SAN ANTONIO | City and Metro Transportation Thread

[sakyle04]

Forumers,

I just started an experiment yesterday...riding my bike/riding the bus to work.

I am trying, among a thousand other things, to get a feel for just how inadequate the system is at present.

I live in the Deco District and am commuting out to Fred/Huebner area. Straight shot out...

Two things; 1) I chose the wrong week to start - cold/wet Monday and bone-chilling Tuesday... 2) I am trying to blog/capture the experiment at http://theburkholders.blogspot.com

[oldmanshirt]

For those who aren't as brave as Kyle and prefer to stay in their cars, they've finally started building the rest of Wurzbach Parkway. The east-west super arterial will be complete sometime around 2014, I believe some 20 years after construction began on the existing sections.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantoni...orward-on.html

[sakyle04]

Originally Posted by oldmanshirt

For those who aren't as brave as Kyle and prefer to stay in their cars, they've finally started building the rest of Wurzbach Parkway. The east-west super arterial will be complete sometime around 2014, I believe some 20 years after construction began on the existing sections.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantoni...orward-on.html

For those who aren't as *dumb* as Kyle.

My fastest door to door commute has been an hour. The drive takes me about 12 minutes.

I have some thoughts that I'll lay out properly when I get them straight, but the main concern is that the system will NEVER get people out of their cars with a 500% increase in commute times.

The bus, in order to be financially viable, has to cater to the almighty Transfer Center.

I, for instance, am trying to ride from Fred Rd & I-10 to Fred Rd & Huebner. The 91 bus runs the Fred corridor. Only it makes a 15 minute loop in the medical center to faciliatate the transfers, effectively killing the efficiency of my commute.

If only there were a RAIL SYSTEM that took a hard line (pun?) and forced us to live on the line we needed to be on (I used to imagine the 91 as a line - no more) and take the straight shot to wherever we are going.

Putting Tansfer Centers off the "line" (lowering effeciences, decreasing forced density, raising commute times) may end up being one of the follies of the system.

[METALMiKE]

Got this in an email earlier today.



http://www.smartwaysa.com/GetInvolved/Meetings.aspx @ the bottom of this link are a few pdf's that have drafts of what VIA wants to do.

[Dom"n"Converse]

Think this is what you were trying to put up. I couldn't get it any bigger.

SmartwaySA http://www.smartwaysa.com/Documents/highinvestment.pdf

[METALMiKE]

Yeah, that's it, Thank you.

[Boquillas]

My friend Vianna Davila is now the transportation beat reporter for the Express News. Told her to check out this forum for insights from SA'ers about transportation. She also writes the transportation blog now for the E-N: http://blog.mysanantonio.com/moveit/

[verbl]

Any new news on the high speed rail front in texas? I think the rail was supposed to go through SA if I'm not mistaken.As for the light-rail thing I was waiting for that back in middle school while I was living back home I only hope that it happens

[KevinFromTexas]

Austin360's Pamela Leblanc tries out San Antonio's new bike share program.

http://www.austin360.com/blogs/conte...rk=RTR_1168346

Trying out San Antonio B-cycle

By Pam LeBlanc | Friday, April 15, 2011, 04:41 PM

I headed to San Antonio last week to check out the city’s new bike share program. Austin is looking at getting something similar, and I wanted to try it myself.

Here’s how it works: If you buy a yearly membership ($25 a year now, soon to go up to $60 a year) to San Antonio B-cycle, you get a swipe card that you can take to any of 14 bike stations around downtown. You use the card to check out a bike, and have 30 minutes to ride it before you check it back in to any of the other stations. If you keep a bike longer than 30 minutes at a time, you pay an extra $2 every half hour.
You can also use a credit card to buy a $10 day pass.

We stopped by The Hub in Hemisfair Plaza, where operations for San Antonio B-cycle are headquartered. We met the folks who run and maintain the system, which opened in late March. Then we all hopped on big gray B-cycles and started pedaling.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

Via Shines in National Transit Study

http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/...dy-1376380.php

As a regular Via rider, this article sums up my experience and thoughts. Clearly Via is far from perfect, but it is significantly better than every other service I've used in Texas. Interesting to see El Paso edged us out at 19th. I've never ridden their bus system when I'm there (Sun Metro) but I understand it's a pretty efficient service as well. But the most interesting thing to me is that the two largest cities in Texas without rail transit (SA and El Paso) were ranked far above cities with rail transit. People like to think of rail as a magic transit bullet, but I think this study really shows that that isn't necessarily the case.

[miaht82]

Originally Posted by Keep-SA-Lame

But the most interesting thing to me is that the two largest cities in Texas without rail transit (SA and El Paso) were ranked far above cities with rail transit. People like to think of rail as a magic transit bullet, but I think this study really shows that that isn't necessarily the case.

Sort of true. The list didn't show NY, SF, DC, Portland and others that were also in the top 20.
Transit is not a simple equation.
The flexibility of bus routes is what makes "connectivity" (the point of this study) better in SA and El Paso; a car is just as "efficient" using the same logic. Of course a rail line is not as flexible and therefore doesn't connect as high a percentage as buses can, but with fixed tracks in place, future development can be focused in areas near rail stations and increase these percentages. The time in transit should have also been key (which it wasn't in this study,) Honolulu is case and point: Honolulu ranks high because of the density and layout of the city as far as getting people from home-work-home, but time in transit is what is making them move up to rail. They will have an elevated line that will cut down transit time even though rail will run along similar bus lines. They ranked 1st in this study, but their bus lines aren't perfect either and rail is going to be their magic bullet.

[llamaorama]

What's the status of the BRT thing?

[sakyle04]

Just got back from Johannesburg, South Africa, home to one of the world's newest BRT systems.

They have dedicated lanes and it is still not all that impressive. San Antonio is really going to have to sell me on the traffic sync-ability and future rail-conversion possibilities because from what I've seen in Joburg, this really is just a longer bus.

Dang.

[miaht82]

Originally Posted by sakyle04

They have dedicated lanes and it is still not all that impressive. San Antonio is really going to have to sell me on the traffic sync-ability and future rail-conversion possibilities because from what I've seen in Joburg, this really is just a longer bus.

And thats what it'll end up being.
Just as a successful BRT line like TransMilenio in Bogotá, Colombia has shown, you need "E. All of the above" (dedicated lanes, pre-board payment, traffic light sync, and board level entry,) to improve service. Without all of those, it really is just a longer, newer (for a while) bus with the same slow boardings and low-to-no impact on transit-oriented development.
It's a tough choice; the more you spend on BRT to get it close to the quality of LRT, you might as well have spent the extra money to have rail. The more "flexible" BRT is, you might as well have just stuck to buying new buses, sync up lights and call it a day.

[miaht82]

Originally Posted by llamaorama

What's the status of the BRT thing?

The BRT station at Mary Louise and Fred Rd is on the HDRC agenda this week.
Of course they think the height has an "adverse effect" on the surrounding properties; it will be a few inches taller than the one-story building it will sit in front of.

[alexjon]

I actually like Seattle's two local BRT lite systems: SWIFT and RapidRide. They aren't full BRT systems, but they're rather speedy and efficient.

Great for moderately dense corridors.

[CairoJenn]

Wow, how incredibly disappointing. The proposed BRT station at Fredericksburg and Mary Louise is in the heart of the Deco District, across from the art deco H.E.B. If there was one station that I expected to have unique design elements in keeping with the Deco District, it's this one. And yet the proposed design has a cookie-cutter industrial look without a single art deco element. Even the color scheme is jarring and inappropriate for the space. Are those cinder blocks? Dear G-D, please tell me those aren't cinder blocks! Via totally mailed this in. A grade-schooler could have come up with something better given half an hour and a pack of Crayolas. This is just completely embarrassing.

The HDRC has a reputation for preventing local home owners from making inappropriate design choices. Here's hoping they'll slam Via for this pathetic attempt. There is so much potential in this small tract, and given the incredibly high traffic with H.E.B., I assumed Via would take the opportunity to create a mixed-use space. At the very least, I expected a simple art deco design. Good grief Via, what were you thinking? I'm shocked and a little heart broken by this half-assed design.

[sakyle04]

Originally Posted by CairoJenn

Wow, how incredibly disappointing. The proposed BRT station at Fredericksburg and Mary Louise is in the heart of the Deco District, across from the art deco H.E.B. If there was one station that I expected to have unique design elements in keeping with the Deco District, it's this one. And yet the proposed design has a cookie-cutter industrial look without a single art deco element. Even the color scheme is jarring and inappropriate for the space. Are those cinder blocks? Dear G-D, please tell me those aren't cinder blocks! Via totally mailed this in. A grade-schooler could have come up with something better given half an hour and a pack of Crayolas. This is just completely embarrassing.

The HDRC has a reputation for preventing local home owners from making inappropriate design choices. Here's hoping they'll slam Via for this pathetic attempt. There is so much potential in this small tract, and given the incredibly high traffic with H.E.B., I assumed Via would take the opportunity to create a mixed-use space. At the very least, I expected a simple art deco design. Good grief Via, what were you thinking? I'm shocked and a little heart broken by this half-assed design.

Exaaaactly.

Welcome to the forum, Cairo. Sounds like another voice of reason.

[sirkingwilliam]

Speaking of VIA, wtf is up with the bus design now? I'm I going crazy or is it now just gray with a color streak at the bottom?

[sakyle04]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

Speaking of VIA, wtf is up with the bus design now? I'm I going crazy or is it now just gray with a color streak at the bottom?

I actually like the new bus livery.

The days of garish colors splashed on huge, hulking, pollution boxes are over.

Simple works well. Look at NYC's subway cars. I think the gray feels utilitarian and a bit more sleek (urbane?).

I wonder if they aren't trying to tone down the colors so as to use them as part of a rail project down the line (red line, green line, etc) which would allow like-colored buses to be part of that line's system.

I am giving them too much credit.