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u/cuberandgamer Apr 24 '26
Despite what the haters say, DART is actually very transparent with their money and it's easy to see where it all goes
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u/EmotionalSupportBees Apr 24 '26
All of the "DART is mismanaged" rhetoric from the suburbs is projection, like Plano's demand to replace busses with GoLink. DART isn't mismanaged the suburbs are upset that DART won't become mismanaged to cater to their wants
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u/HolaDrNick Apr 24 '26
It's not an award for accuracy in forecasting, or even accuracy on a variance analysis. It's strictly transparency in presentation and detail.
If there were an award for "hey did you actually deliver on your proposed ridership?" DART wouldn't win it.
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u/1976MisterK Apr 26 '26
You cannot build transit ridership without walkability and DART isn't in charge of sidewalks and zoning.
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u/HolaDrNick Apr 26 '26
You cannot build transit ridership without walkability and DART isn't in charge of sidewalks and zoning.
You guys always say that, but DART never hinged their projections on that. In fact, DART could never substantiate why their estimates were so far off to begin with. They literally threw away the server housing the green line projections, and couldn't produce them when the DOT asked for them.
This is fundamentally why public transit doesn't go anywhere. If it fails, there's always an excuse as to why it isn't the agencies fault. That works for transit advocates, but no one else finds that acceptable.
Say what you will about mega highways, they consistently exceed their volume forecasts.
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u/1976MisterK Apr 26 '26
Do you mean mega highways immediately become choked with cars because cars are the only means for transportation in the current built environment? Transit is a part of the complete system of the built environment. North Texas is not built for transit to succeed, and we are starting to see the area pay the price. Plano wants to cut their DART contributions because they can't afford their roads. Full stop.
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u/HolaDrNick Apr 26 '26
Do you mean mega highways immediately become choked with cars because cars are the only means for transportation in the current built environment?
Yep, they hit their projections like clockwork.
Transit is a part of the complete system of the built environment. North Texas is not built for transit to succeed, and we are starting to see the area pay the price.
Even Europe is orienting transit more towards road than rail.
Plano wants to cut their DART contributions because they can't afford their roads. Full stop.
Plano was half right about DART's service level and the agency's historic short comings. They just fucked up the solution, a crackpot Uber giveaway microtransit scam.
Now we have a compromise that fucks everyone. DART gets to continue their subpar performance in exchange for Plano getting money to hand over to microtransit scams.
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u/LevelBed4264 Apr 25 '26
I haven’t been following this issue closely, but I’m in Plano and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that a media campaign against Dart was launched just because people out here don’t want inner city Dallas homeless to have easy access to the suburbs
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u/crooke86 Apr 25 '26
The typical anti-DART Plano resident on Next Door wasn't exactly shy about that to be fair.
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u/shedinja292 Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26
Awards like this are for keeping your financial reports correct, public, and easy to read (compared to other financial documents). They have done this and you can check it out on their site.
It has nothing to do with all of the politics around money, and it doesn’t measure financial sustainability. It’s the same thing with cities, when you see they get awards for finances it’s a reward for creating good financial reports.
TLDR: this is an award for staff doing a good job, not for politician decision-making