If you grew up in Dallas, you have definitely seen the yellow arrow of DART. Dallas Area Rapid Transit has been an important part of my life providing me transportation since I was 4.
Over time you pick up more knowledge and unspoken rules of the transit and ways to make sure you’re safe. To not sugar coat, it DART isn’t always the safest and/or cleanest; these stories about DART will provide information on things to avoid and what to look out for when it comes to taking the public transport around Dallas.
When I was young, during my time in pre-kinder, I had to take the DART bus to school as the school bus wouldn’t reach my apartment complex. In this experience I was with my mother. After being dropped off, my mother noticed she lost her purse.
Luckily nothing of value was in there besides a couple spare dollars, but the bag was a bit pricey. This story doesn’t have a good ending. My mother just lost the purse, but fun fact DART has a lost and found. Most items are found about two business days later and put in a DART office by the Akard station. Of course, you can’t always rely on the lost and found as your items could be easily stolen. I would recommend keeping a close eye on your items.
When I was 18, I was heading back to my house taking the train from Pearl Arts. Halfway through the ride a duo came into the same car I was in.
I was completely alone in this train and one of the men walked up to me.He gave me a small milky way and went to the other side of the car. As you know, you don’t eat food from strangers. So, I put it in my pocket. I’m gonna assume he wanted to bribe me because all of a sudden, the entire car smelled like weed and he basically started hot boxing the car.
If you’re like me you would’ve just stayed in your own lane and kind of ignored what’s going on. But I would recommend advising a DART security officer about shady behavior in the cars, especially if you think the shady behavior could be dangerous to others.
Not everything is about safety. You’ve got keep yourself clean, too. When I was 16, the whole day was raining and I couldn’t tell if the seats are clean or not because most buses have fabric seats. So, without thinking, I took a seat without doing a touch test. I immediately noticed that the seat was wet and I basically ruined my jeans. I’m just hope it was wet due to the rain and nothing else.
Rules
With these stories of DART, you’ve seen the horrors that can happen, but there are several rules to go by to avoid these tragedies:
No. 1: Make sure to keep a close eye on your stuff. But if you lose your stuff make sure to contact the official lost and found number, 214-749-(3810).
No. 2: Make sure to not take anything from strangers. God only knows what they did to the item.
No. 3: Report any suspicious activity.
No. 4: Check the seats before sitting down. Who knows what kind of fluids could be there.
No. 5: And finally, stay in your own lane and you should be fine.
