DALLAS | Public Transport

[Svartmetall]

Am I the only one who isn't a fan of the layout of these stations? They seem a bit pedestrian hostile with oodles of surface parking surrounding them.

The stations aesthetically, however, are pretty good.

[city_thing]

You're not alone.

They seem to be quite far away from services/homes as well, so you would probably have to drive to the stations to use them. Multi-level parking would have been the lesser of the two evils.

[Ganis]

Better for people to drive to these stations and ride the Train or Bus to their destination then everyone driving all the way to work.

[dfwcre8tive]

Originally Posted by Svartmetall

Am I the only one who isn't a fan of the layout of these stations? They seem a bit pedestrian hostile with oodles of surface parking surrounding them.

The stations aesthetically, however, are pretty good.

The parking lots and green plots surrounding suburban stations are designed to be converted to garages and/or additional development when future demand is there. Stations that are in denser locations tend to have better pedestrian connections from the start.

Many of the rail lines have been built along old industrial corridors next to neighborhoods. DART has served an economic development role by enabling low-density, run down or vacant areas to become high-density transit-oriented development. DART's Orange Line will be the first line that does not follow a previous rail corridor, and it will have many more "urban connections" as it travels through Las Colinas and Irving.

[Ganis]

DART has helped Dallas grow. Their stations are well kept and make you feel safe and are eye catching in eye sore areas.

[dfwcre8tive]

This information about the Cotton Belt Line was posted by NThomas on the Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) and Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) are seeking to identify individuals and firms interested in entering into a Public Private Partnership ("PPP") to design, construct, operate, maintain and finance a cross regional passenger rail service starting on or about 2013. This service shall be known as the Cotton Belt Rail Line. The service may be implemented in various segments which are detailed below and should be the same type of vehicle and operating characteristics on the entire corridor. Businesses and individuals, including developers, financial firms, construction contractors, subcontractors, engineering and design consultants, equipment suppliers and all others who are interested in this exciting opportunity are invited to become part of DART's database of interested parties and attend a public symposium on Friday, June 12, 2009, from 9:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. at Union Station, 400 South Houston St., in downtown Dallas (DART Union Station).

A full schedule concept:

• 20-minute peak period service headways in each direction
• 60-minute off-peak period service headways in each direction
• 60-90 minute service headways on Saturdays and Sundays
• Weekday service span of 5 AM to midnight
• Weekend service span of 7 AM to midnight

And it's all found from this pdf from DART.

[city_thing]

Holy shit @ those frequencies!

* 20-minute peak period service headways in each direction
* 60-minute off-peak period service headways in each direction
* 60-90 minute service headways on Saturdays and Sundays
* Weekday service span of 5 AM to midnight
* Weekend service span of 7 AM to midnight

That's terrible!

90 minute frequencies on weekends is the stuff nightmares are made of.

[Svartmetall]

Originally Posted by city_thing

Holy shit @ those frequencies!



That's terrible!

90 minute frequencies on weekends is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Youch, that's worse than the bus service to villages of 5000 people outside my town in the UK...

[G5man]

I'd say 30-45 minute frequencies on the weekends and 15-30 minute frequencies on the weekdays. At the bare minimum it needs to be 1 hour frequencies, 90 minutes is totally ridiculous. Even Utah's Frontrunner runs on 1 hour frequencies on the weekend. On the weekdays, the Frontrunner runs every 1/2 hour.

[salaverryo]

Originally Posted by Svartmetall

Am I the only one who isn't a fan of the layout of these stations? They seem a bit pedestrian hostile with oodles of surface parking surrounding them.

The stations aesthetically, however, are pretty good.

The surface parking surrounding the stations is precisely the point. Commuters are supposed to drive to the stations, park their cars there & get on the train. It's called Park & Ride.

[Svartmetall]

Originally Posted by salaverryo

The surface parking surrounding the stations is precisely the point. Commuters are supposed to drive to the stations, park their cars there & get on the train. It's called Park & Ride.

Yes, I have heard of park and ride, though it doesn't make it an attractive solution to the transit problem. Park and rides are woefully inefficient and the large surface parking areas make TOD more difficult to implement. What should be done instead of park and ride would be to use frequent feeder buses that tie into the schedule of the train - as seen on the Stockholm T-bana.

Also, as I said, surface parking reduces the attractiveness of a walk up service. Having the barrier of parking and cars to pedestrians is a strong disincentive of use.

Originally Posted by G5man

I'd say 30-45 minute frequencies on the weekends and 15-30 minute frequencies on the weekdays. At the bare minimum it needs to be 1 hour frequencies, 90 minutes is totally ridiculous. Even Utah's Frontrunner runs on 1 hour frequencies on the weekend. On the weekdays, the Frontrunner runs every 1/2 hour.

A train system like this should be running at a walk up service of every 10 minutes ideally for a city the size of Dallas - 15 minutes should be the maximum time on a weekend.

[Ganis]

your talking about a region that LOVES to drive everywhere. Those times sound good to me, they are the same times for the TRE that runs between DT Dallas and Fort Worth.. Get a train schedule.

[Svartmetall]

Originally Posted by Ganis

your talking about a region that LOVES to drive everywhere. Those times sound good to me, they are the same times for the TRE that runs between DT Dallas and Fort Worth.. Get a train schedule.

There are lots of interesting articles out there about train scheduling and passenger utilisation. This thesis in particular is quite interesting as it serves to highlight the modelling that goes on behind train schedules and the perception of service by passengers.

An interesting study by Wardman (2004) showed a clear correlation between the frequency of the service and the likelihood of utilisation outside of commuting - IE for leisure purposes. This is one of the reasons that the most successful pull factor for public transport is the mantra - frequent and fast. Thus there is some peer reviewed literature backing what I'm saying.

By having an infrequent service you'll only provide token transportation and thus low ridership. Even in some of the most car dependent cities worldwide, patronage can be increased by the provision of a high quality public transport service. Perth in Australia is excellent proof of this. They built (basically from scratch) a brand new, high frequency heavy rail system (with 5 minute frequencies in peak hour on some lines) and public transport patronage has soared despite the city being heavily car dependent with extensive motorway networks.

The same could happen in Dallas if the political will was strong enough. To say that people there love driving their cars is a cop-out and will do nothing to change that situation.

[zaphod]

You see a few TOD's and plenty of denser areas abutting the Red Line as it goes north of Downtown, and similiar neighborhood-oriented stations on both lines to the south.

It might important to remember the new Orange and Green lines being built are running through a really strange environment, the mainly industrial swampy areas near the Trinity River. Kind of a Texan version of New Jersey.

[Slartibartfas]

I think it would have been great if more stations would have developments like this taking place next to the stations:

[dwdwone]

It will come. Some areas take longer than others. Look at the laggards from the initial blue line. Much of it is now built up.

[Ganis]

Testing the new Green Line Rails. 100 Days till the Green line opens up.

[Ganis]

sorry for the high res

[Ganis]

Dallas looks like a proper city from this view

[BoulderGrad]

From what I've seen, Dallas (like most cities in the US) has pockets of city-ness, but the vast majority is freeways and stripmall-dom.

But as we can see, the trend is finally starting to reverse itself.