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Bringing Our Transit System to LifeService Planning: Going with the Flow ... and Analyzing ItThey're detail-oriented, but they never lose sight of the "big picture." They're "number-crunchers" accustomed to working alone, but they've got the people skills to deal with customers, operators, city officials and many others. They're the employees of the Service Planning and Scheduling Department - the DART team responsible for charting more than 120 bus and rail routes. Service Planner III Jennifer Jones sees the DART Service Area as a vast sea constantly rising and falling, never the same. The northwest part of our service area, part of her planning responsibilities, provides several examples. The Addison Transit Center opens soon, while Prestonwood Mall, which many DART buses once served, now is closed. Carrollton particularly in the Trinity Mills Road and Frankford Road area is growing explosively in terms of residents and construction. Jones and other planners analyze events such as these tracking population growth, changes in land use and development, and other factors to help them identify travel demand for DART services now and project travel demand over a five-year period. Planning Information Analyst I Carolyn Vasquez-Conrad helps provide the facts and figures used to make informed decisions. "For service planning to be successful, we have to meet customers and directly address their wants and needs," she says. "DART is successful not because it is big or long-established, but because there are employees who build future plans for it." |
 The art at the Light Rail Westmoreland station was designed as part of a competition of local artist. |
 
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