Today I'm on the line with John Boyd Jr., Principal for The Boyd Company Inc. The Boyd Company is an independent location and development counsel company for clients like Boeing, Chevron, UPS, JP Morgan Chase, Pepsi Co, and HP. John, welcome, great to have you on.
Today we're chatting a little bit about the future of Dallas' public transit infrastructure. On Friday, there was a symposium on Dallas' transit system, preparing for a phase of planned revitalization including new rail lines, expanded bus services, and more. Boyd has had a presence here in Dallas for at least five decades; John, give us some brief perspective on the state of transit in Dallas, and its ripple effects on the business interests of the city.
Something that stood out to me from the symposium was an expert analysis from Jarrett Walker, president of a contracted consulting firm planning out the city's new bus system, saying that basically, as Dallas expands its public transit, it can either have high coverage or high ridership, but not both. From your perspective, what's the relationship between those two and how do they play logistically when accounting for fresh transit infrastructure?
The general consensus at the symposium was that getting bus frequency down from 45-50 minutes to 15 minutes would be when public transit can finally take off in a robust way for the city. If the city can reach that goal, what would that sort of increased frequency and usage mean for tangential aspects of development in the city?
