Rob Smith, DART Assistant Vice President of Service Planning and Scheduling, highlighted how our North Texas community has been changing and evolving over the years. This redesign effort is an opportunity to step back and look at DART’s entire bus system to make it more direct, frequent and effective.
Smith also recognized that people are traveling differently now because of the coronavirus. He said DART has made temporary changes to its service and that the agency will continue to examine ridership patterns and adjust service as people return to work.
Michelle Poyourow, Jarrett Walker + Associates Transportation Planner, talked about how it is important to start with as much data gathering as possible to understand the people and communities the redesign will impact. Where residents are living and working in high numbers, demographics, socioeconomics and age are some of the things the data should reflect. She also talked about the importance of landscape, walkability and how the core team has worked with planners from all 13 cities in DART’s service area to help draw concept maps.
Lawrence Meshack, DART Senior Manager of Community Affairs, talked about the ways DART is reaching its community with information about the redesign. These efforts include signs on buses and trains, communication over the phone and recent webinars and online resources at DARTzoom.org.
Smith mentioned it is important for North Texans to provide input on what they would like to see in the new bus network. He said whether the redesign takes an approach that focusses on ridership, coverage or both, the decision will ultimately be one the DART Board makes based on input from riders like you.
How Do I Have an Impact?
All three panelists highlighted how important it is for you to help improve DART’s bus network by getting involved and sharing your input.
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