When local transportation planners announced that they would ask the Internet for suggestions on what to call the new managed lanes on LBJ Express, it seemed like a bad idea. But Andy Rittler, corporate affairs director for the project, tells us we were wrong. Over the course of the six-week…
William Davis is just learning to fly an airplane, so his wife was filming as he brought a 2005 Cessna Skyhawk in for a landing Saturday at Northwest Regional Airport in Roanoke, Texas. Then, an SUV drove in his way. He hit it, the plane crashed, and you can see…
It was back in July that transportation planners with the North Central Texas of Governments first floated the idea of upping the threshold for vehicles using HOV lanes from two occupants to three. The proposal was then taken to the driving public to see what they thought. They didn’t like…
It’s safe to say the entire country is drooling over Texas’ Autobahn, the new; $1.5 billion highway near Austin with an 85-mile-per-hour speed limit, the nation’s highest. Even the New York Times is jealous. Driving 85 mph is nothing new for Texans, who already go that fast on normal roads…
This summer, Andrew Moss, a former DART police officer, launched a petition urging the transit agency to offer domestic partner benefits. Moss had worked for DART until health problems forced him to step down in 2008. Though his husband continued to work there as a police officer, their marriage isn’t…
The four, soon-to-be five miles of new bike lanes downtown got the front-page treatment this morning in the Morning News (paywall), and deservedly so. Sure, they’re not bike-only lanes, and it’s taken the city a lot longer than it should of to paint stripes and little bicycle-man icons on the…
Bitching about how terrible the roads are in Dallas is a time-honored tradition. It’s also easy. Quantifying just how terrible they are? That’s more difficult. Luckily for you, TRIP, a D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to transportation research, just released its annual “Future Mobility in Texas” report. First, the bad news. Bad…
If you’ve been up that ways in the past year, you might have noticed that they’re doing some work on LBJ. But, as the video above tells you, it’s not just any old work. They’re transforming the tired old freeway into the LBJ Express, by which they mean they’re adding…
Scott McCartney, the Wall Street Journal’s veteran (and Dallas-based) travel reporter, recently offered a word of advice to the literate public: If you or a loved one is considering stepping onto an aircraft in the foreseeable future, make sure it’s not one operated by American Airlines. “American’s operation is in…
When the Denton County Transportation Authority was shopping for rail cars for its A-train commuter line in 2009, it settled on 11 diesel-electric vehicles manufactured in Europe by Stadler, a company based in Switzerland. The cars are quieter, more fuel efficient and more spacious than the light rail cars on…
A while back, DART was toying with the idea for a while of auctioning off naming rights to some of its stations to the highest bidder. Such measures have proved to be relatively painless ways to generate cash for some transit systems in places like Philadelphia, and DART estimated it…
For a few years now, DART and its neighboring transit agencies have been drafting plans for the Cotton Belt Corridor project, a 62-mile passenger rail line that will, if things go according to plan, someday stretch Wylie to Fort Worth. The only thing standing in the way? Just the small…
It’s easy to bemoan Dallas’ glacial progress on the bike plan that is supposed to, one day, connect the city with an extensive network of bike lanes, but credit should be given where it’s due. In the spring, it was the shared lane that randomly sprung up on Martin Luther…
Glenn Beck has seen the face of hatred in America, and it looks like a surly flight attendant. In a transcript from his radio show, posted to his website this morning, Beck claims that an American Airlines employee slammed his drink down, barked the word “breakfast” at him, and delivered…
Over the weekend, the Texas Department of Transportation released its list of the Texas’ 100 most congested roadways, which breaks the news that LBJ, Woodall Rogers, and Central Expressway? All really congested. You knew that already, but did you know that drivers on the stretch of LBJ between Central and…
Last month it came to light that the Regional Transportation Council was mulling requiring three, rather than two, people per vehicle in order to use the region’s HOV lanes. You could still use the special lanes driving solo, but you’d have to pay a toll that would vary based on…
It seems that a lot of electric vehicle charging stations have been popping up in Dallas of late — at gas stations, grocery stores, possibly soon at City Hall — and now we know that yes, there are a lot. Xatori, an app-maker, released a list yesterday of the cities…
Every year, Allstate crunches its claims data from the country’s 200 largest municipalities, does a little arithmetic, then releases a ranked list showing which cities have the best drivers and, by extension, which have the worse. The insurance company just released its report for 2012, and the answer to your…
After a veritable avalanche of public comments on Twitter and in 18 town hall meetings, DART’s board of directors voted yesterday to hike — er, “streamline” — its fares. The changes go into effect on December 3. The cost of a local ride jumps up from $1.75 to $2.50, with…
The drive south down Interstate 35 isn’t a particularly pleasant one, but there soon there may be something to distract you, namely a 243-mile elevated rail line dedicated to shipping freight. The Texas Department of Transportation is close to reaching a deal to lease highway right-of-way to Freight Shuttle International,…
Say what you will about the highway-building mania of the mid-20th century. It led to an unsustainable car-dependent culture, choked off the city center and divided or destroyed neighborhoods. I seriously doubt, for example, that the shacks above were inhabited by well-heeled white people. But these photos, from the Texas…
The North Texas Tollway Authority has made headlines of late for slapping outrageous fees on civilians and veterans alike, publicly shaming them, then threatening to sue and boot their cars. But really, the agency wants you to know, it’s not the bogeyman some people make it out to be. It’s…
