Trip to San Antonio: Observations

[alexjon]

Took a trip back home after a couple of years, and there are a few things I've noticed that I hadn't before (or that weren't present prior):

1) Wide medians on the highways-- they've taken I-35 in the Government Hill/Dignowity Hill area and walled off the center of the highway for improvements and I've noticed that the medians are around 3 cars wide. Road fans see waste, Railfans see promise. Being the latter...

2) The northwest portion of downtown is an awful conglomeration of depressed buildings, but it has an amazing amount of connection to roads and the rest of the city, therefore I predict it will be the next big development area.

3) The weather beacon on the Drury Inn is amazing. Period. I've seen quite a few, but this is the best in the country.

4) Without a miracle like a brand new loop or beltway, it looks like development is not going to go through another boom cycle like this in years. That is to say, going horizontal is not in the cards in the future.

5) We have a horrible airport, but the food makes up for it entirely.

6) Prices have jumped through the roof in the city. Goodness. My Seattle wallet was taken out at the knees after a night of drinking... so much for this myth of San Antonio costs being 85% of the national median. Or maybe the costs are not on par with median income anymore?

Anyway, was GREAT to be home. I love my hometown <3

Will post pictures soon

[coddat]

You gotta remember that SAT is tearing down terminal 2 and building two new terminals in it's place. Also you can't compare most airports to Sea-Tac.

[alexjon]

Originally Posted by coddat

You gotta remember that SAT is tearing down terminal 2 and building two new terminals in it's place. Also you can't compare most airports to Sea-Tac.

Ehhhh, I actually don't really like Sea-Tac as much as most people. It's nice, but DFW is my favorite.

Is there a site with the plans?

[sirkingwilliam]

Now


Soon






Not sure if you noticed, but in 2006, they added new entrance signage as well as improved the landscaping.

[sirkingwilliam]

Alex, if you could, could you expand on your observations in more detail? Please! What areas did you see? Did you travel down the denser corridors, those being Broadway, Fredericksberg, San Pedro, etc? I know you're an big proponent of light rail, so how is your picture of it now for San Antonio?

[sirkingwilliam]

Originally Posted by alexjon

4) Without a miracle like a brand new loop or beltway, it looks like development is not going to go through another boom cycle like this in years. That is to say, going horizontal is not in the cards in the future.

Sadly, I see that happening. 211 is already/has always been pinned the start of the third loop (fourth if you count downtown's loop) for San Antonio.

[Raining Inside]

The airport landscaping in those pictures looks pretty nice.

[texboy]

With River North starting to take shape with the river improvements up to Brakenridge....I see the urban (downtown) loop gaining momentum here in the next few years. With the addition of the film studios on the southside, bringing in more young, urban interested-minded people, and the base realignment at fort sam (bringing people in from more urban minded cities such as San Diego and DC)....there really is nothing getting in the way of San Antonio going through a possible "urban renaissance"....and its been a long time comin.

[ydoc14]

Yep, I'm liking the new signage and landscaping.

[alexjon]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

Alex, if you could, could you expand on your observations in more detail? Please! What areas did you see? Did you travel down the denser corridors, those being Broadway, Fredericksberg, San Pedro, etc? I know you're an big proponent of light rail, so how is your picture of it now for San Antonio?

Well, I primarily saw Government Hill, Broadway and 281, Flores street down toward Military, the Airport area, the inner East side and downtown, and I've reconsidered a lot of my ideas on what would be ideal:

1) Median light rail on 35 on the east side with connected trunk routes for VIA at freeway stations would work. A large number of people used buses there and would not be afraid to transfer if the bus route was short and connected.

2) East-West roads should become primary arterials in downtown SA with connector trams utilizing the more modest-sized North-South roads (as is happening with the River North streetcar)

3) The outer limit of transit usefulness doesn't seem to go beyond Loop 410 on the east and south sides, but in the north and northwest sides, it has a superb ridership and construct-- riding buses from downtown out those ways was excellent, and except for the 44, buses on the south and east sides weren't too packed, even after the parade.

As such, my suggestions for spurs from downtown (and not actual lines) are:

E/NE
From central downtown north to broadway near Pig Stands
From Pig Stands up Broadway to 410 then the Airport
From Pig Stands onto I-35 via a flyover into the Median and up to the T via Coliseum (or is it AT&T parkway now?)
From the T down East Houston to the Amtrak station and Ellis Alley

N
San Pedro to the Airport

W/NW
Multimodal Station to San Pedro and Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg to the Medical Center or UTSA
Commerce west from central downtown

S
Military from the Port to Flores
Flores to Toyota
Flores to the Multimodal station

Central Downtown
Broadway
Commerce/Houston
Flores

I think one cross-town route (Commerce to East Houston to the AT&T center), one route to the NW, one to the NE, one to the E, one N, and one S would suffice, with the priorty being the route to the NW, the airport route (via Broadway at this point, since they're redesigning it soon) and the route to the AT&T center would be prudent for a 25-30 year build-out.

Good grief, I'm a nerd.

[JAM]

It is my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, that SA airport does not have room for significant expansion? (land locked I think I heard) If this is the case, then it seems SA may have a problem on its hands. In order grow and to lure business, regular flights are important to people who are considering re-locating business.

[LoneStarMike]

With regards to gates, I believe SAT has the space to expand up to 56 gates. That's more than double what they have now.



Once the older terminal is demolished and new Concourses B and C are built SAT will have 35 gates and the future Concourse D is supposed to have 21 gates.

[ATXboom]

JAM,

I think it was Capt AWACs who mentioned they are land locked in regard to runway capacity.

They are short runways - no 10K - 12K runways for larger aircraft and not enough width to run concurrent take off landings... so you could have 50 gates but never enough runway throughput to support that gate count.

That thread probably still exists somewhere on here...

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

They are short runways - no 10K - 12K runways for larger aircraft and not enough width to run concurrent take off landings... so you could have 50 gates but never enough runway throughput to support that gate count.

SAT had 8,033,314 passengers last year. If you were able to double the number of gates it seems like you could double the number of passengers - so at least 16 million per year. San Diego only has one runway and last year I believe their passenger count was 18 million.

Originally Posted by ATXboom

That thread probably still exists somewhere on here...

No - it evolved into a pissing match and the entire thread was deleted.

[coddat]

I think the official airport page has the best map...

[Dom"n"Converse]

If they don't have enough space they can always build a new Airport on the far east side since it's just soft rolling hills and has connectivity to I-10 which has more than enough space to be extended. I'm sure the city already has plans if the current airport becomes too congested.

[alexjon]

I think the only need at this point would be a regional airport between here and Austin. Right now, SA International is nowhere near planned capacity

[coddat]

Honestly I don't think a Regional Airport at this point or any point in the future is in the cards. The time for a regional airport would have been before Austin went a head with Bergstrom. With both cities now having or planning modern facilities a regional airport is dead.

[Schertz1]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

JAM,

I think it was Capt AWACs who mentioned they are land locked in regard to runway capacity.

They are short runways - no 10K - 12K runways for larger aircraft and not enough width to run concurrent take off landings... so you could have 50 gates but never enough runway throughput to support that gate count.

That thread probably still exists somewhere on here...

The airport expansion plan calls for lengthening the runways. Check the plans on the airport website.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by alexjon

I think the only need at this point would be a regional airport between here and Austin.

I think that would have been a terrible idea. One of the (many) reasons San Antonio is popular as a convention city is the fact that it's airport is relatively close to downtown. The same applies to Austin. If the two cities had built a joint airport in New Braunfels or San Marcos, I don't think either city would get the amount of convention business that we do. What convention attendee is going to want to land out in the country and spend 45 minutes or more on a shuttle in traffic on I-35 just to get to the city center?

Another thing to consider is a big chunk of people who fly out of SAT/AUS are traveling on short haul flights to places like Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and Harlingen. Traffic on those routes already dropped after 9/11 due to increased security times. Imagine if we all had to drive 30-40 miles just to get to the airport. Traffic on those short haul routes would be even lower.