 the offical newsletter of DALLAS AREA RAPID TRANSIT - Winter 2008 |
Skip to main content
|
Contact Webmaster at:
eelam@DART.org
eelam@DART.org
Carpool City
Big D is big on ridesharing
Suzie Campbell gives her DART van a Saturday wash before she and
eight colleagues begin another week of sharing the ride from
McKinney to Texas Instruments in Dallas.
High gas prices and the doubling of high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes have pushed ridesharing to record levels. And work is under way to open more lanes, improve access and create new options so even more people can get into the fast lane.
Traffic on HOV lanes was up more than 38% in both August and September compared to 2007, with 153,000 average weekday trips in September alone. The increase was due in large part to the opening in December and January of new HOV lanes on U.S. 75 and I-30 West, and new extensions of the HOV lanes on I-30 East and I-635 East. With gas prices bouncing wildly, it's a no-brainer that significant numbers of motorists are pairing up for their commutes.
City with a rep
Dallas already has a reputation for ridesharing: we're the leading carpool city in the nation with nearly 18% of the workforce traveling together to or from work, according to U.S. census data. And RideSearch.com, a free nationwide carpool matching service, has named Dallas second only to New York City among the nation's top 10 markets for people seeking carpool mates.
"Because of high gas prices and the green movement, more people are carpooling to decrease their gas costs and help cut down on greenhouse emissions," says Brian Bass, president and CEO of RideSearch.com. "Having just one other person in the car can turn $3.50 a gallon into $1.75 a gallon. Having a full car can turn that into less than 88 cents a gallon."
Dallas is the leading carpool city in the nation with nearly 18% of the workforce traveling together to or from work, according to U.S. census data.
DART's own Carpool/Ridematch service has seen a significant increase in activity – from 146 online inquiries in April to 404 in June – and requests for Vanpool information went from 99 in January to 522 in June. The program, which provides vans to groups of employees with compatible commutes, already has about 150 vans carrying more than 1,550 people daily. With 43 groups on a waiting list, DART is working to acquire more vans by the end of 2009. Vanpools – like DART buses and carpools – get to breeze past traffic in the HOV lanes, in addition to saving money by sharing the costs.
More Options Coming
DART's 2030 Transit System Plan calls for expanding the region's current 75-mile network of HOV lanes to 116 miles – and another nine miles opening on I-30 West in December will bring the network to 84 miles.
In the project's next phase, the 15-mile I-30 West lane – from the Dallas/Tarrant County line to Sylvan Ave. – will become the region's first "managed" HOV lane. Single occupant vehicles (SOVs) will be able to travel the managed HOV lane for a fee that will change depending on time of day and traffic flow, while ride-sharing motorists will still ride for free. This is a federally funded "value pricing" project.
Efforts are under way to create new access points for carpoolers on the northbound and southbound U.S. 75 HOV lane at Collins Blvd. in Richardson. But it's the nature of life in North Texas that a TxDOT project to rebuild the U.S. 75-Parker Road interchange has required the closure of part of the southbound HOV lane for a year beginning in October.
Return to the Inmotion front page