DART's early days

[RobertB]

In a reply on the Rail Transit thread, I was reminded how little of DART's history I know. I moved to the area in '86, fresh out of high school with one semester of college-level partying and a summer of Pizza Delivery training. So I wasn't really paying attention to civic issues, especially when making it to the end of a six-month lease seemed like forever.

So to fill in the gaps, what are y'alls' memories of DART's start?

I know second-hand that it wasn't easy. In fact, the Carrollton company I work for (now part of a big conglomerate) was founded by a serious DART opponent. I've heard that during the elections that founded DART, the owner turned over the company's phone banks at 5pm to the anti-DART forces for their voter outreach program. Victorious in the end, DART installed a bus stop in front of the company's Midway Rd. that lasted until last year's budget cuts.

Any more stories from DART's founding?

[rantanamo]

I was really young and don't remember the political issues. I do remember blue busses though.

[freewaytincan]

I was really young and don't remember the political issues. I do remember blue busses though.

Blue?

[texcolo]

Anyone remember the Hop-a-bus downtown circulator?

They were pink busses with little bunny-wabbit ears.

My dad was peeved when DART did away with those.

[freewaytincan]

Anyone remember the Hop-a-bus downtown circulator?

They were pink busses with little bunny-wabbit ears.

My dad was peeved when DART did away with those.

Well, I can gladly say that I'd never seen that.

[texcolo]

Well, I can gladly say that I'd never seen that.

My dad was "hopping" mad.

:D

[Columbus Civil]

Anyone remember the Hop-a-bus downtown circulator?

They were pink busses with little bunny-wabbit ears.

My dad was peeved when DART did away with those.

Are you serious? I'd love to see a picture of one of those.

[RobertB]

Anyone remember the Hop-a-bus downtown circulator?

They were pink busses with little bunny-wabbit ears.

My dad was peeved when DART did away with those.
Those were so cute. I had wondered, though, how much extra maintenance it took to keep the ears and such from looking too droopy. Seems DART has tried *everything* to make a downtown circulator work, doesn't it?

As for the blue buses -- that would be from the Dallas Transit Authority (DTA) days, right? There were old DTA signs on the streets crossing 635 that said "Fare Zone Boundary" up until DART did away with local fare zones entirely, IIRC.

[RobertB]

Are you serious? I'd love to see a picture of one of those.
Found this on a quick Google search:

DART making more than token cuts

02:41 PM CDT on Saturday, October 4, 2003
By TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News

Maybe DART should bring back the bunny ears.

The transit agency has dropped its latest downtown circulator bus route and 15 other routes because of low ridership and sales tax revenue shortfalls. The routes, which will stop running Monday, have been around for at least a year. But the downtown route has been tried in various forms and scrapped many times over the years.

First came the Hop-A-Bus, which leapt onto the downtown scene in 1978 when the old Dallas Transit System painted whiskers on old buses and slapped yard-long bunny ears on them to boot. Instantly recognizable, they forged an identity that many still remember.

But they and other circulator bus services that followed have proved to be no match for light-rail trains, which started running in downtown in 1996.

"We've tried just about everything," said Tim Newby, assistant vice president for Dallas Area Rapid Transit. "We have admittedly struggled with a downtown circulator. But we do have those bunny ears around here somewhere."

The rest of the article can be found here:
http://www.texansfortruemobility.com/press_news21.shtml

[texcolo]

Hop-A-Bus was pre-DART.