By Hexel Colorado on March 23, 2023

This is the second installment in a series of trip plans I take across Dallas. Because I don’t own a car, I rely heavily on public transit and cycling to reach my destinations. I document my trip plans with two audiences in mind: transportation planners who can read these articles as real-world data, and transit riders who might find useful tips for navigating the city without a car.

The Tasks

I check-in with a doctor in Addison four times a year. Nothing prevents me from switching to a doctor closer to home, but I want to continue having an organic reason to visit Addison by transit. I need to arrive at Addison Internal Medicine by 1:30 pm.

In the evening, I’m a guest speaker at the Dallas Bicycle Coalition Kickoff event in Deep Ellum. I need to be at Cold Beer Company before 7:00 pm.

Working from home is increasingly common since the pandemic. As part of trip planning, I look for coworking spaces so I can work on my laptop between appointments.

The Plans

First trip of the day starts from home in Old East Dallas. Transit takes me downtown to connect with a long-distance bus to my doctor’s office in the suburb City of Addison.

PART 1: East Dallas to Addison

Rideshare Options. For a trip taken only a few times a year, it’s entirely rational by my standards to hail a carshare. This is comparable to elderly and disabled riders using paratransit to go to doctor’s appointments (as I’m doing in this case). Including 8 minutes of waiting for pickup, the estimated rideshare trip time is 38 minutes.

Transit-Only Option. Using only bus service, Google Maps recommended taking Bus 3 downtown, then transferring to Bus 239, which stops right next to the doctor’s office. This plan contains no uncomfortably long walks. Subtracting a few minutes of walking out front door and through office parking lot, the estimated transit-only trip time is 1 hour and 7 minutes.

My Plan. For the first leg of my trip, swapping the bus for my e-bike doesn’t save a huge amount of time going downtown. But it does give me greater flexibility on choosing when to leave home and allows me to have my bicycle for later. My plan is to bike to Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe where I can board Bus 239 to Addison.

My trip time is estimated at 67 minutes. I can do light work (sending emails, reading reports, organizing work tickets) for 57 of those minutes.

The Addison Circle neighborhood is conveniently located near Addison Transit Center. There are multiple options for coworking space near the transit center, including wi-fi enabled public parks.

PART 2: Coworking Space

I can do light work in transit, but I must sit with my laptop connected to decent wi-fi to fulfill all work duties. Heading home immediately after my appointment costs an hour of deep work mid workday. As part of trip planning, I look for nearby coffeeshops, offices, cafes, and hotels. If the place of my appointment has wi-fi, I’ll ask if I can stick around.

My Plan. I’ll head to Astoria Caffe & Wine Bar in Addison Circle (a delightfully short 5-minute ride on Bus 235) and finish my workday there.

Cold Beer Company in Deep Ellum is a popular gathering place for cyclists in Dallas. It has plenty of bicycle parking close to the entrance, and cyclists can bring their bicycle with them on the outdoor patio.

PART 3: Addison to Deep Ellum

When I board the bus from downtown, I can bring my bicycle with me (just as described in my last review). To save myself the trouble of loading it thrice (downtown, doctor’s office, and coffeeshop), I’ll instead lock my bike near the Cathedral.

My Plan. I’ll leave Addison Circle at 5:30 pm. Leaving during rush hour means I can hop on Express Bus 305, which is faster than regular routes due to fewer stops. My estimated trip time by express bus (34 minutes) plus bicycle (10 minutes) is 44 minutes.

In this rush hour scenario, my multi-modal trip is faster than driving a car. Hopefully my bike has enough protection from two bike locks, a motion alarm, GPS tracking, downtown police presence, and God.

Express bus routes (shown in pink) go long distances and save time over regular buses by having fewer stops.

Improvement Opportunities

Plan around bicycling as a serious solution for first- and last-mile connections to transit.

Dedicated bike lanes at transit centers are obvious move. Additionally, transit centers themselves need to be designed for bicycle movement.

This means simple things like curb cuts and wayfinding signs. It also means thinking from a cyclist’s perspective on approach. For example, Mockingbird Station connects to a great shared-use path (University Crossing Trail), but the connection itself can be improved.

• When transitioning from the trail to the road, it’s ambiguous to cyclists whether they should enter roadbed (vehicular cycling mindset) or stay on sidewalk (beginner cyclist mindset).
• If cyclists should enter roadbed, there’s no paint indicating right-of-way for cyclists.
• Although station is replete with bicycle parking, many cyclists never notice, regardless of how often they use the station. Bicycle stalls are practically invisible because (A) they’re not placed in people’s path from trail to platform, and (B) they don’t contrast visually from surroundings.

SMU/Mockingbird Station connects to University Crossing Trail. From this perspective, it’s difficult to see where bicycle parking is located.

In a future blog post, I’ll go into greater detail on how to address these and other flaws. For now, here’s an easy to-do list:

• Paint green lanes for cyclists leading to/from the trail. Make them lead directly to bicycle parking.
• Paint bicycle stalls high-vis orange, like traffic cones.
• Install “Bicycle Parking” signage facing the trail.

Work with city and public-private partners to provide bicycle lockers at transit stops and centers.

Being able to take my bicycle with me on buses is great. But as my trip plan demonstrates, having somewhere to safely store my bicycle provides greater flexibility when using transit.

In the Netherlands, there are plenty of public lockers and garages for short- and long-term bicycle storage. The Not Just Bikes channel on YouTube has videos demonstrating such storage facilities at metro stations.

The website for Dutch public transportation has details for bicycle storage at transit stations.

I’d gladly pay $5 in addition to transit fare to protect my bike from theft and weather. This would be a valuable public service and could generate revenue for DART. More on this in a future blog.

Collaborate with private partners to make coworking spaces available at or near transit centers.

You might think this practice of working ad-hoc out of coffee shops is my rare quirk. But go to any Starbucks mid workday and you’ll see dozens of people working on laptops as I do. Not all use transit, but they either (A) are in transition, or (B) just wanted a change of scene from home office.

Many transit centers have concierge buildings perfect for retrofitting. But it’s not always a matter of adding amenities to the station itself. It’s often a matter of encouraging coworking space in adjacent developments. At time of writing, two large retail spaces closest to the train platform at Mockingbird Station are vacant.

My electric bicycle in front of City Hall.

Thanks for reading. Follow for more stories of real-world transit usage. For questions and comments, email hexelcolorado@gmail.com or tweet @hexel_co.