Voters in three North Texas cities will soon decide if they want to become "transit isolationists" and remove themselves from the Dallas Area Rapid Transit network. If citizens of Addison, Highland Park and University Park decide to cancel DART service, access to rail, in Addison, and buses in all three cities will end the following day.
Leaving DART will weaken regional connectivity and growth, three cities should not become “transit isolationists"
April 3rd, 2026
April 3, 2026 - DallasNews.com - Op-Ed - Peter LeCody, Texas Rail Advocates -
Removing mass transit will only serve to compound the issues these growing communities are facing, worsening traffic congestion and limiting options for fiscal stability. A no vote on DART also comes at the worst possible time, as North Texas prepares to welcome tens of thousands of fans for the FIFA World Cup events in June.
When cities like Plano, Irving and Farmers Branch threatened to exit the DART system, the agency made meaningful concessions and those municipalities scrapped their ballot initiatives. Changes will include balanced representation on the DART board as well as modified funding agreements and financial assistance from the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
While most Dallas-area municipalities now recognize the value of public transit and are recommitting to DART ahead of major events, a handful of smaller cities remain at odds with the agency, still arguing public transit has no place in their budgets when most residents drive every day.
The divide not only threatens DART’s perennially strained finances but also risks isolating those communities from a growing regional economy built on connectivity. We don't need a patchwork transit network with blank spots on a map. We need a strong regional web to serve hundreds of thousands of transit-dependent citizens now and in the future.
Public transit keeps booming economies like North Texas moving. Dallas-Fort Worth’s population has grown by roughly two million people in just the last 15 years. The economic and cultural boom of our region is welcome: new residents mean new businesses, new jobs and more tax revenues for our schools and public services. But it also comes with pressures that require smart transportation solutions.
More people inevitably means more cars, and if we don’t invest in the infrastructure we require today, a growing population will turn from a good thing into a problem, clogging roads, slowing commerce and making a nightmare to go anywhere. Sustaining and strengthening DART is how the region can stay ahead of this pressure by ensuring people have a reliable alternative to driving and can get to their destinations on time, keeping the broader economy moving as the population continues to grow.
It’s often said taxpayers shouldn’t pay for services they don’t use, but no matter where you live, mobility is a necessity for every community. The question, then, is not whether public dollars support transportation, but how those dollars are allocated. Roads cost just as much, if not more, to maintain than public transit and rarely generate a direct financial return because they underpin economic activity. Public transit does the same and deserves the same recognition.
In fact, in many cases, public transit succeeds where roads cannot. Roads in built-up areas can’t be expanded without seizing valuable property, and most highway projects also come with obscene price tags. Our roadways are struggling to handle the increased traffic volume, even with regular (and expensive) roadwork projects underway. Without proper, continued support for DART and regional transit, the time will come when North Texas roads reach a breaking point and we’ll find we’ve dug ourselves a rather expensive hole.
It’s a tremendous win for the region that most cities in the region are recommitting to their investment, which is necessary to create a robust transit system for our cities and towns as they struggle to absorb rapid growth.
Now, it’s time for the remaining communities to hop aboard the transit train, too, and invest in a more prosperous and less congested future for all of us.
Peter LeCody is president of the Texas Rail Advocates.
Photo credit: Dallas Morning News, Shafkat Anowar