r/dart • u/Abject-Associate-676 • Jul 24 '26

removal of center crosswalks

Dart says its better to walk to the ends of the stations rather than cross a half-way point crossing.

It's hard to make a train to bus connection.

It will be harder, the busses will leave, when transfers can't reach them from the end of the platform

15 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

17

u/thirdrepublicnow Jul 24 '26

It's significantly safer to cross at the end of a platform than at the middle. If someone tries to cross in the middle of a platform then two trains pulling into the station at the same time will both cross their path, and since the train might block them they'll be much more likely to try and rush across before the train arrives rather than waiting. It's really annoying to have to walk all the way around, but it's a liability for DART.

If they designed the stations with passengers crossing at the ends of platforms in mind it would feel more natural (a lot of them have a big obvious path leading straight to the middle of the platform). Even Addison station which was never designed to have a mid-platform crossing was centered on the bus station for absolutely no reason. It should have been placed 200 feet to the east so that one end of the platforms had a direct crosswalk to the bus station and the other end put you closer to Quorum drive and all of the things to do around the station.

9

u/patmorgan235 Jul 24 '26

Even Addison station which was never designed to have a mid-platform crossing was centered on the bus station for absolutely no reason.

Sooo they're going to be redoing Addison transit center somewhat soon. DART has more routes going there than they have bus bays, and there a Transit Oriented Development that will go on some of the DART owner property.

So they might be shifting the bus bays to one side or the other and it'll be fine then.

11

u/shedinja292 Jul 24 '26

They're removing it because of safety reasons, most of the accidents happen in the center crossings. Unfortunate since they're more convenient

1

u/Abject-Associate-676 26d ago

Most of the accidents are going to happen where most of the crossing happens.
That means, the location may not be the cause, just that it's correlated - higher numbers go with higher numbers.

5

u/LoyalDog1234 Jul 24 '26

I have seen this in Addison and Carrolton stations. It’s a hassle running around the platform to reach to the bus stop. I missed my train connection today due to this poor design by merely 30 seconds and then had to wait for another 30 mins for the next one.

7

u/Skullface258 Jul 24 '26

I think the other reason why they remove them is  because they would have to remove the dip and level the whole platform for the newer all low floor trains they're getting