Dallas, TX

Dallas has to get urgent about pedestrian safety

Published

1 year ago

September 17, 2024

Dallas has to get urgent about pedestrian safety

Dallas is not a city for pedestrians. High speed limits, few decent street crossings and long stretches without a sidewalk in sight. Crossing the street should not be a life-or-death situation, but too often it feels that way.

The city has a long-term plan that is already making an impact but is moving in slow motion. Officials still need to bring pedestrian safety to the forefront.

In 2023, there were 71 fatal crashes involving pedestrians and 198 crashes with severe injuries involving pedestrians, according to the city’s Vision Zero Dashboard. Vision Zero is an ambitious plan to reduce traffic fatalities and severe injury crashes by 50% by 2030, including pedestrian accidents.

Vision Zero has already identified the most dangerous intersections for pedestrians in Dallas, with the top spot going to Maple Avenue, between Oak Lawn Avenue and Hudnall Street. A safety plan that includes bike lanes and enhanced pedestrian crossings was presented in late July and has been given priority by the city.

Another effective way to reduce pedestrian deaths and injuries is by reducing speed limits. There is a correlation between speed limits and fatality rates with pedestrians, studies show, even by reducing 5 miles per hour. This is the spirit of a new ordinance for the East Ledbetter corridor, which is part of Loop 12. That stretch of road, according to a Texas Department of Transportation analysis and highlighted by KXAS-TV (NBC5), is the deadliest roadway for traffic crashes.

Redesigning portions of Loop 12 to slow down cars is part of a larger multiagency plan, Michael Morris, director of Transportation at the North Central Texas Council of Governments, told NBC5.

NTCOG is presenting a legislative plan for the region to enhance street safety, including automated speed enforcement over 90 mph and measures that improve bicycle and pedestrian safety focusing on areas with pedestrian movements.

Dallas also has ambitious projects for traffic safety that are waiting for bond money to kick in. However, completion dates in some cases are expected for 2027. With the information the city already has from Vision Zero, officials should consider repurposing funds to give priority to some of these projects.

Meanwhile, adding pedestrian crossings is relatively inexpensive and yet effective. Dallas City Council member Chad West told us some parts of his district, in north Oak Cliff, are using reflective delineators — bright traffic poles — that have been effective in reducing traffic speeds.

West, along with council member Jesse Moreno, started the Street Design Manual Work Group last year to review the city’s current Street Design Manual and to consider how to incorporate Vision Zero with other citywide initiatives. A report is expected by the end of this year.

Getting these plans into action takes time, but the city has enough information on the table to take immediate action in some high-risk areas with an added sense of urgency.

So far this year, there have been 48 pedestrian deaths and 107 severe injuries. These numbers are proof that there is much work to be done.

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com

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Dallas, TX

Stream of visitors shows Dallas is wise to invest in its water park

Published

7 hours ago

November 28, 2025

Press Room

Stream of visitors shows Dallas is wise to invest in its water park

Pool season ended in September, but we welcome a splash of good news anytime. And how’s this for a headline? Dallas has started work to replace a 20-year-old water feature at the popular Bahama Beach Waterpark in Red Bird — with the expectation that the new amenities will be ready by summer 2026.

As our newsroom colleague María Ramos Pacheco reported earlier this year, the $2.5 million upgrade for the water park is coming from a federal Community Development Block Grant and from the city’s Parkland Dedication Program Fund.

This water park is exactly the kind of aquatic facility that Dallas should be investing in. City Hall faced resistance this year over the closure of several community pools, but as we’ve written previously, those facilities’ days were numbered. With sparse attendance and with parts dating back decades and no economical replacements, to keep those pools open was to pour taxpayer money down the drain.

Today, communities across North Texas gravitate toward “spraygrounds,” aquatic centers and waterparks, which are larger facilities that combine pools with amenities such as lazy rivers, tubes and tall slides.

Bahama Beach Waterpark opened to much fanfare in 2005, and it remains a crowd favorite to this day. Annual attendance was 50,000 a decade ago and has risen to 76,000, Park and Recreation Director John Jenkins told us. The water park is also one of the city’s most cost-effective aquatic facilities. Bahama Beach, which charges a modest admission fee and also receives rental income, generates about $1.3 million in annual revenue and recovers 70% of its costs.

The latest upgrade will replace Coconut Grove, a playground styled like a water fortress featuring slides, pulleys and water buckets. It will be replaced by a bigger installation including 16 decks, more than 55 water features and new slides. It will also bring back the huge water-dumping bucket that is as much a hit with adults as it is with children.

This upgrade follows a more substantial overhaul in 2021, when the city invested $5.9 million to create an area dedicated to families with small children, including new restrooms.

“This is what folks want,” Jenkins said. “They want to have this type of amenity in their communities.”

The water park isn’t just for kids and their parents. Summer programming includes water aerobics classes for seniors.

Jenkins told us that the city has contracted with a company to seek corporate sponsorship opportunities for the park system, not including Fair Park and city parks with separate management. The park director said the city wants to keep fees affordable for families and is looking to sponsorships to generate more revenue and cover its costs at Bahama Beach.

Dallas residents vote with their feet, and they love their water park. City Hall is wise to keep its sole water park in great shape and to recognize that a commitment to Bahama Beach is a much-needed investment in southern Dallas.

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Dallas, TX

Chiefs vs. Cowboys: Three Bold Predictions As K.C. and Dallas Fight for Playoff Lives

Published

1 day ago

November 27, 2025

Press Room

Chiefs vs. Cowboys: Three Bold Predictions As K.C. and Dallas Fight for Playoff Lives

CeeDee Lamb is looking to get back on track. / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Travis Kelce, NFL, Chiefs — CeeDee Lamb is looking to get back on track. / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

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Dallas, TX

Gut Feeling: Cowboys-Chiefs staff predictions

Published

2 days ago

November 26, 2025

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Gut Feeling: Cowboys-Chiefs staff predictions

FRISCO, Texas — For the first time since 1995, the Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs will face off on Thanksgiving Day.

On that day 30 years ago, Troy Aikman’s 192 passing yards and two touchdowns were enough to beat Chiefs QB Steve Bono’s 276 yards passing as the Cowboys won 24-12.

Now, both teams are in a new era, with Dak Prescott leading the Cowboys and Patrick Mahomes the Chiefs. The two have only faced each other one time, with Mahomes and Kansas City getting the better of Prescott and the Cowboys 19-9 at Arrowhead Stadium back in 2021.

Who will come out on top in their first meeting since, with the Cowboys sitting at 5-5-1 and the Chiefs at 6-5? Our staff weighs in:

Patrik: This is yet another difficult one to predict, but it does feel a lot less impossible for the Cowboys to walk away with this one than, say, four weeks ago when they fell to 3-5-1 after being dismantled by the lowly Cardinals. One trade deadline and bye week later and they’ve added Quinnen Williams, Logan Wilson, DeMarvion Overshown and Shavon Revel to the active roster, and Caelen Carson looks rejuvenated in his return from IR. The problem now is self-inflicted wounds that continue to make things more difficult for the Cowboys than they need be, and including offensively, being a key reason Dak Prescott and Co. sputtered or stalled on several drives against Philly. Do that against the Chiefs and you’re eating an L for Thanksgiving dinner. Mahomes is still Mahomes, yes, but while Travis Kelce can impact games, he’s not a gamebreaker anymore, and I do think the Cowboys’ defense bottles up the KC rushing attack much how they successfully did Ashton Jeanty and Saquon Barkley; and the offensive line that deleted the Eagles’ acclaimed front gives me good vibes. A close one here, but Dallas finds a way … wow, I just said that, huh? 24-21, Cowboys

Tommy: There is no question that the Cowboys’ defense has improved a lot since the trade deadline when they made the moves to acquire Quinnen Williams and Logan Wilson, and were also able to get guys like DeMarvion Overshown back from injury. Because of that, Dallas has done what they’ve aimed to do all year the last two weeks: Stop the run. And it’s worked! I think it’ll work on Thursday against Kansas City as well. When your run game gets stopped offensively, what do you do? Well, throw the ball. The good thing for Dallas is in their last two games, the teams that have thrown the ball on them have been the 23rd (Eagles) and 25th (Raiders) passing offenses in the league. Kansas City is the 2nd best passing offense, right behind Dallas at #1. I don’t think the Cowboys secondary is at a place to where they can consistently stop Patrick Mahomes and his array of speedy wide receivers, plus Travis Kelce who may not be as shifty as he once was but is still plenty efficient and leads the team in receiving yards. I’m not as concerned about Dallas’ offense, but they’ll still have to beat a tricky Steve Spagnuolo defense that’s a top ten unit. Don’t be fooled by the Chiefs’ 6-5 record, all their losses have been by one possession. I don’t mean to ruin Thanksgiving, but I’m taking Kansas City. Chiefs 31, Cowboys 24

Nick: I love the build-up to this game, because a few weeks back, I didn’t think it would be any decision at all to pick this game. Every time we saw a quarterback such as Bo Nix, Jacob Brissett or even Bryce Young and Russell Wilson before that, all I could think of was how bad it’s going to be when Mahomes comes in here on Thanksgiving. Well, that defense is not the same. Just how different are they? We’ll find out soon enough. But more than just playing him, I wonder how consistent the Cowboys can be as a team. We haven’t seen three straight wins since 2023 and something tells me it’s just not going to happen this week. Kansas City might look the same with a 6-5 record, but they haven’t played many games with their entire offense – Kelce, Worthy, Pacheco, Hunt, Rice, etc. They’re all coming together again and I just think it’s going to be too much for the Cowboys to overcome. I think it’ll be high-scoring, but I’ll take the Chiefs 34-30.

Mickey: We’ve been seeing more and more of this in his two games with the Cowboys, defensive tackle Quinnen Williams becoming a nuisance for opposing offenses with his ability to disrupt up front. Well, the Chiefs will be without starting guard Trey Smith, and look for Q to take over the game up front, not only being a huge help stopping the Chiefs running attack but also applying pressure to QB Patrick Mahomes. So, thinking the Cowboys will get a game-ball like performance from Williams up front, dragging this defense along with him, enabling the Cowboys to pick up their third consecutive victory and inch above .500 for the first time this season.

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