DART — Inefficient And Rapidly Becoming More Dangerous

DART: My Bicycle Is Faster… and Safer

(Amended December 2025 – Now with the Safety Nightmare I Originally Left Out)

Original post date: Early December 2025
This amended version: December 11, 2025

I wrote the first version of this piece a week or two ago and hammered DART for being embarrassingly slow—often slower than driving, sometimes slower than my e-bike. That part is still 100% true.

But I completely whiffed on the much bigger reason most North Texans with any other choice refuse to ride: it feels (and too often is) outright dangerous.

Slowness is annoying. Getting shot, stabbed, or harassed because you just wanted to get home is something else entirely.

So here’s the full, unfiltered version that should have been posted the first time.

The Core Problem Is Still Speed (Yes, My Bike Really Is Faster)

Hub-and-spoke design from 1983 forces almost every trip through downtown Dallas in a metroplex that no longer has a dominant downtown.

• Plano → Las Colinas: 30–35 min drive vs. 90–130 min on DART (two trains + downtown transfer).
• Addison → Downtown: 30–45 min drive vs. 75–110 min on DART.

Weekend headways on the Silver Line: 20–30 minutes. Empty trains rolling through brand-new stations in one of the fastest-growing corridors in America.

Ridership proves the point: ~200k weekday boardings pre-COVID for 7+ million people. Now it’s collapsing even as the region booms. The only reliable customers are the truly transit-dependent.

But Safety Is the Real Ridership-Killer

2025 has been brutal:

• Three unrelated shootings on the system in a five-week stretch this fall—two fatal (Market Center, Akard, etc.).
• Woman found dead near Lake Highlands station in November.
• Assaults up 27% from 2022 to 2025 (618 → 785 incidents).
• Drug offenses up 601% in the same period—over 1,000 by September 2025.
• “Crimes against society” (drugs, weapons, disorderly) up 64% year-over-year.
• Homeless encampments at stations now so common they show up on crime-heat maps from SMU researchers.

Riders describe trains as “rolling homeless shelters where anything goes.” Fare-jumpers, open fentanyl use, threats, fights—it’s daily life on certain lines, especially after dark.

Perception matches reality: every recent rider survey lists “personal safety” as the #1 reason people won’t come back. You can fix headways, but you can’t fix fear.

DART Is Finally Spending Money — After Years of Ignoring It

Moves in November/December 2025 (better late than never, I guess):

• $16.8 million for thousands of new AI-powered cameras across the entire fleet and stations.
• $7.8 million to replace/clean 1,200 bus shelters and add rapid-response tech.
• Record number of new officers hired this fiscal year.
• Crimes against persons down 22% and property crime down 28% vs. late 2024 (they say).
• One-night full light-rail shutdown on Dec 10 for safety testing.

Good steps. But riders want visible cops on trains (not just SUVs in parking lots), real fare enforcement, and transparent monthly crime stats posted online—things other big-city systems already do.

The Money Quote Nobody Wants to Say Out Loud

Dallas City Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn, November 2025:

“How many more people have to be murdered and assaulted before we shut DART down?”

She’s not alone. Coppell and Rowlett have de-annexation votes scheduled for May 2026. Addison, Carrollton, and others are openly talking about following. They’re tired of sending $80+ million a year in sales tax (Plano’s share alone) to an agency that can’t keep its own riders safe.

Bottom Line

A transit system that is both slower than a bicycle and scary enough that people would rather sit in I-35 traffic is not a transit system—it’s a cautionary tale.

Fix the network so it actually serves 2025 DFW (grid, not hub-and-spoke; frequent buses; micromobility integration). And for the love of God, make the trains and buses feel safe again.

Until then, yeah—my bicycle is faster.

And right now, it’s also safer.

— End of amended post —