Identifying opportunities for corridor transit-oriented development along the DART rail in Dallas, Texas

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), is beginning preparations for two major transit investments within the Dallas-Fort Worth Area: a commuter rail dubbed the Cotton Belt, to the benefit of suburban member cities, and a second alignment within downtown dubbed D2, a subway to relief congestion in Downtown, to the benefit of urbanists and local riders within the urban core. The board has been pressured by both to commit to set aside the other in favor for the project that benefits them the most, and the agency struggle to balance interests between the suburban commuter and serving areas of Dallas that need transit investment. To maintain ridership in a continued sprawling metropolitan area, DART hopes to take advantage of creating and improving Transit Oriented Development projects across the system in collaboration with member cities and willing developers. This report attempts to examine the agency’s process in developing TOD, and to determine opportunities for the agency to implement Corridor-level TOD that can help address region-wide issues. Using land use, ridership, socio-demographic, and infrastructure characteristics of the existing light rail stations within a corridor, and insight from a series of conducted interviews with professionals in the area, a typology can be made for the development within the light rail corridors, along with recommendation for investment for improvement of those corridors.