Ask a server at Barsotti's how to get to work without a car, and as of early June, the answer had nothing to do with the ride service the town spent months building for exactly that purpose. Employees at Barsotti's and Sadelle's in Highland Park Village told a People Newspapers reporter in early June that they hadn't heard of Highland Park On-Demand. A manager at Mi Cocina had the app on his phone but didn't know what area it covered. This is three weeks after the town's own bus stops disappeared.
That gap is the story. Highland Park spent the spring building a transit replacement, funding it, and making it free. The one thing it hasn't solved yet is getting the people who most need a ride, hourly workers commuting into the Village without a car, to know the ride exists.
What Actually Replaced the 237
For decades, DART's Route 237 ran up Preston Road through Highland Park, and the Park Cities GoLink zone filled in the gaps for shorter trips. On May 2, 2026, Highland Park voters chose to end that relationship, with roughly 70 percent supporting withdrawal in a special election, according to People Newspapers. Addison and University Park held the same kind of vote on the same ballot and chose to stay. Highland Park was the only one of the three to leave.
DART service inside Highland Park ended at midnight on May 14. Route 237 still runs along Preston Road, but the bus no longer stops within town limits. The GoLink zone is gone. DART paratransit trips to, from, or within Highland Park stopped too.
In their place: Highland Park On-Demand, a city-run microtransit service operated through a contract with Via Transportation, launched the same week DART pulled out. It covers the town plus a one-mile radius beyond the border, with connections to Mockingbird Station and, per the service's own app listing, Dallas Love Field. It runs 5 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. You book through the app or by calling 214-785-4345.
A few practical details worth knowing if you haven't tried it yet:
- Rides within town and the surrounding mile are free right now, during a six-month pilot.
- Highland Park Access, the paratransit arm, requires an eligibility application with supporting documentation before you can book.
- Access rides must be scheduled up to four days ahead, with booking closing at 5 p.m. the evening before travel, per the town's own microtransit page.
- The fleet is small: four vehicles total, two of them paratransit-capable, according to Highland Park Department of Public Safety Lt. Lance Koppa.
The Free Ride Wasn't the Original Plan
The town initially planned to charge a $3 base fare, roughly matching what a DART local ride cost. At the council meeting the same week service began, that changed. Town Administrator Tobin Maples explained the reasoning to WFAA this way:
"They've already paid their DART fee. They'll get on our on-demand and we'll take them to their doorstep."
In other words: former DART riders had already paid into the system for years through the town's sales tax contribution, and charging them again to use the replacement felt like double billing. Highland Park Access, the paratransit service, was set at $3.50 per ride, according to People Newspapers' pre-launch reporting.
The free window isn't free to run. Maples put the cost of the six-month pilot at roughly $417,000, or about $750,000 if extended to a full year, per WFAA's reporting. That's a fraction of what the town had been sending to DART. Highland Park's contribution, 1 percent of local sales tax, was projected to hit $9 million in 2026, according to figures Mayor Will C. Beecherl gave People Newspapers before the vote. Leaving DART doesn't erase that history entirely. The town still owes a share of DART's outstanding debt. But redirecting the ongoing sales tax revenue is what Maples pointed to as the real motivation, tied to a town that operates without debt on a pay-as-you-go basis and wants to keep public safety pay competitive.
The Numbers Three Months In
By June 2, roughly three weeks after launch, Highland Park On-Demand had logged 595 completed trips and 479 created app accounts, according to figures from Letecia McNatt, the town's director of policy development and strategic initiatives, reported by People Newspapers. Six paratransit riders were active on Highland Park Access at that point.
Those numbers describe a service finding its footing, not one struggling to attract riders. Some of that growth came from residents who'd never used DART at all, choosing the on-demand app for convenience rather than necessity. But a town-run service built explicitly to replace a regional bus route and a GoLink zone that served hundreds of trips a day starts from a different baseline than a brand-new amenity. The question isn't whether people are using it. It's whether the people DART actually served, particularly workers commuting into Highland Park without a car, have found it yet.
The Village Doesn't Know Yet
That's where the awareness gap matters most. The same People Newspapers reporting that captured the ridership numbers also went into Highland Park Village and the Shops of Highland Park and asked the people working the counters. Beyond the staff at Barsotti's and Sadelle's who hadn't heard of the service, and the Mi Cocina manager unsure of its coverage area, managers at Mi Cocina and Honor Bar said most of their employees wouldn't need a DART replacement anyway. They drive to an employee parking area and take a pre-existing shuttle into work. But an employee at Coupe's in the Shops of Highland Park said she knew of a few coworkers who'd had to change how they get to work since the town left DART.
The town has responded. After criticism that its initial signage along Preston Road, near the old bus stops, didn't include Spanish-language information, the town added bilingual signs advertising Highland Park On-Demand. That's a direct fix to a specific, documented gap, not a broad marketing push. Whether it closes the distance for workers who never rode the shuttle and never used DART's app either remains to be seen.
The Clock on Free Rides
Highland Park On-Demand launched May 13. A six-month pilot puts the natural endpoint around mid-November, which means the town is roughly three months in, close to the midpoint but not quite there. That timing matters for anyone who's been meaning to try the service but hasn't gotten around to it.
Free rides were designed to solve a fairness problem: former DART riders shouldn't pay twice for the same trip. But a free service only solves that problem for the people who know to use it. If the workers with the least reason to have downloaded a new app, hourly staff without smartphones as a work tool, or without English as a first language, don't find the service before the pilot ends, the town risks setting permanent fare and vehicle decisions based on ridership data that never fully reflects the population DART used to carry.
For residents, the practical takeaway is simpler: the rides are free right now, the coverage area reaches Mockingbird Station and Love Field, and the app or the phone line will get a vehicle to your door inside town or a mile past it. Whether that stays true past November depends partly on how many people actually put it to use this summer.
If you're weighing a move within Highland Park, watching how a specific street or block is shifting, or just want a straight read on what a property near you is worth this year, The Rosen Group is happy to talk it through.
