RIDE DART, ROAM FREE.
RIDE DART, ROAM FREE.
“Roam Free” is a campaign that I’ve started developing with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) branding team, to form a local culture around DART, promoting the social interconnectivity we develop by utilizing public transportation, in our pursuit to Roam Free.
The Problem.
My first attempt to solve this problem was to propose that the DART council should make a public pledge to increase funds, with an increase in ridership, which I would then market to people as an incentive to ride, for better public transportation. This increase in ridership could revert the lack of ridership that they had been facing, which they had been referring to as “failed return on investment”. But with the internal conflict among council members, some in favor of the cuts and some against the cuts, my argument failed to persuade the committee as a whole.
The Solution!
Realizing that this was a social issue among council members, as well as between Dallas residents who have been politically polarized out of wanting to use public transportation, it made sense to create a social solution, instead of a financial solution.
I’m currently communicating with the DART branding team to develop a partnership between DART and Dallas ISD schools. This will give students from every part of Dallas an opportunity to help create campaign media, shaping the culture of DART, and by extension, the culture of Dallas.
In 2024, member cities of DART including Plano, Farmers Branch, and Highland Park, began making efforts to reduce funding for the DART system, in response to “failed return on investment”. This resulted in the loss of several bus lines across DFW, leaving many people without transportation.
Roam Free manifesto delivered to the DART council:
The Deck
The Future.
An idea that I have to expand this campaign is to integrate my neuroscience-film projects in a way that allows DART riders to create interactive visuals, using the neurological functions of looking out the window of a moving train, to make the case that public transportation is influential for our creativity, and to give people a direct outlet for that daily inspiration.