By Hexel Colorado on March 29, 2023

This is my fourth in a series of trip plans across Dallas. I started this series for the benefit of transportation planners (who can read these articles as real-world data) and transit riders (who can learn useful tips).

The Task

Starting two weeks ago, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) hosts a series of community meetings where they present planned improvements and solicit feedback from the public. The meetings are a mix of online and in-person, with in-person meetings sprinkled across the Dallas area.

I try to attend as many of these meetings as I can, including tonight at Walnut Hill Recreation Center. This particular meeting is meant to address North Dallas, Northeast Dallas, Highland Park, and University Park.

I need to arrive before the meeting starts at 6:30 pm.

The Plans

Recommended Plan

Normally I use Google Maps for an initial recommendation. However, because I’ll need to use GoLink for this trip (I know because of previous trips), I used the Trip Planner on the official DART website.

Traveling to the Walnut Hill Recreation Center from my home in East Dallas would take 83 minutes. Surprisingly, it would take even longer (91 minutes) to travel there from the SMU Campus (one of the target neighborhoods of tonight’s meeting) only 6 miles away.

Experimental Strategy

The lack of a direct transit connection easily justifies hailing Lyft or riding my e-bike for this trip. But, for science, I will find a way to make it work with transit!

A quick recap of GoLink: it basically works just like Uber or Lyft. But instead of being picked up and dropped off anywhere, your pickup and drop-off need be within the same “GoLink Zone.” Normally, GoLink does not allow you to be picked up in one zone and dropped off in another…

… unless your pickup/drop-off is in a “GoLink Transfer” area, where two GoLink zones overlap. According to the DART website, in order to transfer between two zones, “two separate bookings are required.”

My Plan

1. Start at SMU/Mockingbird Station.
2. Book first GoLink to the 7-Eleven at Marsh & Northwest Highway.
3. Book second GoLink to the Walnut Hill Recreation Center.

Will this work? How long will it take? I have no idea! This blog entry definitely deserves its own follow-up post, so stay tuned for that.

Recommendations

General Improvements

Here is a quick list of what I want DART to improve on from this experience:

1. Provide more fixed route options for moving between “centers” of North Dallas and Park Cities.
2. Provide better communication on GoLink transfers (as well as GoLink instructions in general) on the DART website.
3. Pick locations that have better transit connections for public transit meetings; don’t host events about public transit at places that take an hour to reach by bus or train.

I have several more recommended improvements in my previous DART Trip Review. I have additional comments and recommendations for GoLink in an upcoming blog post dedicated to the service.

Designate Preston Center as the GoLink transfer area for three surrounding GoLink zones.

What would have been a smarter meeting location? The best meeting location targeting North Dallas, Preston Hollow and Park Cities would be a place that…

• is in a GoLink transfer area (serving two or more zones),
• has several fixed local bus routes,
• has high frequency connection to mass transit (a rail station or a transfer center), and
• is dense with multiple commercial uses (a mixed-use district).

As it so happens, there’s a centrally located district that meets all but one of these requirements: Preston Center. By making Preston Center a GoLink transfer area and hosting community meetings there would maximize accessibility for Preston Hollow, North Dallas, and Park Cities.

I’m sure Preston Center developers and stakeholders would love this idea.