Public transportation pontification: Why people with options don't often chooseDART

Like clockwork, two things happen on my morning commute: A confused rider asks for help selecting the right ticket, and someone hits me up for money. At least once it was the same person.

With all the time and infrastructure invested in DART and its stepchild, the Trinity Railway Express, you’d think that simplifying the ticket-buying process would be high on the priority list. But it’s not. The addition of the orange line this summer has only upped the number of perplexed passengers.

When I first started taking the TRE and DART to work in January, it was a daunting task. And I’m fairly savvy when it comes to public transit. I’ve ridden rails all over the world, often navigating in another language. DART still confused me.

Let’s start with buying a ticket. On the automated machine, instead of words explaining what you need, there are pictures of the different types of trains and buses next to the appropriate tickets. This is helpful only if you’ve ridden every kind of public transportation Dallas offers — there are two types of trains and even more buses — and therefore recognize which locomotives are going to be on your route. It’s easy to select the wrong type of ticket, and the fare inspectors are hardly sympathetic when you explain your confusion.

For the rider with no car, this isn’t a barrier to taking public transportation; they simply have no other options. But to the business commuter who is choosing to take DART or the TRE instead of driving to work, taking the train is not worth the risk of a $75 fine — the cost of buying the wrong ticket and getting caught.

Of course I appreciate the need for enforcing the law and collecting fines. But enforcing the law becomes meaningless when no one understands it. I’ve seen people fined for buying the wrong ticket when the right ticket was the exact same price that they’d already paid. That’s nonsensical.

A simple solution to the ticket conundrum is a programmed kiosk. Readers input a final destination, and the machine dispenses the appropriate tickets. Only one other option would be required: length of time (single ride, day pass or monthly pass). This change would make buying the wrong ticket a lot tougher.

Once you have the appropriate pass, the next challenge of DART ridership is keeping up with a flimsy piece of paper for the duration of your use. In my case, that’s a month. Not everyone may want to go paperless, but it makes sense to at least have the option of a digital ticket sent directly to a smart phone. This isn’t a rider plan for everyone, but I would venture to guess that the demographic DART would like to grow is that of the business commuter.

News flash: Most of us carry a smart phone and have a car that we will use if you make us angry. Simplify the process of buying and retaining a ticket, and more of us will ride. Promise.