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DART committee updated on paid parking initiative
By Conner Hammett, chammett@starlocalnews.com
A pilot program to charge residents of non-DART cities for parking at some rail stations has caused a spike in parking at downstream stations, and an expansion of the program may be necessary to fill an $88,600 deficit, a DART planning committee was told Tuesday.
The program was launched in April at Parker Road and North Carrollton-Frankford stations. The program is intended to address concerns from DART member city residents that many who park and ride come from outside of the service area and do not help fund the DART system with their tax dollars.
Between March and September, parking by non-residents at Parker Road station has dropped off by 438 vehicles per day, said Todd Plesko, vice president of planning and development for DART.
"Much of that population that's shifted from Parker Road obviously went from George Bush," Plesko said.
As of September, the overall program is running an $88,600 deficit. Parking-fee operations at both stations are administered and paid for by a third-party company called Platinum Parking, Plesko said.
So far, non-residents parking at free lots have cost the program approximately $100,000 in revenue.
"If we don't make, ultimately, some different decisions in the long-term, it's perhaps not a break-even operation," Plesko said.
One way to capture this lost revenue is to expand the program, shifting lots at George Bush and Trinity Mills over to the pay-to-ride model, Plesko said.
The expansion could be done without a dramatic increase in costs by spreading labor across multiple stations, potentially using existing DART staff to help further offset costs, he said.
Plesko said expanding the program could bring it to a positive net revenue of $22,117 per month.
"It does address the equity issue, but it's not a massively profitable program," he said.
Ridership has changed little since the implementation of the program, according to data presented by Plesko. Ridership is down 1.8 percent at Parker and has increased by 9.4 percent at George Bush since the implementation of the parking program.
"Realize that almost all of the riders that we believe didn't want to pay have gone to another station," he said. "They have not decided ... as far as we know, to leave DART altogether."
After Plesko's presentation, Mark Enoch, board representative for Garland, Rowlett and Farmer's Branch asked what the likelihood of implementing an extra cost at George Bush Station might be.
"I think that was the thought, to see where this takes us before we move forward," said Timothy McKay, executive vice president of growth and regional development. "At some point you've got to assume if it puts people too far down they will drive."
Pamela Dunlop Gates, representative for Dallas and planning committee chair, said the board must have a sense of how far down it can expand the program before it reaches the threshold of people choosing not to ride altogether.
"For us to be able to make an informed decision about how well this is going to work, we're probably going to have to modify the pilot, the demonstration," she said, adding that the staff will have to bring the issue back to the board for further discussion at a future meeting.
The pay-to-park program expanded to Northwest Plano Park and Ride in July of this year. An already planned expansion of the program at Belt Line Station in Irving is slated for December.
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