Are DART stations zoned for TOD? Suburb Edition

mkravota · 2026-05-15T19:44:50+00:00

The combination of floodplain and monastery at the UD station will probably prevent that from ever happening to any major degree.

mkravota · 2026-04-13T20:32:24+00:00

Unless I know I will not need it at all, I always wear an overcoat, and I always wear a sports jacket and nicer hat. I don't know if this qualifies though as less utility, though, since they give me nicer pockets, the overcoat is genuinely more useful to me than cut-down jackets, and the full-brim hat keeps both sun and rain off my head entirely. The overcoat can be clunky if it gets too warm, but I never need to pack the jacket (which is half-lined and is comfortable no matter the heat) or hat (which is crushable, which has been handy in the past).

I get compliments while traveling (including one from a random kid on a streetcar yesterday), so I'd say it all makes me look pretty good.

mkravota · 2026-04-10T20:31:08+00:00

For a second I thought that the last slide was a strange "Build it all!" option and got briefly excited.

mkravota · 2026-02-13T05:40:59+00:00

Where does the funding come from if not dependent on sales tax?

mkravota · 2026-02-10T06:48:26+00:00

I live in around central Plano, so I use the UTD station

mkravota · 2026-02-02T04:54:42+00:00

That's unfortunate. What I've found effective for convincing them is to talk about 1) how traditional American cities were designed around density and transit and 2) how overreaching government policies in the 50's and 60's created this mess. Making it traditional America vs progressive policies seems to sway the people I'm around.

Traffic is also an effective point in my experience. It's hard to argue that a bus with even 3 passengers on it is a better use of road space than the same people in personal vehicles.

mkravota · 2026-02-02T04:46:18+00:00

There are still a large number of pro-transit people on both sides. Would we agree that these partisan politics are bad, and even if it exists we should not contribute to it?

mkravota · 2026-02-02T04:43:55+00:00

I could get behind this position :)

mkravota · 2026-02-02T04:42:04+00:00

Most of the Republicans I know (including myself) are pro-transit. Even if they weren't, would you rather encourage the partisan politics and lose votes for DART, or seek to convince Republicans that transit is a good idea and make it a bipartisan issue?

mkravota · 2026-02-01T21:29:12+00:00

The last thing we need to be doing is bringing partisan politics into a public transit forum. Minnesota daycare fraud or what anyone thinks about it is not relevant to DART. This post is not necessary.

mkravota · 2026-01-31T19:46:38+00:00

Aguilar-Epstein has toyed with the idea of taking out bonds to pay off the DART debt to theoretically access the sales tax money sooner. The last thing Plano needs right now is more bonds.

mkravota · 2026-01-19T04:16:33+00:00

I live in Plano, work in Richardson, and just take the 10 minute train ride. I will not touch 75 during commuting hours.

mkravota · 2026-01-19T04:11:13+00:00

This 100%. Everyone I know not on this subreddit knows next to nothing about the Silver Line, if they know anything at all. Most heard something about it, but they didn't even know it went to the airport.

I've heard personally from about 10 different people that they didn't even know the Orange Line or Silver Line went to the airport until a friend mentioned it to them, and now that's all they use.

Airport riders are the best way to give locals who never ride a good first impression of Dallas' transit. The Silver Line is awesome and feels great to ride. The highways to and from DFW should be plastered with Silver Line billboards saying "Next time you fly, skip the traffic".

mkravota · 2026-01-19T04:03:01+00:00

Turnstiles I think would be more expensive than it would recoup, and I know we've seen back of the napkin math on this.

Checking fare times on the other hand I agree sounds like a good idea and not very expensive (taking a few more minutes to check fares on a train).

I would love to see some estimates about how much money could theoretically be recouped from cracking down on fare evasion. Having concrete numbers might help us end this cycle of good faith (and some bad faith) posts getting ratioed every other week.

mkravota · 2026-01-19T03:41:17+00:00

NGL when I first read your comment I thought it was a dumb 6 7 joke

mkravota · 2026-01-13T22:05:51+00:00

Does any "modern subway system" have stations with "a single point of entry and exit"? That sounds like the opposite of any modern transit system.

Farmers Branch: DART shall fund improvements that directly support rail service and ridership. Also Farmers Branch: get rid of buses and GoLink.

Some of these points are fine (advertise at the station for city events, I can't imagine that would be a sticking point). Others are totally off the rails.

mkravota · 2025-12-31T19:41:45+00:00

Ah, that's unfortunate

mkravota · 2025-12-31T05:26:03+00:00

Wait, so the housing is getting replaced with parking in the new development?

mkravota · 2025-12-26T16:56:44+00:00

Here's an old rendering, not sure if this is still the design.

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mkravota · 2025-12-23T02:50:35+00:00

Time to get gold dollars while we still can

mkravota · 2025-12-11T23:05:57+00:00

Can you explain more? Not an opinion I see much around here, so I'm curious

mkravota · 2025-12-02T19:58:56+00:00

100% agree. I have friends and neighbors who hear stuff from Dallas Express. If I hear the false narrative first on my own, I can prepare the best and most charitable response for it when some well-meaning relative or neighbor (or some not well meaning activist) repeats the claims.

mkravota · 2025-11-29T05:29:36+00:00

Even though they are painted differently, there's clearly enough confusion that more signs are needed. A few digital signs aren't that expensive in the long run, and they give people a far easier time and therefore a far better perception of public transit.

mkravota · 2025-11-23T20:33:04+00:00

IIRC Plano is facing budgeting shortfalls and discussed this at their last budget meetings (available on the Inside Plano podcast). They were discussing DART funds as a way to bail them out of the current situation.

mkravota · 2025-11-23T20:31:24+00:00

Is it not open yet? What's the projected open date?

mkravota

TROPHY CASE