RecentCoin  2007-11-12 10:36  DART   

After reading the study that someone pointed out in my blog, I thought I'd write about what's in that study. That occurred in this thread - http://www.dallas.org/node/357 - if you want to go read all of it. The study that they pointed me too has even more information in it about the things all you have heard me complaining about for nearly three long years now.

RecentCoin  2007-10-31 21:37  DART   

If you're familiar with the previous blog entry, we've developed a new meaning for DART. However, it was pointed out to me, in light of recent events, that it wasn't entirely accurate. I thought I'd update it.

D is for Derelict because its hard to wait for the train with out getting hit up by the panhandlers who want your train ticket, want some cash, or want cigarettes.

RecentCoin  2007-10-18 08:56  DART   

**UPDATE

It's been pointed out to me that with the recent bomb on a bus, that this isn't accurate. I've got a newer version.

RecentCoin  2007-10-17 15:28  DART   

[Ed Note: This thread is really heating up!]

Here's the deal, there are more Dallas Police Officers deployed to the State Fair of Texas than there are officers in the entire DART police department. Let's see how this stacks up and maybe we can figure out why DART seems to think that they're staffed appropriately....

DPD Minimum staffing - 150 officers on patrol
DPD Maximum staffing - 400 officers on patrol depending on the event
Number of DART officers - 138 total including the chief - in reality somewhere about 120 total on patrol

RecentCoin  2007-10-10 20:58  DART   

Ok, here's my get rich quick scheme. Get your spouse a DART pass and tell them that they need to ride public transit so that the two of you can save money. As soon as you've persuaded them to do it, phone your insurance agent and take out the biggest life insurance policy you can. Sit back and wait.

RecentCoin  2007-10-08 09:28  DART   

You have to show your pass or scan your ticket in order to be allowed to board the buses.Despite the fact that DART has long ago given up on using the honor system for the bus routes, it continues in it's misguided belief that people will just pay up. Now most of you know that this didn't work in third grade, didn't work for vending at work, and isn't going to work now with train routes.

RecentCoin  2007-09-26 10:45  DART   

I can't figure out what DART management is up to. They consistently make decisions that leave me scratching my head, trying to find any shred of logic whatsoever in them. If you'd like proof, you're more than welcome to check out the photos - that were taken by the Dallas Morning News. Many of you will recognize this as the entrance that you normally use to get in and out of the Fair. Well, guess what? Not this year, you won't. Why? Thanks to some very short sighted decisions by DART.

RecentCoin  2007-09-12 14:43  Dallas Police   

Kunkle’s argument is that the false alarms are sucking up too many resources. I can see a point here. Why should the entire tax base have to fund a program that’s apparently being abused by a small segment of the community? So, why not see if we can even that out a bit? If they’re such a problem, maybe they should carry more of the burden?

RecentCoin  2007-08-21 12:45  Dallas Police   

Well, I did some poking around. MADD is getting $175 per DWI in Dallas [Ed Note: We received a letter from a MADD volunteer taking issue with this figure but we were unable to verify his claims (see comments below).].

RecentCoin  2007-08-15 12:11  DART   

[Ed Note: Very funny situation...]

Now keep in mind, as you're looking at the photos below, that for the Red Line, Parker Road is as far North as the line goes and Westmoreland is far south as it goes.

There are no stops that are further North than Parker Road in Plano and no stops further South than Westmoreland in Dallas--yet Dart's schedules show North departures from Parker Road and Southerly departures from Westmoreland!

For the Blue line, it goes as far north as Downtown Garland and as far south as Ledbetter. I'm really curious as to where these departures all go.

RecentCoin  2007-08-02 21:17  DART   

Well, it seems that DART has decided that it's horribly understaffed officers need really expensive new Dodge Charger Police Interceptors to park up at the transit centers. I really don't understand why they need a $50,000 car in the first place. That figure is just the base price for the police model. That doesn't include any of the equipment like lights, radios, sirens, etc. to fit it out.

RecentCoin  2007-07-25 16:18  DART   

DART has turned into a cattle car northbound. As gas prices continue to soar, more and more people ride the train each day. I'm told by DART that they have people counting the passengers who get on and get off at each stop.

I really don't see how they can because I've never seen anyone.

RecentCoin  2007-05-29 22:57  DART   

I've been through a couple of incidents downtown where the transit system broke. This usually involves doofus + train which = big problems for everyone. The big difference is in how you handle it. With TRE, they're fast and efficient. They communicate well. At one point all of the TRE trains were trapped in Fort Worth by a bad wreck on the train tracks.

RecentCoin  2007-05-29 10:04  Dallas Police   

Let's see what Chief Kunkle has done since he started that might have ticked off the "rank and file" causing them to vote "no confidence"...

How about disciplining the TAC officer that was parking his patrol car to go off with a hooker?

How about firing the officer that hadn't show up for work in more than a year?

How about firing the officers that had been caught driving drunk?

RecentCoin  2007-01-13 00:19  DART   

Well, it seems that after a lengthy hiatus that the woman is back, riding the rails and mooching all over town. In case anyone from DART is reading this, she's usually at Mockingbird Station from about 6pm on. Oh, wait, you might not recognize her since she has a red jacket now.

RecentCoin  2006-11-09 17:13  DART   

DART seems to be either unwilling or unable to stop panhandlers. Many of these operate within plain sight of DART officers and are not harassed at all. The woman in the photo below is someone I've encountered several times. Each time she asks for $2.50 which she claims she needs to purchase a day pass, yet I've seen her get on the train and show a monthly pass. When she's refused, she can become quite threatening and has told me that she plans to steal my backpack. When I informed her that were she to attempt such a thing, she should be prepared for my response, she huffed off and hasn't spoken to me again since then.

RecentCoin  2006-07-15 21:48  DART   

Here's a thought - since the DART police seem to having multiple issues. Let's disband them. Since they're effectively unable to police the DART system, let's use the money that they're spending on maintaining a seperate police force to fund some officers in each DART member city and/or deputies in the sherriff's office. This would allow all the money that get's spent on the police chief's salary, his two captains, four leutienants, and various redundant support staff to go to actually hiring officers. This would go a ways toward helping with their shortage of officers. This could be done with little or no increase in cost.

RecentCoin  2006-05-30 12:16  DART   

Here's a nice piece of news for you straight from the unreported DART crime stats, which is a direct violation of Federal law. What I find ironic is that two of the most highly touted rail stations are two of the most dangerous places to be on the DART rail. I'm surprised that the West End merchants have begun to apply pressure to DART to hire more officers and step up enforcement at the West End./

RecentCoin  2006-05-10 11:44  DART   

Yesterday on my way home I was waiting for the train, when an obviously homeless man stepped off the train. He began making a path toward the elevator through the crowd of passengers.

Two DART officers who had been chatting with a rather attractive female abruptly broke off their conversation, and accosted the man, who hadn't even so much as spoken to anyone. First they asked him to show his ticket, which he did. Then they asked for his identification which they prompty called in to see if he had any outstanding warrants.

I didn't catch the end of this because my train arrived and I had to board.

RecentCoin  2006-05-08 17:03  DART   

I'm going to past in some figures taken from DART's own web site. You can tell me if you think that 140 men in uniform are sufficient to cover this much territory:

98.1 million Passenger trips last year
700 square miles of service area
13 cities
2.1 million People
687 busses
15 transit centers
11,961 bus stops
450 bus shelters
2 transfer centers
117 bus routes
1419 miles of bus routers

RecentCoin  2006-05-05 12:03  DART   

Despite my previous calculations, DART has thoughtfully published their new FY06 Staffing Plan. I'm pasting this in directly from their web site.

FY06 STAFFING PLAN
Position #
Chief 1
Captains 2
Lieutenants 3
Sergeants 22
Corporals 11
Officers 129
Civilians 54
TOTAL 222

This is even worse than I had originally assumed. There are only 140 officers on patrol. Now, my calculations show that DART should have 672 officers actually on patrol. Based on the numbers just published by DART, they actually only have 140 officers on patrol, unless the chief, captains, lieutenants, and seargants are patrolling. Let's see - 672 -140 = 532 officers short, which is far worse that what I had assumed to be the case and it certainly fits with the information I was given by some DART officers.

RecentCoin  2006-05-02 09:56  DART   

When you dial 911 because a group of thugs is trying to rape some teenage girls the correct response is NOT "We'll have someone there in 45 minutes". The correct response is "We'll have someone there right away." Shocking, I know, but all too true. I speak from my own personal experience. Experience is a harsh and bitter teacher and I feel quite fortunate that I excaped the experience relatively unscathed but very angry.

RecentCoin  2005-11-11 20:00  DART   

After months of complaining and letter writing, DART is finally advertising for more officers. As of my original July 5th experience DART had 138 officers. While this may sound like a large number of officers, it is not. DART rail service operates 21 hours per day. That means that there are 2 1/2 eight hour shifts needed to cover the entire operating schedule of DART. There are also some 32 rail stops. You must also factor in that the officers are assigned in pairs, for their own safety. That means you have 68 pairs of officers to patrol 32 rail stops for 21 hours per day. That works out 27 pairs of officers to patrol 32 rail stops.

RecentCoin  2005-11-11 19:37  DART   

This all began back in May. I hurt my ankle and had to have surgery. Since the surgery was rather extensive, I was unable to drive until September. When I returned to work in June, my only means of reaching work was via public transportation. My employer offers us DART passes, so I took advantage of their offer. The first few weeks on public transportation wasn't particularly terrible, although I had observed several people consuming alcohol on the trains and busses. That changed rapidly on July 5th of this year.