​One month ago Dallas Area Rapid Transit released its 2011 Customer Satisfaction Survey, with nine out of 10 riders insisting they would recommend DART to others. But Pages 19 and 20 of the 23-page report are filled with concerns over security aboard DART buses and trains: Only 78 percent of those surveyed said they felt safe at stops and stations, a five-year low for the transit agency; and only 70 percent said they see DART cops riding the rails, a new low. "This may have a direct correlation to customers' decline in feeling safe on DART trains," said the survey.

DART said it had several fixes in mind: "modifying deployment plans to increase police presence," installing closed-circuit cams at stations by the middle of the year, strengthening the ties between DART police and local and federal law enforcement agencies. "One particular effort with Dallas Police," said the release accompanying the survey, "is aimed at reducing crime involving juveniles." This, after 19-year-old Octavius Lanier was killed by kids, between the ages of 12 and 14, at the MLK Station in November; and 20-year-old Dominique Wilson was shot and killed in January at the Pearl Station.

A little farther north, of course, was the scene of yesterday's incident that began when a man, thought to be around 25, boarded a bus at the Arapaho Center Station and had a run-in with a driver. Cops were called; shots, ultimately, fired. And in the end, two are dead: the gunman and a passenger waiting on a platform, caught, perhaps, in the crossfire. A DART officer was also wounded.

And once again DART will be asked: Are you doing enough to make the trains and buses safe?

"This, in my opinion, has gone too far," council member Dwaine Caraway tells Unfair Park this morning. Till now, he says, he's been fine with letting the council's appointed members to the DART board deal with issues of security; now, he says, it's time for the council to ask questions of DART President Gary Thomas and Chief J.D. Spiller, among others. "I will turn up the heat and my voice: They have to do something. They must. Today. They need to have a new plan and implement it. An emergency plan. They need to keep the people safe. If it's a fact of money, stop building and keep the people safe. They're gonna build and build, but who's gonna ride if it's not safe?"More >>

Exactly one year ago Dallas Area Rapid Transit announced that it had signed a $210-million contract with Anniston, Alabama-based North American Bus Industries, Inc. for a new fleet of  compressed natural gas-fueled buses, which DART promised to start rolling out by October 2012. This morning I stumbled across this just-posted sneak peek at the new fleet of 459 buses, hosted by DART President and Executive Director Gary Thomas. Among the highlights: five security cams on each bus. Not a moment too soon.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit

​When The Ambrose and DART's Baylor University Medical Center Station on the Green Line finally, formally married three short years ago, Dallas Area Rapid Transit hailed it as the "consummate example of the new transit-oriented lifestyle." After all, the complex at Indiana and Malcolm X consisted of 325 apartments and a city block's worth of retail right on the rail. Said DART's Green Line Report from the spring of '09:

In a tough market for retail, the ground floor is nonetheless gradually filling in. A Jimmy John's sandwich chain will open in the near future. And things are already hopping at It's A Grind, the first Dallas location of a national coffeehouse franchise. On a recent weekday afternoon, there was no shortage of customers bantering with one another, ordering pastries, drinking coffee, and settling in with their laptops. Initial popularity notwithstanding, the store's staff is anticipating a serious boost in business when the station opens. "September can't come fast enough for us," says Cindy Chaffin, the store's marketing director. "That's why we chose our location -- train service will be huge for us."

But the Jimmy John's lasted about as long as it took to finish a sandwich. And It's a Grind shuttered suddenly last October, with owner Serena Connelly acknowledging "the overall project has not proven to be feasible financially." And now that 13,913 square feet of ground-level retail space sits vacant. The reasons are myriad: Rent's high (said to be double normal Deep Ellum asking prices), the location's hard to find unless you're riding the rail, and, in the words of Deep Ellum Public Improvement District president Barry Annino, "There still are not that many people riding the train yet. It's not yet an urban world."

Which is why Broadstone Ambrose will go to the City Plan Commission this afternoon and request a zoning do-over: The complex owner will ask the city for the OK to rewrite its small piece of the Deep Ellum Special Purpose District that will allow it to convert the ground-floor retail into "multifamily units." Says the CPC doc prepped by an approving city staff: "The applicant has indicated that the retail space has been difficult to lease or to maintain tenants due the location of the development."

Heritage Auctions

​I'd called Keith Manoy, one of the city's senior transpo planners, about this earlier in the day; but since then I've heard from one of his colleagues, who promises more details about those Elm and Commerce conversions -- a time line, to be specific -- sooner than later. But while I had Manoy on the phone, and since I'm very likely to bid on this 1938 Dallas Steers handbill you see at right that Heritage is auctioning off in February, I had to ask: How's that Union Station-to-Oak Cliff streetcar line coming? Because, ya know, it's been a while, though I heard last week the project was out for bid.

Matter of fact, says Manoy, it sure is, with bids due back some time in March. "And as far as the time frame, we currently expect the project to start construction in April 2013 and be completed around June 2014." He also mentioned something more or less new to the 1.6-mile-long project: Shortly after the feds signed off on the project's environmental assessment last summer, they kicked in an additional $3 million for what's called a "passing track" that will be installed on Zang near E. Oakenwald.

"It's more for the longer-term project," Manoy says. "It will allow a streetcar vehicle to pull over and let another one pass. In the sort term, if a vehicle breaks down we'll have a way to continue service, since it's a single track. With the passing track we can pull it over and continue service and at the end of service day we can pull it out of there." Kind of like a "RIP track," I said, having watched Unstoppable 72 times on cable. "Yes," he said patiently, "kind of like that."

Also, he says, city and DART officials are awful close to picking a car for the line. "I don't want to say too much about it," he says when asked, "but probably in the next couple of months we'll know for sure." Nothing retro, though. Something like this. Won't get you to Steers games either. It's not a time machine.

CityDesign Studio's before-and-after look at Commerce Street if and when it goes two ways

​For more than a year the city's been talking about two-waying Elm Street in Deep Ellum, with Commerce to follow. Last we heard there wasn't enough to fund the whole project; there's $6 million in '06 bond money, but not enough to finish what the city hopes to start sooner than later. Which is fine with residents, who, last spring at least, didn't much like the proposal anyhow.

But as you'll see below, the plan remains in place. Thursday morning at 8 in council chambers the city's Thoroughfare Committee will discuss myriad amendments to city streets, many of which involve proposed bike lanes in West Dallas and Oak Cliff and closing off the Continental Avenue bridge to make way for that pedestrian park. But the the top two items involve Elm and Commerce, as in:

1. Elm Street from Good Latimer Expressway to Exposition Avenue from a four lane undivided (S-4-U) roadway within 60 feet of right-of-way to a special two lane undivided (SPCL 2U) roadway within 60 feet of right-of-way;

2. Commerce Street from Good Latimer Expressway to Exposition Avenue from a four lane undivided (S-4-U) roadway within 60 feet of right-of-way to a special two lane undivided (SPCL 2U) roadway within 60 feet of right-of-way

I've left messages all over City Hall to see if new to-do deadlines are in place; I'll update accordingly. But Barry Annino, president of the Deep Ellum Public Improvement District, reminds this morning that the plan to two-way Elm has been in place ever for decades, and "since they have DART in now, the city wanted to do two ways, and we thought it was a good idea. And the city said, 'You have to do Commerce and Elm, because otherwise you'll have a traffic problem. So this is about doing both."

I asked: When? He asked: "How old are you?" Forty-three. "You'll be in a wheelchair when it gets done. They will remodel the street with the idea it'll become two ways one day -- hopefully sooner than later."More >>

​Following the passage of HB1353, the Texas Department of Transportation has been looking at where it oughta bump up the state's speed limit to 75 miles per hour. Today it released that list, and it spans some 1,500 miles of Texas highways -- a "major milestone," per the press release. Says Carol Rawson, TxDOT's Traffic Operations Division director: "Texas' economic strength depends on the efficient and safe movement of people and goods. These new speed limits increase highway efficiency while maintaining the safety of the transportation system." TxDOT breaks down the speed-up here.

Alliance for Biking & Walking

​I've been trying since daybreak to reach Max Kalhammer, the city's bike coordinator, to talk about the not-at-all-surprising results of the Alliance for Biking & Walking's 2012 Benchmarking Report, which says we're one of the worst big cities in the entire country when it comes to people riding their bikes to work. Kalhammer's one of those who provided the ABW with stats; he's mentioned up front. As I was about to give up, I was told moments ago to expect a call from Theresa O'Donnell, head of Sustainable Development, later in the day. So ... yeah.

Anyway. Like I said, the results of the report aren't surprising. Because, you know, we have zero miles of bike lanes. Because they cost a billion dollars, or close to, even though they don't have to, as Jim pointed out a few weeks back. As Jason Roberts put it today, "It's almost like [some city officials] are plugging their ears, going, 'Nonononononono.'"

I called the Bike Friendly Oak Cliff-dweller when I didn't hear from Kalhammer. Roberts has his meeting at City Hall today to see about getting funding for the Jefferson Avenue Viaduct bike lanes, a top priority in the new Bike Plan. We'll see how that goes. Anyway. I asked him about this morning's report, which he's yet to read. I told him where Dallas ranks on the bikes-to-work scale. "Surprise," he said, but not like he meant it.

"It's like banging your head against the wall," he said. "People go: 'Well, see, nobody bikes here.' It's because you have no infrastructure."

From today's briefing on why the city can't afford bike lanes

​So much for that Bike Plan briefing. The council's transpo committee didn't have time to get it today, so it's been backbenched for now. Shame too, since Street Services second-in-command Beth Ramirez's pavement markings briefing was so fascinating, as in: Did you know it costs anywhere between $17,400 to $24,500 for a single mile of bike lane in this town? Which means: The $25,000 the Fort Worth Avenue Development Group is putting toward lanes along Fort Worth Avenue from Colorado Boulevard to Beckley Avenue doesn't even cover a mile, as Ramirez told Pauline Medrano when she asked how far that dough will stretch.

"We are looking for ways to fund that gap," Ramirez told the council. Because right now, she said, "our operating budget does not include money for bike strips."

Which brings me to Bike Friendly Oak Cliff's proposal to privately fund at least some of the Jefferson Avenue Viaduct, at the top of the Bike Plan's to-do list.More >>

From the PowerPoint prepared for this afternoon's Bike Plan briefing

​One week ago this morning we were writing about Israel "Dallas" Torres's over-the-weekend accident on the Jefferson Boulevard Viaduct, where a motorist sent the veteran cyclist to intensive car. As Jason Roberts noted then, and as the council's Transportation and Environment Committee will be reminded again at 1 today, the Jefferson Viaduct is high on the list of projects marked "Expedited Bike Plan Implementation"; matter of fact, per today's second go at a Dallas Bike Plan Implementation briefing, it's one of the few restriping projects for which there is no "funding gap." None whatsoever.

Which, per the briefing, is not the case elsewhere: There are 327 miles of streets scheduled to be restriped between March and September, 183 miles of which overlap with the bike plan's recommended routes. But the city once again will say there's no money ("Additional cost for 183 miles of bike facility striping is $3.9 million), no cost savings from striping bike facilities simultaneously with standard lanes," and no need for these particular lanes besides, not right now ("The majority of restriping project overlaps with Bike Plan routes would not provide strategic connections to the bike network at this time"). Which reminds me: According to the city, it costs on average $1,690 per mile to restripe a Dallas street. That's from today's Pavement Markings briefing, which immediately precedes Bike Plan talk.More >>

I felt the need last night, the need for the Speed channel, which carried the live-from-Scottsdale broadcast of the Barrett-Jackson auction -- where, as you're well aware by now, they put a certain hearse of local renown on the bidding block. So, then, how much did they fetch for Vernon O'Neal's '64 Caddy that took John Kennedy from Parkland Memorial to Dallas Love Field? Not nearly as much as they'd expected (and, certainly, hoped): a mere $160,000. or $176,000 with the buyers commission. For around the same price you could have also bought this 1963 Volkswagen 23 Window Deluxe Microbus Samba with matching 1971 Eriba Puck camping trailer; this 1969/1970 Shelby GT500 Fastback; or this '51 Mercury with the 276cid Flathead.