DART’s West Dallas shuttle could be model for last-mile connections

If you want to get around the Dallas area without a car, you may not need a fortune, but you will need an abundance of time.

Long wait times at bus and light-rail stations that are hard to access on foot are a side effect of our region’s urban sprawl. Closing these gaps is an ongoing challenge for Dallas Area Rapid Transit as it tries to balance its role as a mover of people inside cities and across a region in its vast, 700-square-mile service area.

All that walking and waiting make it hard to encourage people to use public transit in the Dallas area. Even worse, many people who don’t have other transportation options silently accept long journeys and delays. In the long term, this limits their opportunities, quality of life and North Texas’ economic development.

DART has made strides to provide more last-mile connections. Its board recently decided to extend the West Dallas shuttle pilot program for a second year, a move that will benefit around 4,000 monthly riders who’ve been using the free service for grocery runs and doctors appointments and to make connections to other DART services.

The shuttle operates within a 4.7-square-mile area in West Dallas, between Interstate 30 and Canada Drive, and is run through a partnership between DART, Toyota and Circuit, a ride-share service. Toyota provides a fleet of six eco-friendly electric vehicles, and residents use the Circuit smartphone app to book rides between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. The one-year pilot was supposed to end in December, but with the extension, the service will run through the end of next year.

The West Dallas shuttle is clearly meeting a need. At peak use in March, it had 5,397 monthly riders. The seven bus routes in the area saw a ridership increase of 26% between January and July, showing the shuttle service’s value as a last-mile connection. Riders also used the shuttle to connect to the light-rail system at EBJ/Union Station and West End Station.

The shuttle caters to the groups who need it most — seniors in assisted living facilities and low-income families. The area is also majority Latino. DART board members have noted that the agency doesn’t serve as many Latinos as it could, despite the Dallas area’s large Latino population. The agency has tried to be more accessible by running more Spanish-language advertising. The extension of this shuttle program may also contribute to that effort.

The service has a good track record. The average wait time for each ride was under 15 minutes. Because of the cost share among Toyota, Circuit and DART, the subsidy per rider was $4, significantly more cost-effective than DART’s other on-demand service, GoLink. As DART steps away from big capital projects, programs like the West Dallas shuttle pilot might offer a blueprint to provide vital last-mile connections to help riders make the most of existing routes.

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