Short On Cash, Sure, But At Least Some Environmentalists Like Where DART's Headed

Yesterday Luke Metzger at Environment Texas passed along the group's latest look at the good things DART's doing for the air. The most interesting nugget's right there in the lead: the group calculated that DART's annual ridership accounts for 8.8 million gallons of gasoline saved -- as much as 15,000...

By Patrick Michels

July 16, 2010

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Yesterday Luke Metzger at Environment Texas passed along the group's latest look at the good things DART's doing for the air. The most interesting nugget's right there in the lead: the group calculated that DART's annual ridership accounts for 8.8 million gallons of gasoline saved -- as much as 15,000 cars would burn.

While walkable-city pushers tend to focus on the lifestyle benefits of going car-free, this report's about tallying up the big-picture benefits of taking public transit -- like the 54,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution DART saves us each year, for instance. The group lists DART's expansion proposals without wading into the murky waters of ever-changing budget specfics, though it does acknowledge that times are tough: "rail systems like DART...are having to reduce service and delay improvements due to strained budgets."

Jump for a look at the full report.

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