No Limits to Benefits between
Friends: DCCCD & DART
2012 NACAS South Conference
May 8, 2012
David Browning, El Centro College
Edward DesPlas, Dallas County Community
College District
Who The Heck?
• DCCCD = Dallas County Community
College District
• DART = Dallas Area Rapid Transit
DCCCD
• Service area: One County
• Number of Students:
80,000
• El Centro College – flagship
of DCCCD, centrally located
in downtown Dallas, south
Dallas and west Dallas
• El Centro student
population: 12,000 (credit)
• El Centro has extremely
limited parking
DART
•Trains & Buses
•Most of Dallas
County
•Part of Collin County
•Soon to hit Rockwall
County
•Partnered with
Trinity Railway
Express, connecting
Ft. Worth in Tarrant
County
Reduce
CO2e
Benefits?
•
•
•
•
Public Transit vs. Parking Lots & Traffic
Lower Carbon Footprint
Facilitating Regional Student Recruitment
Providing Students with Reliable
Transportation
• Enhance applications for grants for economic
development and environmental programs
Public Transit vs. Parking & Traffic
• Costs less to provide passes than to operate
parking garage
• Survey of 6 other college within the DCCCD
with parking lots showed, on average, 60% of
campus criminal activity occurred in their
parking lots
• Public transportation allows students to
continue group discussions while commuting
Lower Carbon Footprint
0.70%
4%
6%
Personal Vehicle
19%
42%
Light Rail
Bus
TRE
Walk
Bike
25%
In 2009 with a full-time student enrollment of
7,700 ECC reduced it’s CO2e produced by student
commuting by 32.6%
Facilitating Regional Student Recruitment
• Per the 2010 US Census, El
Centro has access to a
Dallas/Ft. Worth Metro
population of 6,371,771;
largest metro area in Texas
and the South, 4th Largest in
the US and 10th Largest in all
of the Americas. Compared
to an El Centro College
service area population of
137,635.
Gas Price Increase Vs. El Centro
Enrollment Growth
Yearly Aveage from the U.S. Energy
Information Administration
Students are Consumers, too
Providing Students with Affordable
Transportation
•
•
•
•
Monthly Cost of Parking
Monthly cost of Gasoline
% of students of FA
No Gas $ = no attendance
– No attendance = attrition
• No Parking $ = parking tickets
– Unpaid parking tickets = jail time
– Jail time = attrition
• Affordable Transportation = student success
Enhance applications for grants for economic
development and environmental programs
• Silver Rating on AASHE
• Promotes environmental grant applications
• Interagency collaboration increases grant
proposal scores
• Attracts “green” partners – US Green Building
Council
Structure of Program
• Eligible students = 6 credit hr. min. @
cert. date or continuing ed. students
@ 96 clock hour min.
• Statistics since Fall 1997:
155,654 Eligible (payment to DART based
on this)
89,373 Participated
• Cost $3,552,970 ($20 - $25 per
semester pass)
• Effective cost is $39.75/participant
Public Transit Program vs. Parking
• Cost Comparisons:
– Parking Garage construction Cost $5,000,000
• 500 parking spaces
– Cost for Security and Maintenance $3,500,000
• Total: $8,500,000
– Total for DART-Free: $ 3,552,970
Other Aspects of “Friendship”
• DART drive-on to college in non participating
municipalities: Eastfield College - Mesquite
• DART bus access at all other colleges
• Richland College - “Poetry in Motion”
• DART Train Station @ North Lake College: station
artwork designed by college faculty member
• DART pass good 24/7, not just school transit
• Student retention – seamless, semester-tosemester
Poetry in Motion
DART brought Poetry in Motion to North
Texas in 1998. From 1999-2010, Richland
College partnered with DART in support of
this program. The national program is
coordinated by the Poetry Society of
America (PSA), and is enjoyed by millions of
riders in New York, Baltimore, Boston and
Chicago. Poetry in Motion gives riders a way
to take a mental break from their day.
Example - Poetry in Motion
Example - Poetry in Motion
Public Art –
North Lake College Station
Public Art –
North Lake College Station
• Education, directed toward future growth, has
as its base history - great men and women
who used their education to make life better
for us today through the sciences,
mathematics, history, literature, philosophy
and the fine arts. The North Lake College
Station [paving blocks] will include the names
of some of these important men and women."
- Chris Fulmer, station artist & North Lake
College (DCCCD) faculty member
Summing-Up The Friendship
• It’s SUSTAINABLE: financially,
environmentally and socially
– Viable alternative to student parking
– Public transportation partnership is good for the
environment.
– Public transportation partnership is good for the
financial bottom line.
– Impact of partnership surpasses environmental
and financial benefits
Questions?
The bus stops here.