Concerned Citizens

Our first day in Portland has been very interesting, especially from a transit point of view. As some may remember, we’re here to enjoy and learn from the Portland Rose Festival, a sister festival to Fiesta San Antonio. They have one of the greenest festivals in the world so we want to see how they do it and possibly carry those ideas to Fiesta Verde to get us further along. However, as you might expect from my viewpoint, I’m looking at a lot more things in Portland. For one, I’m exploring their transit system and its impact on daily life in Portland. If you look at daily boardings, it’s number four behind Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, not bad for a city the size of Portland. There has to be something behind this system to make it work so well. There are other things I want to explore such as walkability and bike activity. But transit is definitely high on the list, especially since San Antonio keeps using it as a benchmark for our proposed system. Read more…

The past several weeks have been busy for anyone following the redevelopment of downtown San Antonio. Last week city council gave the go-ahead to help fund planning and implementation of a downtown streetcar system that would criss-cross downtown. After much negotiations and route wrangling it looks like we’ll have a North/East line that starts at the Pearl Brewery and runs through downtown and Hemisfair Park to the Thompson Transit Center on the eastside of downtown. Couple that with both The Mosaic and 1800 Broadway breaking ground and starting construction and you have a downtown going through some significant changes. With all this new development coming we need to make sure to take advantages of all the opportunities.

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San Antonio’s potential foray into rail-based transportation seems to be getting a lot of play lately, and for good reason. VIA is floating a number of proposals to both the city and the county to help fund a rail project with the most likely candidate being streetcars in the downtown area. While the county seems to be committing up to $55 million for almost any plan mentioned, the city is being a little more cautious on its commitment of funds, to the point of having city staff analyze the various proposals. Now it appears Mayor Castro and the city have a desire to move forward with a plan, albeit it different than what the county agreed on with VIA. The interesting part is that the city’s new plan is somewhat of a hybrid of what VIA had originally proposed after a period of studies and planning. So what plan are we committing to in San Antonio? Where’s the darn thing going to run?

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Yesterday about 15,000 people came down for the city’s first ever SiClovia, a four hour bike, jog, walk, skateboard, Zumba, you name it time when folks just enjoyed a good time “playing in the street.” The event was sponsored by the Mayor’s Fitness Council and was designed to get people out and about Sunday. Everyone I saw had come out to participate but started the day wondering who else would show up. We were all pleasantly surprised and had a great day on Broadway. The next big question is when’s the next one and will it be on Broadway again? The answer to the first is yes and I kind of think the answer to the second will probably be yes. You see, Broadway is starting to become the city’s big fixer-upper for transforming the urban core so it makes sense to continue the project on Broadway next time.

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Lately I’ve been using VIA to get around downtown and points close to downtown. Even though gas prices are falling, it just makes sense to leverage the bus and trolley system when I can. When things fall in place, it’s one of the best experiences in many ways. You get outside, you don’t have to worry about parking or fighting traffic, and you have a sense of doing the right thing. But when things aren’t lined up it can be a big hassle. Trolleys can be few and far between at times, walking up to a bus stop without knowing the schedule can result in standing or sitting in the hot sun for a long time. There must be a better way.

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Starting tomorrow night VIA Metropolitan Transit will be hosting a series of open houses to hear about and provide feedback for their SmartWaySA Long Range Plan. The plan provides a roadmap through 2035 outlining VIA’s proposed changes to its bus system and the beginning of high-capacity transit options, including Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). Based on the draft system plan it appears that rail options will be proposed for two primary routes and a streetcar option in downtown. In the past, VIA has been open and receptive to public input and hosted several public forums. It’s a great way to get into the details on VIA’s plans to see how it might impact or improve transit in San Antonio. So what might you expect to see at these forums?

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I’ve been blogging lately about the focus of redevelopment in and around the downtown area of San Antonio. To start the conversation I focused on whether the development should be in or around downtown, feeling that developing around downtown might be a better choice. Following that I looked at the area around Madison Square Park as one of the neighborhoods that might make a good choice for redevelopment focus. In doing so, I started to realize that redevelopment actually makes a lot more sense for our city than continuing the sprawl currently happening around the edges of the city. It’s just the right thing on so many fronts. Read more…

Tonight I attended a meeting at Jefferson High School held by VIA to discuss the draft Environmental Assessment for their proposed Bus Rapid Transit system. For those not familiar with the proposal VIA is planning a higher speed transit option down the Fredericksburg corridor from downtown to UTSA. The system is a lower cost alternative to the failed light rail system that was defeated by voters several years ago. This set of meetings is the second in a series of public hearings on the project. I can tell you that VIA took public input from the first set of meetings and has greatly improved the plan. Read more…

Tonight Texas Public Radio hosted a town hall focused on transportation issues at the UTSA Downtown campus. Terry Gildea, TPR reporter, served as moderator of a panel consisting of Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, Keith Parker, President & CEO, VIA Metropolitan Transit, Julia Diana, Office of Environmental Policy, City of San Antonio, Michael Miles, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), and Dr. Heywood “Woody” Sanders, UTSA, Urban Studies Department. About 50 people attended the town hall and provided the majority of questions for the panelists. With so much focus on toll roads these days I was afraid the discussion would be primarily about toll roads. However, the questions and discussion focused on a variety of topics and provided some insight in opportunities. Read more…

There’s been a lot of talk in San Antonio recently about public transportation and some options to consider. VIA just completed their SmartWaySA public hearing series where public input into transit options was discussed including light rail and streetcars. Mayor Julian Castro recently weighed into the conversation after VIA’s announcement of a commission to review options for streetcars and light rail. Mayor Castro said in the article that San Antonio was the last major U.S. city that hasn’t invested in passenger rail. In the article he said “It’s time for San Antonio to make a significant investment in mass transit.” But before we launch into any major plans for passenger rail, be it streetcars or light rail, I feel it is critical and important to take a hard look at other cities around Texas and the nation to see what works and what doesn’t. Read more…

I said I was going to do it when I moved down here. I even bought the VIA monthly pass from USAA. Today I did it. I rode the bus to USAA from downtown and back. I took the 91 from downtown which is the most direct route to USAA. Each time I rode the trip was an hour and a half, door to door. That’s 30 minutes getting to and from the stops and one hour on the bus. Will I do it again? Probably, but I really had some second thoughts as I finally boarded the bus this morning at a time when I could have been sitting at my desk had I driven from downtown. This morning when I tweeted my status I had several friends who gave me some things to prepare for on the trip. So I be you’re wondering how the experience was. Read more…