Dallas Area Rapid Transit: Policy and Implementation
The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system is the city of Dallas’ claim to fame in terms of public transportation. After 30 years of service and $400 million in sales tax collected just last year, Texas’ most ambitions experiment with public transit entered a new era this year with a system expansion making DART the largest light-rail system in the United States.
Despite the system’s numerous superlatives, it still does not do much for persuading significant numbers of Dallas drivers to park their cars or relieve the serious congestion on the region’s highways. The 2030 plan’s line expansion was projected to serve approximately 15,000 round-trip passengers a day, but that’s only a small fraction of the region’s daily traffic. So while DART has the largest light-rail system in the country, its effectiveness has been hampered by a simultaneous population growth in the suburbs and cities just outside its current service area.1 Furthermore, the policies in place created at the time of DART’s establishment are perhaps regressive in their nature, fundamentally promoting transportation issues of equity, fairness, and accessibility in terms of some cities subsidizing the public transportation costs of others.
This paper will outline the DART system in its design, expansion plans, ridership, and funding polices that contribute to the problem of locally subsidized transportation and discuss a model in which it is being addressed. Lastly, conclude with a discussion of alternative approaches to the system’s funding and the impacts that has on Dallas and the cities looking to expand their transit options.
The System
In 1983, voters in Dallas County and 13 other cities approved the levy of a one-percent sales tax and the creation of the DART as a regional transportation option for the coverage of the greater Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. In addition to the city of Dallas, The current system serves 13 “member cities” including Arlington, Addison, Carrolton, Cockrell Hill, Farmers Branch, Garland, Glenn Heights, Highland Park, Irving, Plano, Richardson, Rowlett, and University Park.2
The system operates 4 lines: Red, Blue, Green, and Orange (see Figure 1), and also includes the Trinity Railway Express connecting Dallas to Fort Worth. Crossing 7 counties, covering 700 square miles, with 85 miles of railway, 61 stations, and a vehicle fleet of 163, the current system has larger trains and longer routes and is beginning to deliver on promises to make the light-rail system relevant throughout the service area.3 The DART system design is a hub-and- spoke system, with all lines passing through downtown Dallas. In the 2035 expansion plan, the system seeks to rethink fundamentally the sprawling nature of this design and fill in a ring road, connecting many of the inner suburbs to one another (see Figure 2).
2030 Transit System Plan
In 2006, DART and its 13 member cities approved a 2030 long-range plan. The DART 2030 Transit System Plan looks to increase the blueprint of the current system in a “fast-growing, fast-changing” region. It seeks to capitalize on the North Texas region’s projected growth to approximately 8 million by 2030 and the impacts associated with that growth.
Addressing the lack of east-west service, DART completed a transit study to understand the commuting challenges along several North Texas corridors. The study found the northern part of the DART Service Area to be one of the most congested areas within the region due to the major employment centers along LBJ Freeway, the George Bush Turnpike and the Dallas North Tollway attracting a significant number of work trips each day. While DART currently provides a bus service to these areas, there is a significant need for higher-capacity transit connections that link the existing and planned radial rail system to these areas.4
Key elements of the expansion plan are finding ways to solve the east-west gap in service and include extending the Blue, Red, and Green lines further through the suburbs, an express rail utilizing the Cotton Belt Corridor to reach the DFW International Airport, enhanced rapid bus service, and a continued high level of paratransit service (see Figure 2). Even with the enhanced services and expanded lines, still, the question remains of what this means in terms of daily and overall ridership figures.
Figure 1 Source: DART
2030 Transit System Plan
In 2006, DART and its 13 member cities approved a 2030 long-range plan. The DART 2030 Transit System Plan looks to increase the blueprint of the current system in a “fast-growing, fast-changing” region. It seeks to capitalize on the North Texas region’s projected growth to approximately 8 million by 2030 and the impacts associated with that growth.
Addressing the lack of east-west service, DART completed a transit study to understand the commuting challenges along several North Texas corridors. The study found the northern part of the DART Service Area to be one of the most congested areas within the region due to the major employment centers along LBJ Freeway, the George Bush Turnpike and the Dallas North Tollway attracting a significant number of work trips each day. While DART currently provides a bus service to these areas, there is a significant need for higher-capacity transit connections that link the existing and planned radial rail system to these areas.4
Key elements of the expansion plan are finding ways to solve the east-west gap in service and include extending the Blue, Red, and Green lines further through the suburbs, an express rail utilizing the Cotton Belt Corridor to reach the DFW International Airport, enhanced rapid bus service, and a continued high level of paratransit service (see Figure 2). Even with the enhanced services and expanded lines, still, the question remains of what this means in terms of daily and overall ridership figures.
Figure 2 Source: DART
Ridership
The last several years have impacted DART ridership figures both positively and negatively. Fluxes in ridership numbers certainly coincide with a bustling economy, to a period of $4 per gallon gasoline and high unemployment during the 2008 recession, to a jobless recovery, service changes, and the doubling of the light rail system between 2009 and 2013. From the Fiscal Year 2014 Business Plan, Figure 3 shows DART ridership trends from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2013.5
Figure 3 Source: DART
Recently, ridership data for the DART light rail began to be derived from Automatic Passenger Counters rather than a manual count. The new APC equipment is more accurate and has produced data that is 15% higher than has been previously reported.6 Still, with this new counting method, the DART falls behind many of the country’s smaller light- rail systems, ranked only 6th in terms of ridership.7
Funding Policy
Since its establishment in 1983, the agreement between DART and the member cities within its service area has been clear. Residents in those cities would pay a one-percent sales tax collected on certain transactions within the service area to the transit agency. In return, the tax-paying residents would enjoy exclusive access to the agency’s transit service. Over the years, the DART tax has raised billions of dollars to build the expansive network that moves people over 700 square miles throughout the North Texas region. Just last year, the 13 member cities turned over $400 million in local sales taxes to the transit agency.8
In addition to the cities that voted to join DART at its establishment, the legislation that created DART specifies that any city adjoining Dallas may join the agency. In addition, any city that is adjacent to a DART member city is eligible to join.9 To join DART’s service area, a city must also commit to the one-percent sales tax for every dollar spent within its borders. Within the North Texas region, 26 cities are eligible to join DART as they are adjacent to either Dallas or another DART member city, but have not chosen to levy the required one-percent sales tax. No city has agreed to join as a member city since DART’s first year, perhaps because the levy prevents many cities from joining due to a Texas state law that caps total sales taxes that may be charged.10 According to the Texas tax law, a city may impose a sales tax up to a 2% cap for a combined total with state, county, and transit of 8.25%.11 While Dallas and its fellow DART member cities have chosen to dedicate part of their 2% sales tax cap towards public transportation investments, other cities have prioritized their funds elsewhere. If DART wants to expand beyond its current service area and capture the extensive growth of many North Dallas suburbs, it needs to look for an alternative to the one-cent sales tax.
Local and Regional Growth
The Dallas-Fort Worth region has been one of the fastest growing areas of the country during the last 20 years and is expected to continue this trend through the year 2030. Meeting the mobility needs of such a sprawling metropolitan area can be challenging, especially when growth, development, and land use patterns, especially in car-loving suburbs, have historically never been oriented toward transit.
Regional demographic projections reflect an increase of over 3.3 million residents and nearly two million jobs from year 2005 to 2030 for the ten-county North Texas region (see Figure 4). According to projections from the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), the region’s MPO, growth trends indicate that population and employment will increase by 12 percent and 30 percent, respectively, for the DART Service Area. Most population growth will be outside the DART Service Area although about 50 percent of jobs will still be within the DART Service Area.12
Figure 4 Source: NCTCOG
The growth of Collin County, in particular, represents one of the fastest growing counties in the state, and is just outside the DART service area.13 Consider the Red Line, the DART line with the highest ridership. The Red Line going north ends in Plano which is the only DART member city in Collin County (see Figure 5). However, DART owns the right-of-way through Allen, Fairview, McKinney and the growing suburbs beyond. Extension of DART rail might be attractive to those three cities, especially to serve the plethora of retail areas and shopping centers that have already sprouted alongside the right-of-way like the Village at Allen, Figure 6. Light-rail extensions further into Collin County would be convenient and would better serve the numerous DART riders who currently drive down to the Parker Road station, park, and get on the Red Line in Plano.14
The Problem
The nature of the design of the system and the funding policies that prevent the DART light-rail from expanding into some of the growing suburbs, however, bring into light an issue of great discussion in the metroplex: that DART member cities are subsidizing the transportation costs of the growing population in nearby non-DART member cities.
To use the Plano example, studies have shown more than half of all commuters who use the Parker Road station come from cities that do not pay DART taxes.15 Two-thirds of the population of Collin County lives outside the DART service area’s borders.16 While residents of cities outside of the service area that use DART contribute to the system’s ridership, in many ways it is “unfair” to residents of DART member cities and puts extra pressure on the transit system for which they aren't paying for in taxes. Fair Share Parking is one way that DART is looking to mitigate these issues.
Figure 6 The Village at Allen
Figure 6 The Village at Allen
Fair Share Parking
In response to these concerns of equity, and recognizing that increased demand of riders outside the service area has serious costs, DART recently introduced a program called “Fair Share Parking”. In an attempt to continue to serve riders outside the service area, but stay “fair” to its member cities, Fair Share Parking is a way to capture a small portion of that lost revenue and is, in DART’s opinion, the “most equitable way to offset the added costs [of riders outside the service area].”17 It charges drivers to park at light-rail stations if they live outside of a DART member city.
Figure 7 Source: DART
The pilot program, currently effective at 4 light-rail stations, charges residents of non-DART member cities $2 for daily parking. The way the program works is essentially residents of DART member cities can apply for a permit and park for free at any of the stations’ parking lots. Non-DART member city residents will have to apply for a permit but pay the nominal $2 fee to park 12 hours, or $5 to park 24 hours. Monthly, reserved spaces, and special- event passes are also available. Residency verification and vehicle ownership information is required upon permit application.
The pilot program, an attempt to mitigate many concerns of DART member cities, has in itself been a huge point of controversy as well and is inherently problematic. In many ways it prices out potential riders who understand the value of the light-rail system. Additionally, the paid parking experiment has come with a budget loss, contrary to what the program was looking to achieve. According to DART, the program has lost $103,474, a huge difference from the $56,000 to $500,000 in added revenue initially hoped for.18 This all incentives riders to park at light-rail stations further down the line where they don’t have to pay, creating a bottleneck congestion problem downstream.
It was considered to implement paid parking at all light- rail stations, but that could just create a domino effect of commuters driving further and further down the line to find a free lot. In the long run, if commuters keep driving further down to avoid paying the parking fee, at some point it is no longer economically efficient and will continue to just drive the whole way, in turn hurting ridership and revenue even more.
Regardless of the intention of the “Fair Share Parking” program, it clearly has its own series of problems to be reconciled, and is why there has been talk to terminate the program at the end of its initial two-year trial period.19 So, it must be considered whether capturing higher public transit ridership or maintaining equity among DART-member cities is more important in the transportation goals of the North Texas region, especially when considering the potential growth impacts of suburbs outside of the DART service area whom are looking to expand their transit alternatives.
Impacts to non-DART member cities
The city of Arlington, for example, is a burgeoning city with several sports stadiums, theme parks, and a large University. As a city not within the current DART service area, it has shown interest in one day having a commuter rail. However, residents have repeatedly voted down the funding policy for public transportation that DART currently has in place.
Another alternative is to work around the initial one-percent tax levy as laid out in DART’s new membership rules for cities that are looking to join the system. With a preliminary commitment within two years, cities can join the agency on a contract basis and essentially pay a “downpayment” lump sum for transit services. Within four years, cities will then be required to hold an election on whether or not to join DART as a member city and to start allocating tax dollars or other dedicated revenue to the transit agency.
The hope is that successful temporary service to cities that agree to this membership alternative will encourage residents to vote in favor of a permanent system and become a DART member city. Several cities have already taken advantage of this policy amendment and have started a contracted express bus service that is looking to be evaluated for the long term. Still, for those cities that might want to commit fully, the issue of the Texas sales tax cap is problematic. As many cities have already reached the 2% cap, DART is considering special use or sales taxes that cities might be dedicating towards economic development. If approved by voters, that revenue would be slowly shifted to DART, as existing obligations and deadlines are met, until the full one-percent sales tax is dedicated to the transit agency.20 While ultimately the cities will still have to follow the current funding policy of DART, the trial period may help entice those cities on the fence about public transportation.21
Conclusion
Looking toward the future, it is important for DART to consider how to reach those communities outside the current service area and increase ridership while striking a balance with member cities that are paying for DART service. If growth patterns continue, population projections predict that DART’s member cities will only account for about 31 percent of the North Texas population by 2035.22 But cities should not have to waste their tax dollars on a transit system only to gain minimal increases in ridership, especially in those areas that are growing quickest. Now that DART has built itself a massive transit network, it should start to consider the regions’ development and growth patterns to ensure its transit investments are used most appropriately, and Dallas certainly has the right conditions for something transformative to take place.
Dallas’ downtown has 138,224 more jobs than most cities’23, so in theory it could be a great place for transit users. But considering the city’s parking policies and current land use allocation, downtown Dallas actively encourages residents to drive there and then park. It costs only a dollar an hour in most parking lots downtown and many lots are even free. It is also not difficult to find a parking spot. Nearly every block has a surface lot, street parking, valet, or a parking garage, so when it is that easy to get around the downtown in the comfort of one’s own car, it makes transit alternatives hard to be competitive.
Additionally, land use patterns result in a lack of compact residential areas conducive to higher ridership and use of the DART system. The downtown core has grown from roughly 1,500 residents to over 10,000 today24, but the surrounding neighborhoods and suburbs are primarily single-family homes. The alignment of the light rail generally follows existing highways or rail rights-of-way and is certainly convenient for suburban commuters to drive and park at a nearby station. However, it is less so for the few denser areas of the region.
The emerging arts district and well-populated neighborhoods in Uptown and Oak Lawn are completely inaccessible to the light-rail. As these denser, “urban” neighborhoods are comprised of a younger population base, it is likely full of transit rider potential. Regardless, new denser and transit-oriented districts are starting to appear as residents in the North Texas region become used to the idea of public transit and living near it. Yet the prototypical examples of Dallas transit-oriented districts like Mockingbird (Figure 9) and Victory stations, are filled with parking lots and garages and located adjacent to major freeways, still making them ideal environments for drivers.25 The region’s development and land use patterns must be reconsidered if the region and transit agency ever expects to profit fully from all of its’ residents’ tax dollars spent on the expansive light-rail network and gain the ridership it hopes to achieve.
Despite some of the pitfalls of the both the city and the system, DART is still working towards a larger goal. While the system may not have the ridership it had dreamed of or as compared to many of the country’s other public transit systems, but take the riders the system does have and put them back in cars on the highways; that certainly still makes a difference for Dallas. While the DART in no way solves the transportation problems of the region, it is certainly part of a solution. Furthermore, it is an example of how multiple jurisdictions within a region can come together to work to solve a region-wide problem of mobility and accessibility.
Figure 9 Mockingbird Station
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1 Crossley, 2010
2 Wikipedia, Dallas Area Rapid Transit
3 Crossley, 2010
4 DART, 2030 Transit System Plan
5 DART, FY 2014 Business Plan
6 http://www.dart.org/about/dartfacts.asp
7 Wikipedia, List of United States Light Rail Systems by Ridership
8 Betz, 2012
9 Wikipedia, Dallas Area Rapid Transit
10 Wikipedia, Dallas Area Rapid Transit
11 http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/sales/
12 DART, 2030 Transit System Plan
13 Watkins, Nov 2013
14 Jones, 2013
15 Jones, 2013
16 Plesko, 2013
17 http://www.dart.org/riding/paidparking.asp
18 Wilonsky, 2013
19 Stoler, 2013
20 Benning, 2013
21 Benning, 2013
22 Watkins, Aug 2013
23 Freemark, 2010
24 Freemark, 2010
25 Freemark, 2010
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Betz, Jonathan. “Non-member Cities Getting DART at a Discount.” WFAA, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Dec. 2013.
Betz, Jonathan. “Free DART Parking in Jeopardy for Some Suburbanites.” WFAA, 22 June 2010. Web. 20 Dec. 2013.
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Freemark, Yonah. “An Extensive New Addition to Dallas’ Light Rail Network Makes It America’s Longest « The Transport Politic.” The Transport Politic, 05 Dec. 2010. Web. 20 Dec. 2013.
“List of United States Light Rail Systems by Ridership.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Dec. 2013. Web. 20 Dec. 2013.
Plesko, Todd. “DART Paid Parking Nine Month Status Report.” DART, 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 20 Dec. 2013.
Jones, Rodger. “Is DART Setting Price Too High for New Member Cities?” The Dallas Morning News Transportation Blog, 6 Mar. 2013. Web. 20 Dec. 2013.
Stoler, Steve. “DART May Restore Free Parking for All at Rail Stations.” WFAA, 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 20 Dec. 2013.
Watkins, Matthew. “Suburban Expansion May Hold Key to DART’s Future.” The Dallas Morning News, 11 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Dec. 2013.
Watkins, Matthew. “As Collin County Dips Its Toe into Transit, DART May Have New Competitor.” The Dallas Morning News, 9 Nov. 2013. Web. 20 Dec. 2013.
Wilonsky, Robert. “DART Committee to Weigh Future of Paid-parking Experiment.” The Dallas Morning News, 25 Mar. 2013. Web. 20 Dec. 2013.
“2030 Transit System Plan.” DART, Oct. 2006. Web. <http://www.dart.org/ShareRoot/2030plan/ DART2030PlanJan2007.pdf>.
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