Dallas Area Rapid Transit is reexamining the locations of some bus stops after a series of reports by NBC 5 Investigates highlighted locations where a lack of nearby crosswalks or sidewalks makes it more dangerous to cross the street.
DART CEO Nadine Lee said her team is assessing more of those problem locations, including one near Loop 12 and Bonnie View Road in Southern Dallas, where our reporting has shown pedestrians are dying at an alarming rate.
Video recorded by NBC 5 Investigates showed pedestrians dodging cars near one DART bus stop on Loop 12, in an area where pedestrians often cross in the middle of the street instead of walking a longer distance to find a crosswalk. Records obtained by NBC 5 Investigates showed five pedestrians were fatally struck on that stretch of Loop 12 in 2023. One of those victims was Betty Sue Fleming, who was killed in November.
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In a conversation with NBC 5 Investigates, Betty Sue's brother Arthur Fleming wondered why DART doesn't move bus stops on Loop 12 closer to crosswalks.
"People are dying trying to get your bus stop," said Arthur Fleming. "If they just put bus stops in places that's convenient for them and not convenient for the people that's actually riding a bus, you know, we have to come and talk to them also and see what, what are you doing?"
NBC 5 Investigates asked Lee just that -- what was DART doing to address those dangerous locations? She said they've assessed those locations to see what improvements can be made and added that her staff is not only looking at Loop 12 but also other roads where our reporting has shown pedestrians face challenges getting to a bus stop safely.
One of those locations is along East Northwest Highway where the bus stop is nothing but a pole surrounded by grass. There are no sidewalks and there is no place to safely cross the street from the apartments on the other side of the six-lane road.
NBC 5 Investigates reported on the concerns neighbors had about the lack of crosswalks and sidewalks in that area along with others like it on Ferguson Road.
DART cannot install crosswalks on these major roads because those areas are the responsibility of the city or the Texas Department of Transportation. But Lee said DART is determined to work with both city and state officials to help change these hard-to-reach stops.
Lee told NBC 5 Investigates when she moved to Dallas from Los Angeles in 2021 she was surprised to see so many bus stops in locations without sidewalks or crosswalks and said the transit industry needs to do a better job considering pedestrians.
"It was a surprise. I think, you know, again I'm not, certainly casting any blame on anybody because I think historically we just as an industry, we haven't considered pedestrians the way we should," Lee said.
On Forest Lane, near Audelia, neighbors complained to NBC 5 Investigates about a bus stop across the street from an apartment building where there are no crosswalks in sight.
A roundtrip walk to the nearest crosswalk and back to the bus stop took us about 25 minutes. Many pedestrians choose to save time instead, and risk being hit by a car when they scramble across the busy six-lane road.
Lee said she'd like to see the city install a crosswalk and stoplight at that intersection and said she wants to work with the city on other dangerous intersections.
"I think it's really important for us to constantly evaluate the pedestrian access," Lee said. "And so, you know, if that's something that we need to coordinate with the city on, we can certainly do that."
Lee said her team has already consolidated thousands of bus stops city-wide, moving some to safer and more convenient locations. On Loop 12, DART has also been working with the city and TxDOT to build new sidewalks and bus stops with shelters.
Lee said she is open to moving the bus stop located along Loop 12 near Bonnie View Road, where there was the recent rash of 5 pedestrian deaths. DART said the stop was placed there many years ago because business owners wanted it there instead of closer to the crosswalk at an intersection up the street.
Going forward, Lee told NBC 5 Investigates her agency will sharpen its focus on making the trip to the bus stop safer.
"Pedestrians historically have just been largely ignored. And I think we need to ... really improve that from this point forward," Lee said.
The city of Dallas and TxDOT are also examining pedestrian safety improvements on Loop 12 and conducting traffic studies on the other roads we have reported on in our series.
Texas Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, plans to hold a meeting soon to bring the city and state together with DART to talk about possible changes.
DRIVEN TO DEATH
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