Alot of my experience with public transportation lies in other cities such as Chicago and San Francisco. I know "The City" of the US is New York City, but I haven't made it there yet. Soon. Very soon. In these other cities I thoroughly enjoy the use of public transportation and its ease of use. The first benefit is not needing a car and being able to navigate every corner of the city through this all access public transportation system. It has made tourism easy and accessible, as well as entertaining by having to navigate with maps and learn the system of the unexplored city. Every time I go to one of these cities I meditate on how I could bring back a piece of the city and improve Dallas to make it a world class city where others would want to visit the city for its attractions outside of the typical economic and job appeal. I have viewed public transportation as one of these things that could be improved.
The three cities I listed (Chicago, San Francisco, New York City) all seem to have something in common and to me, it makes their public transportation system a success. These cities have a grid-plan type development. I've noticed them before but didn't understand the importance of such a design. As our notes say, these truly create a walkable city and promote for easy public transportation. I see Dallas' lack of a grid-design to be a challenge in our public transportation system, something that we will have to be creative with in order to create a public transportation system that is competitive to that of NYC.
I would also like to note that when I think of US cities with great public transportation systems, I think of the three listed. A commonality between the three are that they are all water front cities and the organic city growth follows an interesting pattern that is different than our beloved Dallas, an inland city. These 3 cities are land locked to one side and we tend to find denser populations and high-density development in water front cities. Dallas has the privilege of expanding on all sides and increasing density at a later point. But I must admit, I do wish Dallas had higher density developments that mimic these three cities.
We can see the maps using the links below:
New York City
Chicago
San Francisco
Dallas 2030 Plan
I've recently had a look at the DART 2030 Plan which I am happy to see underway. This plan includes additional routes that connect a selected 13 city spread throughout the Dallas area which include an additional 43 miles of rail service to add to the already existent 72 miles of track. As I have said in my introduction video, my main focus on sustainability is in its relation to community development in the urban environment. I am excited to see the advancement of the DART system and its effect on the development of the built environment and its effect on economic development as well, giving Dallas a whole new flavor to life and an offering that supplements other major cities. We have the city. We have space. I believe that with a directive towards investment in public transportation we will see a more densely populated city interior. Something that I can't wait to be a part of. Side thought......increase in land values? I think so.
You might have a point about the "Grid" system helping public transit. I have long argued that DART doesn't get a fair shake. I have ridden public transit systems around the world -consider it to be professional development. In my opinion, DART actually does very well. Sure, it's not as good as the Tube in London or the Subway in Manhattan, but I think it's definitely as good as Athens or Rome's metro systems. I ride a DART bus almost every day and my husband takes the train. DART has helped us save thousands of dollars since we sold my car and became a (proudly) one car family.
ReplyDeleteNever the less, I hear people complain about DART all of the time, and DART's ridership numbers are far below what they should be for such an advanced system. But, then again, I live in Dallas. Dallas largely has the grid street system you bring up. Transit is easy in my neighborhood, and enjoyable. Maybe Dart really is that bad in the 'burbs because the subdivisions weren't designed to be easy to get around in -but that's not DART's fault.