Pre-public hearing community meetings are scheduled at noon April 1 for Plano residents and at 6:30 p.m. April 8 for Richardson residents. A public hearing will follow later this spring.
These meetings provide a space for feedback on the bus network redesign, which includes changes to GoLink shuttle service in Plano and Richardson. A first draft of the redesign shows new and expanded GoLink zones with current bus routes being replaced by shuttle service.
This spring will be spent gathering input from the public, municipal stakeholders and the DART board. A final new bus network plan will be created in the summer. The agency expects to implement the new network in January 2022.
A first draft of the design was presented by staff in February after both the DART Committee-of-the-Whole and DART board approved the use of a hybrid concept for the redesign Nov. 10. This approach balances the need to maintain high-ridership routes with providing adequate coverage.
Staff was directed to focus the design on 70% to 75% ridership and 25% to 30% coverage. With this redesign, roughly 74% of service-area residents would have access to bus or shuttle service within a half-mile at midday on a weekday, according to staff.
About 55% of DART’s bus service currently focuses on high-ridership routes, while the rest is used to provide coverage, as previously reported by Community Impact Newspaper.
The full first draft can be viewed here along with other information on the redesign. Additionally, community meeting information can be found here.
