[AlpacaObsessor]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

DART. I think the criticisms are relevant and should be taken seriously. However, there are some facts and hopefully future developments that hasn't soured me on DART:

1. TOD development, definitely north of Dallas, has been tremendous. When we look at how successful a rail system is, I think its important to see how much development has sprung up next to the lines. And not only calculate how much development but to gauge the developments urban qualities vs what would have been built without rail.

The only ones that come to mind are Las Colinas, Downtown Plano, Cityline, and Gatalyn Park, which is 5 out of about 50 non-downtown stations. Respectable, but I'd hardly call that tremendous.

Originally Posted by jtown,man

2. With the Cotton Belt line being built, even more suburban commuters will be riding rail. Hopefully, this increases ridership going downtown too.

The sad thing about Dallas is that a huge portion of the office jobs are located out in the north suburbs (I actually did the numbers a while back and Dallas ranked close to last among the country's largest 35 cities in terms of what percentage of office space is located downtown vs in the suburbs). So although I'm sure there'll be at least some people using the line to commute downtown, it won't be many.

Originally Posted by jtown,man

3. When D2 is finally built Dallas will double its amount of light rail stations downtown and increase the amount of land that is within 5 minutes of walking to a station. It will also help with headways

This is one thing I'm looking forward to. Although it should be noted that the D2 alignment is only a couple of blocks east of the existing at-grade stations, so it's not exactly like its unlocking a huge amount of previously transit-starved land or anything.

Originally Posted by jtown,man

4. Connecting Dallas's two streetcars will make a singular line which will have much more utility and also add many more streetcar stops in downtown, therefore increasing, just like D2, the number of people downtown within a 5-minute walk to a rail station.

Connecting the two would certainly be nice but I'd argue the only one that serves any real utility is the Oak Cliff line. The M-Line trolley is really more of a neighborhood novelty than anything else. It's slower than riding a bike, lacks heating/air conditioning, and the only people who ride it seem to be suburbanites visiting the neighborhood for the first time and the very few people who live and work directly on McKinney Avenue. Sadly though I don't believe there are any formal plans to connect the two anytime soon.

Originally Posted by jtown,man

5. The apparent suburban nature of DART today can be seen one of two ways; A total failure or an opportunity. I think if DART starts focusing on the actual city of Dallas(I know the politics of this, but I think it could easily happen) by expanding rail in a smart fashion to serve their central city residents, it will increase ridership, increase density, and overall make Dallas a much more transit-oriented city.

100% agree on this. I think Dallas is at least on the right track after getting rid of it's DART appointees that initially voted yes on the cotton belt extension and replacing them with ones that seem to have the interests of Dallas at heart. But again, the political reality stands that there is still an equal number of suburban board members that are focused on creating more of a commuter style rail system instead.

Originally Posted by jtown,man

6. Downtown Dallas has barely scratched the surface when it comes to residential construction. Compare Dallas in the last ten years to Austin. Dallas is now beginning to build more residential units downtown and I see no reason why this should slow down. This will increase the density of downtown, add more transit users heading to suburban areas, and create more demand for downtown services. The building of more residential units downtown will also accompany four new parks being built that will greatly increase the attractiveness of downtown and give more reason to get on the train to head down there.

7. HSR. *If* this happens, it will help DART out a lot. Also, it will help spur development in south downtown(most of the development seems to happening in the northern part of downtown.

These two points are true and I'm looking forward to it. It seems like there are a lot of property owners in that area (KDC and Mike Hoque for example) that are just waiting until something happens with the HSR project before planting shovels in the ground.

Originally Posted by jtown,man

I think DART is in a slump right now. Maybe it built too much suburban rail too quick. Gas prices are low as crap, the economy is humming along nicely, and lyft and uber are around. However, I think once gas prices go up, lyft and uber begin to charge prices necessary to make a profit, and the economy slows down a bit, you will see rail usage go up and places like Dallas will be thankful they have such a large system in place, and hopefully a system that continues to grow.

One last thing, take a good look at downtown Dallas on googlemaps. It has the land area and enough empty lots to create a wonderful urban environment. It already has a lot of jobs located there...Imagine if they can triple the amount of residents, create a subway line, connect two streetcar lines, and add four new parks while increasing the number of services. Dallas has a LOT of potential, I think that is what keeps me interested in the city. Some cities have it mostly right today(SF, Seattle, NYC, Chicago) and some will never develop into a large urban center for many reasons. Dallas is primed to become much more urban in the next twenty years and I think DART will have a big part in this.

As somebody who's lived in Dallas for nearly two decades before leaving I'm glad to see the place finally start to develop an urban core outside of just Downtown/Uptown. It seems like up until ~2014 that's where most of the walkable projects were being constructed but the past 3-4 years have seen a lot of new projects go up in Victory Park, Deep Ellum, Farmers Market, The Cedars, and Bishop Arts as well.

Despite these encouraging trends in residential construction, I remain extremely skeptical that DART will play any serious role in the revitalization efforts. For one, there's the issue of the cotton belt line which was pretty controversial at the time of its approval since it puts the transit agency under a serious debt load and risks future funding for the downtown D2 Alignment. Then there's the simple fact the rail network just fundamentally isn't very useful for getting anywhere other than downtown. And the fact that for some troubling reason the vast majority of employers are still deciding to locate in the suburbs. Dallas currently ranks something like 30th out of the country's largest 35 cities in terms of how much construction is occurring downtown vs in the suburbs (the statistic is 18% just so you know). One theory I have is that most of the companies deciding to locate in DFW aren't exactly chasing the best talent but are moreso looking for the cheapest places to operate their back-office operations which are naturally drawn to the suburbs for cost-related reasons, but that's sort of getting into a different conversation altogether.

I'm just gonna end on the note that my personal vision for a multi-modal Dallas involves lengthening the Oak Cliff streetcar a few miles down Davis or Jefferson and a mile or two into downtown, maybe even construct a new one down Singleton or Commerce in West Dallas, creating a decent grid of high-frequency bus routes connecting all of the downtown adjacent neighborhoods, and jettisoning a couple of suburbs out of the agency for some more autonomy. Just my 2 cents.