The bill, authored by Republican Plano Rep. Matt Shaheen, would restructure the long-standing funding process for regional transportation authorities like Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), allowing member cities to reduce their contribution by a quarter.
In short, a DART statement said last week, the bill would ‘kill’ DART.
Staff writer Alyssa Fields visited some DART riders as they were waiting for transportation last week to ask them how a decrease in DART services might affect them. Without DART, many of them don’t know how they would get to work, school or around town at all.
“This bill isn’t a tweak to funding. It’s a full-on dismantling of the DART system,” said Jeamy Molina, DART chief communications officer said in the statement. “The people of North Texas voted twice to fund a unified, regional transit system. House Bill 3187 completely ignores their voice and puts the future of public transportation in jeopardy.”
Leaders of some suburban cities, including Plano, have recently discussed decreasing their DART funding, thanks in part to what they perceive as a disconnect between the amount of DART services used in their cities and what they are paying annually to the transit authority.
Should DART have to reduce routes or make other cuts in its offerings, the people most affected are likely to be low-income families and individuals and senior citizens who lack transportation or are unable to drive themselves.
A lot of topics get our social media followers riled up on Facebook and Instagram, but this one really had some expressing themselves online. Below is a sampling of the comments many expressed online. Have an opinion on this you'd like to share with us and the Dallas community? Email [email protected] (and it might get published in our Opinion section).
Jerry from Instagram:
Absolutely unsurprising it was created by a rep from Plano (and Ken Paxton's wife in the senate).
Celestino from Instagram:
id like to give the person who proposed this a piece of my mind, what the hell is wrong with people. You just love highways and non-walkable cities huh, just cant get enough concrete and car fumes huh, god forbid people are able to get around without a car
Ashley from Instagram:
Yes we love going backwards
Rosie from Instagram:
This [headline] made it seem like there’s a killer named Bill on the loose. [Editor’s Note: We chuckled at this one and agree.]
Laurel from Facebook:
How about those families who don’t own a car and rely on dart to get to work now? You going to pay for Uber to get them to work? Nope. This sounds like another way to cut off affordable housing built in the burbs. Certain ethnic groups who lack automobiles in the first place get stuck again in Pleasant Grove and all the high crime areas in Dallas.
Johnny from Facebook:
Perhaps if DART had focused on its customers all these years, rather than focusing on building the longest light rail system in the country, it wouldn’t be in this predicament.
Steve from Facebook:
We need more expensive toll lanes and toll roads. Please Republicans, get rid of affordable transportation. Please.
