Accessibility and Mobility Concerns in Denton, Texas

Denton’s Public Transit and Accessibility Concerns Statement

The purpose of researching mobility and accessibility for specifically the city of Denton, was to bring issues to light on the impact of failing public transit for mid-sized cities. This was chosen to examine a city with a transit authority, but still had a population around 150,000 residents. Additionally, because it was also within a larger metropolitan area, this city was chosen to understand connectivity to the rest of the DFW area. However, the focus was on a city scale, but allowed for comparison with neighboring and even collaborative transit authorities. Understanding the distribution of bus stops allowed a geographical context for the experience of bus riders in the city. Running simple errands can take up the entire day based on a lack of connections/transfers and frequency.

Although it is beneficial to have more routes and stops in areas of lower income that do go to areas that have social and health services, this concentration prevents access to the complete city.  This is further exacerbated by a concentration of Section 8 housing. In the state of Texas, income discrimination is legal, meaning that a landlord may decide not to lease to someone because they would have their rent subsidized. Because there are not routes that run throughout the city, many residents are confined to this area. This research also brought up more implications for lacking accessibility as housing plays a great role in the quality of life for residents. As mentioned in the podcast and above, the benefit of the existing routes is that there is an emphasis on health services, specifically within the Med Park and Denton Presbyterian area. There are also stops at local government agencies, but again, other opportunities such as employment and free recreational activities are literally out of range for residents who rely on public transportation.

DCTA, the local transit authority, appears to be catering to those who have no choice but to use the bus, rather than encourage more ridership from a wider scale of residents in the city of Denton. This should be a service that all can enjoy, and this is a continuous issue with most cities in the states that are not large metropolitan destinations. Potential solutions, such as micro transit, may also be harmful for long term usage and sustainability.

References

Lubitow, A., Rainer, J., & Bassett, S. (2017). Exclusion and vulnerability on public transit: experiences of transit dependent riders in Portland, Oregon. Mobilities, 12(6), 924-937.

No go zone: Behind the plan to shrink the bus system in Denton, Texas. Transit Center. (2021, July 21). Retrieved November 13, 2021, from https://transitcenter.org/no-go-zone-behind-the-plan-to-shrink-the-bus-system-in-denton-texas/.

Sanchez, T. W., Stolz, R., & Ma, J. S. (2004). Inequitable effects of transportation policies on minorities. Transportation research record, 1885(1), 104-110.

Yılmaz, K., & Yeşilırmak, M. (2021). Access to transportation, residential segregation, and economic opportunity. Contemporary Economic Policy.

Yang, Y., Langellier, B. A., Stankov, I., Purtle, J., Nelson, K. L., Reinhard, E., ... & Roux, A. V. D. (2020). Public transit and depression among older adults: using agent-based models to examine plausible impacts of a free bus policy. J Epidemiol Community Health, 74(11), 875-881.