In February, a DART committee gave preliminary approval to a plan to extend employment benefits to employees’ domestic partners, both gay and straight, and their children. It was a welcome decision, and it gave hope that, after six month of debate over costs and morality, approval by the full DART…
We knew this was coming. The North Texas Tollway Authority kind of telegraphed it when the agency announced that some 6,000 of its top scofflaws would be referred to an outside law firm for possible litigation over their toll-ignoring ways. And now, it’s here. The NTTA filed more than a…
When a planned Downtown Dallas-to-McKinney bike tour was abruptly cancelled last month — this the one that would shut down 30 miles of Central Expressway — riders who had paid their registration for the race were promised a prompt and full refund, assuming they didn’t want to take a free…
Texas Central Railway’s plan, announced almost a year ago now, to build a high-speed rail line linking Houston and North Texas has hit a not altogether unexpected complication: inter-city squabbling over where the bullet train will stop. In Mobility 2035, its long-term vision for transportation in the region, the North…
If it’s not already there, add Pioneer Parkway in Arlington to the list of places it’s probably wiser not to ride your bike. As you can see above, the two lanes are broad and straight, perfect for cars to pick up speed, with only a narrow shoulder that disappears to…
If you need a reminder that Oak Cliff and downtown will soon be linked by street car, head over to the Houston Street and watch as drivers try to get across the viaduct, which is closed for construction. Another reminder: DART just announced that it’s officially sealed a $9.4 million…
In September, transportation planners revealed that they had finally found a way to finance the $2.7 billion Cotton Belt, the 62-mile commuter rail line they hope someday will connect Richardson and Fort Worth. A private consortium, the members of which are still being kept under wraps, had agreed to take…
The city of Dallas is still figuring out how best to alert the driving public that bicycles are vehicles, too, and that they cannot, per new city ordinance, be run off the road or targeted with flung projectiles. While that’s happening, the state legislature will be considering whether to write…
Soon, travelers stranded at DFW Airport be forced to pretzel themselves on uncomfortable seats or sneak away to an isolated corner of carpet for a few minutes of shuteye. That’s because the airport is getting nap rooms. The rooms — more accurately, a nap hotel — are planned by Minute…
Last month’s unveiling of American Airlines’ new logo and livery (er, paint job) was a prelude to this: the long-awaited, full-blown merger with US Airways. The airlines are making it official this morning after their respective boards approved the $11 billion deal yesterday. US Airways CEO Doug Parker will head…
For years, DART’s been planning to stick a second rail line downtown, the better to handle the convergence of what is now four separate rail lines. A three-year study was completed back in 2010, and the list of possible routes was whittled down to four alternatives, all traveling through Victory…
Every day, my commute home takes me over the Hall Street overpass where, from the comfort (or, more accurately, mild discomfort) of my bike seat, I gaze down at the parking lot that is Central Expressway at rush hour and wonder with a mix of empathy and mild condescension what…
Last April, in a dual effort to ease parking shortages and make a little scratch, DART began charging some of the commuters parking at its northernmost light stations. The charge was $2 to $4 per day and applied only to drivers who live outside of DART’s taxpaying area who parked…
When DART last sat down to update its long-range plan in 2006, the agency was thinking big. With the recession still beyond the horizon, planners envisioned 86 additional miles of rail and 121 miles of new bus routes. Since then, the agency has added the bus routes, opened up the…
Note to self: Never ride a 4-wheeler on the runway at Lancaster Airport. That’s what some members of Texas-based Team Stunters were doing last week when they were nearly hit by a modified Pitts S2S biplane. The camera person is completely excused if they crapped their pants. The plane was…
In 1967, back when Helvetica was still brand new, American Airlines recruited Italian designer Massimo Vignelli to develop what would become the carrier’s logo for the next 46 years. It was simple, straightforward, and instantly recognizable: a pair of A’s, one red, one blue, separated by a stylized blue eagle…
American Airlines has had a rough go of it in recent years, what with its ongoing bankruptcy, a knock-down fight with its unions, and the general hatred of the flying public. Today, on the heels of its first quarterly profit in a while, American announced that it is turning over…
When Jason Roberts and his crew at the Oak Cliff Transit Authority first began trying to fund a streetcar line connect downtown with Oak Cliff, they asked the feds for around $48 million. They got only half of that. They’ve scraped together a bit more funding from various sources, but…
The best way to prevent drunken driving deaths, as we were repeatedly reminded in the wake of Jerry Brown’s death last month, is for drunk people to stop driving. The obvious problem is that the people who are deciding whether to drive are drunk and, while per capita drunken driving…
On Tuesday morning, Dallas police got a call from the Transportation Security Administration. The agency had some 65 pounds of abandoned ammunition that needed to be picked up. That’s all DPD’s incident report said. Not a word about what the hell such a large amount of ammunition was doing at…
Victor Lozada was a 19-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department when he was killed in a motorcycle crash while escorting then-presidential contender Hillary Clinton to a campaign rally in Oak Cliff on February 22, 2008. His death yielded a momentary pause to the hard-fought Democratic primary, an organ donation…
Several months ago, researchers gathered 164 volunteers in College Station, Texas and Seattle, outfitted their cars with GPS devices, and had them fill out questionnaires detailing how they drive (i.e. if they speed up for yellow lights, drive drunk, miss road signs, and any number of other factors). Then they…
