Quote Originally Posted by BrushStart View Post
The real purpose of building light rail is to reign in sprawl. Permanent mass transit provides an incentive to develop already inhabited land as opposed to rural land.
How does Dallas light rail inhibit sprawl?

There are no land use restrictions that accompanied creation of the DART network.

And the rail ridership is no higher than the bus ridership that preceded it.

In fact, Dallas has lower transit ridership than Austin and San Antonio, two bus-only cities.

Yes, there was economic development along the various lines, and I suppose one could argue the light rail stimulated this development, but I don't know how this could be proven.

Dallas has had a ton of development in recent decades, both along rail corridors and non-rail corridors. It's really a fuzzy game trying to determine cause and effect. And the sprawl in Dallas is legendary and continues unabated.