8 November 27 - December 3, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents thereby significantly reducing or eliminating the ability for Irving residents to gain access to healthcare, education, job opportunities and other essential services,” read the city’s web- site critiquing the cuts. Irving’s bid to leave DART does not come as a surprise. The mayor, Rick Stopfer, who has served on the DART board, announced his support for the recent bill from Plano Rep. Matt Shaheen, which would have com- pletely dismantled DART’s funding system and halted many ongoing projects. The mayor also joined five other North Texas city leaders in requesting Gov. Greg Abbott add transportation funding to the agenda for the special sessions that took place over the summer. From Irving’s view, there is reason for that. According to the city’s website, be- tween 2013 and 2023, its tax contributions increased by 106%, while ridership de- creased by almost half. In early September, Irving City Manager Chris Hillman highlighted the issues with the newly approved bus route cuts in an email addressed to Lee. “Cutting two bus routes will only exacer- bate a currently frustrating situation for our residents who feel DART is not providing the transportation solutions they are looking for and need,” Hillman wrote. “I disagree that there are ‘adequate’ other transportation so- lutions for Irving residents, and if bus routes need to be cut it should be other routes that have a lower ridership/higher subsidy.” In late October, the Irving City Council passed a resolution requesting that the DART board of directors reconsider cutting the two bus routes, citing the significant im- pact the cuts would have on the quality of life of the 1,000 Irving residents who rely on the routes. DART has yet to formally re- spond to the request. In an unexpected twist, the city of Plano recently submitted a new proposal to DART, extending its contract by six years in ex- change for the termination of all standard bus routes within the city’s limits, while re- taining express buses and all rail line ser- vices, according to reporting from KERA. “In return, Plano agrees to cease any leg- islative efforts to alter DART’s governance or financing and to stop pursuing with- drawal from DART during the agreement period,” read the agreement obtained by KERA. “The City will rescind any prior withdrawal election actions within 72 hours of finalizing the agreement and will remain a participating DART member.” The truce could mark the beginning of a ceasefire between DART and its member cities, but for now, Farmers Branch, High- land Park and Irving appear ready and will- ing to terminate their contracts as soon as voters give them the green light. ▼ TRANSPORTATION & SAFETY BIG D FOR DANGER DALLAS ISN’T PLAYING BY ITS OWN RULES WHEN IT COMES TO DRIVER, PEDESTRIAN SAFETY. BY EMMA RUBY J ust two days after 23-year-old Aya Knox was fatally struck by a car while crossing the street in downtown Dal- las in November, leaders of a city-appointed task force announced to a council commit- tee that Dallas is failing its pedestrians, and the stakes are life and death. A report compiled by the Street Design Manual Work Group presented Dallas lead- ers with a list of 19 recommendations to en- hance pedestrian safety throughout the city. The first of these recommendations is straightforward: “enforce adherence to poli- cies.” The work group was tasked with re- viewing the city’s street design manual in 2023 to ensure the policies aligned with ini- tiatives such as ForwardDallas, the bike plan and Vision Zero, which aims to eliminate traffic-related deaths in Dallas. Citing 2023 data, the report found that Dallas had 57% more traffic incidents result- ing in fatalities or serious injuries per capita than Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston or San Antonio. The memo considers these deaths a “consequence of poor street de- sign,” and goes on to paint an unrelenting picture of city departments failing to put safety first when building Dallas’ roads. The fact that the briefing came just days after Knox was killed was a coincidence, but the report’s data suggest that tragedies like the accident she suffered are happening of- ten. Still looking at data from 2023, Dallas recorded 71 pedestrian fatalities and 198 se- vere injuries, meaning that just over five pe- destrians are killed or hurt each week across the city. Dallas regulates infrastructure character- istics, including paving, drainage, sidewalks, parking, and street design. According to workforce chair Melissa Kingston, who also sits on the City Plan Commission, probes into the transportation and public works de- partments (which have been consolidated since the report was developed) revealed “lots of instances” where city staff failed to follow Dallas’ own policies on infrastructure development. The report labels this a “cul- ture of policy noncompliance” that was fos- tered under the leadership of former department heads. “More than one staff member said during the process that they didn’t think that they had to follow city policies on a city-initiated project,” Kingston said. “There seems to be a lack of accountability for failure to follow our own policies. … We gave an example of a two-way conversion that is happening at McKinney and Cole in Uptown, and how the original plans weren’t followed. The new design still doesn’t meet our city policy in a myriad of ways, and that was a year ago.” In another example, the report notes that while it is Dallas’ Public Works department that is often charged with replacing or in- stalling city sidewalks, those installations “often” fail to comply with zoning regula- tions in the area. “There are examples of Public Works making sidewalk or curb ramp improve- ments, only for the adjacent site to fall vic- tim to having to either rip out what the City has just replaced or to go through an ardu- ous waiver process to try and fix something that the City created,” the report claims. Some of this has gotten better since the Transportation and Public Works depart- ments merged, the report acknowledges. Still, while officials are working to make Dallas’ roads safer, the progress comes only a few pieces at a time. Earlier this year, the City Council ap- proved a plan aimed at increasing safety at Loop 12, which has been responsible for dozens of deaths over the last few years as pedestrians regularly attempt to cross the speedy, six-lane road. Officials are in the process of installing stoplights across the loop’s southern Dallas stretch to help slow traffic and give pedestrians a place to cross. One issue the report found is that Dallas builds its streets for our firetrucks, which means our roads are wide. Wide roads have been shown to encourage faster driving, and the report suggests that the city invest in leaner equipment for Dallas Fire-Rescue that is more conducive to an urban environ- ment. Another problem is that Dallas’ regu- lations span approximately a half-dozen documents: the thoroughfare plan, the pav- ing plan, the Complete Streets Manual, and the Street Design Manual. Those all need to be combined into one governing document so that builders actually know what they’re supposed to be doing, the report urges. Because, as of right now, policies that help facilitate safer street building and are spelled out across city manuals are being “overlooked.” That includes measures such as lowering the speed limit and sharpening curb radii to encourage slower turns. “When it’s your goal to move cars as fast as possible in every circumstance, you end up making decisions about things like curb radii and lane width and pedestrian infra- structure that makes it less safe, not just for the pedestrians and bikers, but also for the people driving the cars,” Kingston said. “I think there has to be a mind shift.” Some council members applauded the report but worried that some of the sugges- tions might not be in the best interest of their more suburban-designed neighbor- hoods, where car reliance significantly out- weighs pedestrian use. And then there is the bureaucracy itself. Director of Transportation and Public Works Gus Khankarli informed the council that the city had sought to have the Legislature grant it the administrative authority to lower speed limits in neighborhoods, but the measure failed during the legislative session. As it is now, a speed limit change requires a lengthy and expensive traffic study to be conducted to “tell us what we already know.” Council member Zarin Gracey acknowl- edged the need for slower streets and the hoops the city currently has to jump through to get them. “Camp Wisdom has three lanes on each side. We’re reducing it down to four lanes and creating some walkable things to help. I know some of this stuff is happening, but I think you’re right,” Gracey said. “These are things that are long overdue, so we need to make sure we have all of our processes in place.” ▼ POLITICS CAMPAIGN ‘CHAOS’ REDISTRICTING DRAMA PRESENTS CHALLENGES FOR CONGRESSIONAL HOPEFULS, DALLAS DEMOCRATS. BY EMMA RUBY A federal court decision overturning the congressional map drawn and ap- proved by Republicans over the sum- mer couldn’t have come at a better time for the Dallas-area Democrats hoping to run for an- other term next fall. (The decision has since been put on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to take up the case.) The filing period for the 2026 election ends in two weeks, but North Texas incum- bents Marc Veasey, Jasmine Crockett and Julie Johnson have all held off from filing in hopes that a court would strike down the map that sliced and diced their historically blue districts. That hope was realized briefly last week, when a three-judge panel ruled that the congressional maps — redrawn at the behest of President Donald Trump to se- cure Republicans an additional five seats in Congress after the midterm elections — were illegally racially gerrymandered. The map approved by Republicans would combine the Democratic constituencies from Johnson’s district, CD-32, with those from Veasey’s district, CD-33, pitting the two in- cumbents against each other while flipping CD-32 red. When the map was being debated in the state House, Democrat Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez remarked that CD-32 — which includes parts of Plano, Richardson and Balch Springs under the map approved in 2021 — had been turned into a “175-mile fa- jita strip” that stretched from Richardson to (nearly) the Louisiana border. A judge appointed by Trump ultimately ruled that next year’s election “shall proceed under the map that the Texas Legislature enacted in 2021” in an opinion that Con- gresswoman Johnson believes was “un- Nikki Williams After local and statewide initiatives to decrease traffic fatalities, 2024 ended with more deaths recorded than 2023. Unfair Park from p6
