Thread by @DMagazine

We’ll be tweeting this morning from the Agenda for a New Dallas Summit at the @DallasMuseumArt. First up, from @wickallison: "Aren't we glad that the Trinity Tollway is dead and gone?" We hope you'll follow along. Here's the lineup: dmagazine.com/frontburner/20… #FutureDallas

In introducing @WalkableDFW, @wickallison says he "awakened not just in me, but in a lot of our readers, not only what is possible, but that what is possible is doable. That’s why we’re gathered here today, to discuss what is doable.” dmagazine.com/publications/d… #futuredallas

.@walkabledfw: Dallas was an intercontinental railroad hub and was designed for the people around it. It then expanded with a streetcar network, before the 60s and 70s, when it was designed as "the city for the future." And freeways. So what do we do? #futuredallas

Has a neighborhood improved when a freeway was placed through it? Peter J. Park, former planner in Milwaukee and Denver, found no evidence of this ever happening. Which makes us do this—👀—when it comes to tearing out I-345. @NewUrbanism calls it a freeway without a future.

A street grid performs better than limited access highways, Park says. They can turn downtown into traffic sewers, “long extended on-ramps into and out of downtown ... What you want is the ability to have high connectivity to get into the network.” Freeways induce congestion.

Now let's talk about money. Park: “It is quite un-American to use our taxpayer dollars to de-value real estate.” And what do freeways do? They de-value real estate. Public investment should attract private investment. #futuredallas

In Milwaukee’s since-removed Park East freeway, Harley Davidson liked the site where the freeway would come out. The governor hated the idea. But Harley liking it shifted the discussion. "You have to think of point of view." Since, it's had $1 billion in investment. #futuredallas

Park: “It is an unusual thing to take a freeway out. What’s going to get you there is leadership at the local level.” And there are a lot of mayoral candidates in this audience to hear that. #FutureDallas

We're onto our first panel, moderated by former TxDOT Commissioner Victor Vandergriff. Park's on this one, as are @LeeForDallas, @CaryCMoon, and @mtranchin. (Editor's note: We have a few folks today who clearly value their time and have smartly stayed off twitter.)

Park brings up the concern that removing freeways would funnel traffic into the city. "If I’m a businessperson, I’m looking for traffic count and rooftops. It doesn’t hurt me as a business person for people to have more access to the corridor where my business is." #FutureDallas

.@CaryCMoon, discussing three weeks Seattle's SR99 highway was closed in January. "What we learned about the traffic is it evaporates. … we found the trips will dissipate, some will use the transit, some will use the grid, some will choose not to go, some will shift to biking.”

.@mtranchin brings up CityMAP finding the at-grade alternative to I345 generated more jobs, more economic development, brought more residents in the core, added green space, and was cheaper than taking below grade. @EricCeleste wrote on this a while ago: dmagazine.com/publications/d…

.@LeeforDallas mentions the city advising the state on what it wants to see in the I-30 redo east of downtown. "We have to continue to inform the state and inform the planners about what we want our city to look like." (Read your @psimek: dmagazine.com/frontburner/20…) #futuredallas

.@LeeforDallas on the funding challenge for urban transportation alternatives: "That is the message we get from Austin, roll out concrete. ... very little (state) money comes for bike lanes or sidewalks. ... it's federal money, not state money." #futuredallas

Park, thinking big on infrastructure costs:"That mile of elevated highway in downtown Milwaukee, it's no longer the responsibility of the state of Wisconsin. It’s a city street. We’re so caught up with how we’re going to pay for it versus is there an investment opportunity here?”

(1/2) Here are the panelists' messages for the next mayor on I-345:

Park: “It’s not theoretical, it’s completely doable and there’s plenty of proof.”
@CaryCMoon: “Recognize how marvelous the energy in this room is, it’s an amazing vision, there’s strategic clarity.”

(2/2) @LeeForDallas: “I think it’s important to understand that having a plan and working the plan is how we can accomplish this kind of goal.”
@mtranchin: “Study South Korea and you too can be president.”

Onto the second panel! Starting with @christofspieler, who's going to be talking about how to improve a public transit system that doesn't serve everyone's needs. Some background on his work: dmagazine.com/frontburner/20…

.@christofspieler: In Toronto, a third of residents don’t have a car. Downtown Seattle has seen 75 percent population growth, a 26 percent increase in jobs, and yet cars in downtown is down by 20 percent. “That is what a good transit system can do for you.” #FutureDallas

Lucky for us, @christofspieler has a formula for improving transit.

Density
Activity
Walkability
Connectivity
Frequency
Travel Time
Reliability
Capacity
Legibility

"Making transit match density is what gets you transit ridership."

.@christofspieler: "Dallas has significant areas of high density, pockets of apartments sprinkled throughout the city where the transit system doesn’t go, where you have a bus every half hour or every hour. … operate more buses and you can make that footprint look better."

Now @christofspieler explaining how connecting systems together—rail, bus, streetcar—has worked in Houston, Kansas City, Chicago, and elsewhere. “We are seeing that combining bus plus rail together can be extraordinarily successful.”

Not to get too wonky, but this design just got a good laugh in the room. rfta.com/wp-content/upl…

.@christofspieler notes the importance of inclusivity: "Are we making a system where if you’re a woman you feel safe on that system. If you have little kids with you, or you’re pulling a stroller, do you feel welcome? Are we making a system that serves all of our communities?"

Now we're getting local. @christofspieler: "DART is a system built around the existing freight rail lines, which tend to serve places that have warehouses rather than places where people want to go. So it misses the areas with density.”

Our second panel is, you guessed it, on public transit.

D's @psimek is our moderator.
Sue Bauman, the chair of the DART board
@CookinHungry, member of DART's Citizen Advisory Committee.
@hamidi_shima UTA's director of the Institute for Urban Studies

Buckle up!

Bauman: DART covers 700 miles. "Our challenge is great in that respect. We know what it is and we have built an extensive rail system. … when I’m thinking of our responsibility, it’s first and foremost moving the people who want to use our system and who need to use our system.”

.@hamidi_shima: "Transit is important to be an option for choice riders but it’s a necessity for people who rely heavily on transit. They can’t get access to jobs and other opportunities if there is not a good transportation option." #futuredallas

Bauman, the DART chair: "“It’s probably blasphemy to say we’re at the end of our rail project, but we are … We now need to use that as a spine that’s laid out and then to build upon that with our buses.” #futuredallas

.@christofspieler talks about the political will to change the bus system in Houston. "It took, No. 1, a mayor who was willing to put her political capital behind this, who told us as board members that you have convinced me that this is the right idea and I will back you up."

And he brings it back to DART: "This rail system has the potential to be a great spine if you transform the buses around it.”

.@CookinHungry: "The first time I got on a DART bus I got a tour of a lot of different neighborhoods. In Chicago, the buses come frequently. That's the backbone that the system is built on. ... Transit there isn’t looked at as a system for the poor. It’s for all individuals."

Bauman, the DART board chair: "The political will is almost like you drop a pebble in water and it spreads out. What we have now, we have a DART board that understands that our bus system needs to change. … that’s extremely important that a coalition exists.” #futuredallas

We're back for our third and final panel today, about something near and dear to our hearts: Pedestrian safety, which we've branded as Dallas Hates Pedestrians. dmagazine.com/tag/dallas-hat… #futuredallas

Lilly O'Brien-Kovari, LA's senior transportation planner is the keynote.
@Knightengale is moderating a chat between
Nick Dean, a local architect and Jefferson-Twelfth Connector Task Force Member
Attorney Sanford Holmes
Jared White, city of Dallas' bicycle transportation manager

Our pal @themapdallas just got a shout-out about this Vision Zero post, which aims to encourage cities to design the built environment to cut down on pedestrian deaths and injuries: medium.com/themap/should-…

2018 was projected to have the largest number of pedestrian fatalities in the U.S. since 1990. Haven't we made billions of dollars of investments in research and design for vehicle safety? Then it must be the design of our streets. In DFW, 100 pedestrians a year are killed.

"Why is it that the entire world freaks out when we have two (plane) crashes? We change our operations, we ground planes ... loss of life is unacceptable. We need to ask ourselves ... what are we doing to challenge the notion that loss of life from a traffic crash is acceptable?"

According to O'Brien-Kovari, in Los Angeles: 83 percent of traffic crashes involved a vehicle. Only 8 percent of crashes included people walking. But 44 percent of the people killed in collisions are pedestrians.

How did they figure out how to focus on areas to improve? Data. About 70 percent of pedestrian fatalities occurred on just 6 percent of the city's streets.

Jared White, the city's bike transportation head, says his budget will jump from $500,000 to $2 million in the next two years. "That's when we can start moving curbs around and go beyond striping."

Holmes: When at the DA’s office, he was in SE Dallas. One of the streets, he noticed "people are just trying to speed through here. That's not a community. The more people out on the streets, you have a community. You have more eyes on the street. That results in less crime."

O'Brien-Kovari has an LA anecdote that echoes Dallas. "We had 15 council offices that often want to divide by 15, but in an unprecedented way, they decided resources for Vision Zero should be dedicated to low income communities. The data is really what convinced our council."

More from O'Brien-Kovari: "“Equity doesn’t mean equal. For the city of LA, we recognized wholeheartedly that we are correcting for historic disinvestment in our low-income communities. … equal is the minimum standard. Historically we have not even thought of those communities.”

That's a wrap today, folks. Thanks for following along. We'll have more coverage on dmagazine.com later this week if you're interested in learning more. #FutureDallas