit-oriented development whatsoever, although Richardson recently rezoned to try to encourage TOD. South Dallas remains a wasteland, as reported in a 5-part series this week in the Morning News. No help down there from the rail. As a side note, DFW's highly successful "new urbanism" developments (Addison Circle, Legacy Town Center, Southlake Square) are nowhere near rail lines but are along freeways or tollways. I have collected photography of all the new urbanism around DFW and plan to make a web page whenever I get the energy.

I suppose that the bottom line is that light rail can't work miracles in cities like Dallas and Houston, and it will take a long time for a meaningful impact - probably decades.

http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2004-12-09/schutze.html

[Sunstar]

Duplicate thread. MaxConcrete, please feel free to repost your comments on 'Slow Ride' under the Dallas forum.

Thank you