VIA fixes Fiesta Disaster

54.1

Every year we have two big parades in downtown San Antonio, and every year it was always a pain to get to work on those days by bus. I wrote about this in my blog last year in Advice on Improving VIA Part II, number 5. This is due to the fact that every year, VIA reroutes the buses and have them turn around at a handful of locations around downtown. So if you are use to riding the 34 which turns into the 2 to catch the 96, well you're out of luck and you will be required to walk from the turn around stop at Nueva and St Mary's and walk all the way to Travis Park. Imagine doing this with a walker?  And that's what I thought I would be doing this year, filming myself walking from one bus stop to the other bus stop across the Battle of Flowers parade.

54.2

But it didn't happen this year.  The bus I was on was the 28 and as I was coming into town, it made it's usual detour, except this time it went to Nueva and St Mary's and then continued on via El Centro as route 62.  When I got to El Centro, I saw this sign directing me which bus to take to be able to connect to my route.  They also had supervisors on hand to direct any bus rider complaint and help us riders get to our proper connection. 

Now maybe it's just me, but I'm starting to see small improvements like a change machine at Randolph Park-n-Ride that gives you not just quarters, but dimes and buying a a cheap Day Pass on the bus.  As long as VIA can keep up the momentum, they can start to change belief of many riders including myself that "VIA sucks" to "VIA actually does a good job."  

Images:
54.1: A picture of a sign directing people what buses to catch to connect to their bus on the other side of the parade.
54.2: The Map issued by VIA to help their patrons out.   http://viainfo.net/Communication/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=2756

Advice on Improving VIA Part II

Last week, I focus on bus stop locations and Transit Centers.  This week I'll be focusing on transit times and bus fare. To improve VIA, they cannot just do it by where they locate their transit centers and bus stops, it also means to working to make the buses go just a little bit faster and perhaps, make it free to use by all of San Antonio.

3.  Make PRIMO Go Faster

The Economist wrote how collecting fare on the bus is just not economical and slows down buses yet we do it on Primo.  When Primo services were sold to San Antonio, it was promised that it would run just a little bit faster just like light rail and be cheaper.  But now as I ride this route, I find that it's a little bit slower than what it replaced which was the 91 Fredricksburg Rd, Skip Stop.  When similar service is sold in other cities across North America, it is sold as cheaper than light rail, but with the same speedy service you get on rail.  In other cities, you don't pay for the bus fare on the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit), but you buy a ticket at the station where you get on board the BRT.  That's not how VIA does it, for you have to pay for the bus fare as you board the Primo.  This slows the bus down quiet a bit especially at Deco District Station. Since this is the main bus route down Fredricksburg Rd now, most people ride the 100 instead of the 95 or 520.  It's time that VIA stop collecting bus fare for the Primo on the bus, and instead allow all the doors to open up and have people board it like you would a light rail train stopped at a station.  Have VIA police board the bus and ask people for their bus tickets and proof of fare as they're doing that, they can issue some fines like the DART police does on the light rail in Dallas. Have the tickets sold have a expiration time so it can be use like one would use a transfer.

4.  Removing Traffic Jams for VIA Downtown.

If you live on the East Side like I do and to take the bus into downtown, you would have notice that during every weekend from Thanksgiving through Memorial Day, a traffic Jam forms as every car coming from the North Side is looking for parking downtown mainly at Rivercenter Mall. (Image 33-2)  Now I don't see this as much in Dallas because their Light Rail does a pretty good job in having people who want to enjoy downtown choose transit over driving.  A good example is what I saw during the 4th Of July, 2004.  After the Downtown fireworks display, I was riding the Blue Line back to my motel room which was located out by I-610, the train was crowded with  lots of families and their kids. To me, this was amazing because when similar events take place here in downtown San Antonio, everyone drives to downtown, not so in Dallas because trains are just better thing to ride than buses, and if you want to know why that is, well click right here to find out.

33-2

So since we don't have a good alternatives to driving downtown like they do in Dallas, cars end up jamming up the paths of Eastside buses at E Commerce and Bowie including the 100 from speeding through downtown like it was intended to do so.  So why can't VIA work with the City of San Antonio and close off the far left lane and leave that lane open only for buses? What is so hard about this is beyond me because if VIA wants more people to ride their buses they're going to have to have faster service to get more people to ride. If they're not willing to fix this weekend traffic jam then why bother to ride the bus when driving is so much faster. They're will be no light rail to solve this problem any time soon, nor any proposed Lone Star Rail service so will you please get off the train bandwagon politicians and VIA as the only solution to fix our transit system. So will anyone at VIA or the City wake up and clean up this mess up?  Probably not because like the rest of San Antonio, they must think that everyone who rides VIA are just losers and well we don't deserve a speedy ride at all. Like it or not, downtown is VIA's main transit center, and if people trying to get to work can't connect to their other routes and forced to wait a whole hour for the next bus. This lack of action simply promotes the belief that VIA SUCKS and it's just better to break down a by a car.

5. Keep Buses Moving during Battle of Flowers.

Every year during the Battle of Flowers and the Fiesta Flambeau parades, VIA stops having the buses go through downtown to continue on as other routes and instead starts to have them go to downtown to certain stops to turn around cutting off passengers ability to connect to other routes.  The thing about this is that these stops are really far apart forcing many of VIA's riders to walk up to a half a mile through the parade just to get to their connecting routes.  You see you have the east side routes all coming to Bonham at E Houston, the north side routes turn around at Travis Park and finally all the west, south and southeast routes turn around at Nueva and S St Mary's.  So if you just happen to be on your way to work when these parades are going on, well chances are you'll have a good chance to become unemployed.  It's these days that forces hostage users like me to think, it's time for me to break down and buy a car.  And since you couldn't count on VIA for getting you to your job on time, well they suck.  Over the years VIA has done nothing to fix this problem.  So now you have this wonderful transit center on the west side of Downtown, so why can't you  have all the buses that are detoured because of the parade hop on the freeways that surround downtown and continue on after they all make a  stop at the Westside Multimodal Center (WSMMC).  Having to have all of us hostage users walk considerable distances to catch a bus is just wrong especially when we're all running late, so now you have this great transit center downtown, so start putting it to good use and when the city closes off Broadway and Commerce St for the Fiesta parades, start rerouting all those buses to WSMMC so we all can catch our connecting routes and be on time for work.  .

6. Make Bus Rides Free.

People in San Antonio are extremely against toll roads and with a passion because driving a car here in south Texas is considered a free thing to do.  Despite having to pay for gas, despite having to pay for insurance, and maintenance, driving is considered a free thing to do, so as I board the bus to get around San Antonio, I wonder why do I have to pay a toll?  The political leaders claim to want more people to ride public transit here, but do they really encourage it?  Of course not, they'll keep complaining about Ozone Action Days and the traffic while at the same time never consider the thing that might fix it which is to make bus rides free.

I first heard about making bus rides free when I heard about what happened in Austin during 1991 and 1992.  The problem with this is that it didn't attract the choice users like they CapMetro wanted, (people who use public transit and also have a car to drive) but instead it attracted the homeless and others who wouldn't normally ride the bus dubbed as "problem riders."  So naturally, they got rid of free bus rides.  But in Tallinn, Estonia, not to be deterred by what has happen in Austin, TX and everywhere else it was tried, they decided to keep the bus fares, however, if you happen to live in Tallinn, then you are entitled to free bus rides. Here's my question, why can't we do the same thing here in San Antonio?

How to we guarantee free bus rides to all the residence of San Antonio and not repeat the history with "problem riders" everywhere else it was tried. We keep bus fares in place, however, if you can show proof of residency like a CPS bill, a W2 form, a paycheck statement, a lease, or bank Statement in San Antonio, then you can go sign up at VIA and pay a fee of like a $60 for a full year of free bus rides, just like you would now as you buy a 31 day Big Pass for $35 but without the proof of residency.  Limit the amount of people up to 4 people at a certain address.  I guarantee that every year during tax season, people will come down to VIA and sign up and pay the $60 for a full year of free rides.  Make it a minimum of two years of residency to qualify for this service while at the same time, we keep the bus fare around for the tourist, for the homeless and others who would abuse the system or don't sign up.  I think this is a great idea so I can count on the local politicians not to endorse this.  Keep San Antonio Lame. 

Conclusion

I hear from politicians and environmentalists who drive cars all the time that we need more people to take public transit, but when these people make the clean, carbon neutral alternative hard to accomplish, only the poor will use it not because we want to, but because we have to. If the goal of the city leaders and VIA is to encourage more people to ride transit, then I have just lay out some solutions that if implemented should increase the number of choice users and help improve the current image of VIA. So will you please get off the train bandwagon politicians and VIA as the only solution to fix our transit system.  But chances are you'll never see any of these improvements at all because from what I have seen over the years from the inaction of our politicians and the actions of VIA have said to the citizens of San Antonio that you should buy a car. And guess what, we're doing just that.

Images:
33-2: A picture of E Commerce St at Bowie looking west showing all the cars trying to get parking at the Rivercenter Mall.

Streetcar Part II: Buses aren't Better than Rail

Sorry for not getting this out last week but life got in the way. 

During this entire debate about the streetcar, I've constantly heard that buses were better choice.  I don't know why San Antonio thinks that buses are better than rail, but they do at the detriment to the city's transportation system. Yet when I'm in Dallas or any other city with passenger rail, I stick to that passenger rail system because it is easier to use, because the ride is smoother, there's hardly ever any delays and I don't get lost. Yet we here in San Antonio believe that rail is worse just because we're simply told so.

When you ride the bus like I do every day, you get use to the bumpy ride, the wheelchairs taking forever to board, and mothers struggling to fold strollers.  We take this for granted and we're told by the same anti rail people to SUCK it up and deal with it. Yet when I ride the rail in other cities, I don't see mothers folding their strollers, wheelchairs taking 5 minutes to board or worse yet, dealing with a full bicycle rack, so how are buses better than rail?  Explain to me why in this video it is taking this lady in a wheelchair two minutes to board and get strapped in while boarding the bus while the guy in the wheelchair is taking what, less than a second to board the light rail train. and the rest of the time positioning the chair into the wheelchair parking space.

The argument brought forth every time that buses are better than rail because buses are flexible, they can go everywhere and that's true, but that is also the biggest weakness to buses success and it's flexibility is used against the hostage users every time causing less ridership and more car dependence.  If our highway system were as flexible as we are with the routing of buses, then we would be against having highways in the first place.  They would be untrusted, have a sense of utter Confusion and lack of dependability.  So lets apply the same rule that makes buses so great, the flexibility to the highways of San Antonio.  Below are a series of maps of the highway system in San Antonio, TX.  On the first Image, you see what is the normal system of highways,  I-10 going Northwest and then east, I-35 going from the Northeast to the Southwest, and Loop 410 going around San Antonio as well as US 90, US 281, and I-37.(Image 18-1)  Now if our highways acted like a bus system, they would probably look like this today (Image18-2)   And even worse, the routes numbers would be like this over that same map.(Image 18-3)

18-1

18-2

18-3

Now apply this same concept to the routing of our bus system.  Every time we reroute a bus because of (construction, low ridership, lack of resources, ect) we lose riders, because of that constant rerouteing or cancellation of routes, we in essence creates a sense of utter confusion and lack of dependability yet we are led to believe that buses are better because of their flexibility. This is what is keeping the Choice Users off the bus because there's a constant confusion on where the bus is going.  Because of the bus flexibility, people have a hard time understanding how to use the bus system.

From my daily observation, I constantly see people boarding the bus and bitching to the bus driver which by default, doesn't know the whole system, that they're lost.  It is not uncommon for me to overheard people asking others about the 75 and the 76, bus routes because even today hostage users don't understand that the 75 makes stops every 2 blocks while the 76 is a skip stop bus and makes stops roughly at major destinations.  What people need to understand that it takes a certain type of skill to use a bus system.  It requires the user to remember what bus route goes where and when.  If you don't have this skill, you'll end up boarding the wrong bus and being late to an appointment.  What people need to understand that the skills required to use a bus system is the knowledge of how to read a map, how to read a bus schedule, and where the buses are going on that map.  And since most people have a hard time reading a map in the first place and the bus drivers don't know the entire system by heart, it is no wonder why people opt out of riding the buses in the first place.  Now added to the ability to change bus route on a dime, thus making using the bus system very frustrating thing to use.

We see this frustration reflected in our pop culture which consider the bus a disgusting thing to ride.  When songs are written about buses, they're describing a horrible experience like Weird Al Yankovich "Another one rides the bus," or the bus in the opening of the music video "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N'Roses..  And because of this constant negative experience, even the kindergarten song "The Wheels on the bus goes round and round," mentions a crying baby, yet we're told over and over again that buses are better than rail.

Some of our car commercials reflect also reflect buses in a negative light as well.  For example, the recent Drive Time commercial has the rescue of the hostage user by getting him off the bus and into a car.  Others like this Bar NONE commercial has the hostage user being approved at the bus stop while at the same time you hear how bad the bus are.  It continues like this other one from Car Loan Pal shows the sorry state of affairs of not having a car and being a hostage user, a person who is stuck riding the bus.  But I guess this car commercial tells it like it is from Cars 2 GO saying you 'better not pick up any bitches at the bus stop' and yet we're told over and over again that buses are better than rail.

Passenger trains however are treated differently in our pop culture for it's not just the fact that trains have been around a lot longer, but when the passenger trains are portrayed in music, they are put in a positive light.  From the old blues song about "Rock Island Road" by LeadBelly, to modern day rock videos like Howie Day's "Collide," there's no shortage of the praise for the train; from Luther Vandros, R.E.M, Aerosmith (1:52), Cyndi Lauper (4:21).  I can go on and on, but I guess Enya takes the cake as it for she's not singing about Buses and Winter Rain, she's singing "Trains and Winter Rains.  If buses are better than rail and were the preferred way to travel, then why is Enya on her way home riding the train?   Yet we're told over and over again that buses are better than rail.

I'm not finish yet for the heavy metal band It's Casual sang a song about Los Angeles's Subway, "The Red Line."  This guy isn't banging to riding the bus, he's celebrating the subway.  And lets face it, even our lousy governor Rick Perry has gotten into the act of supporting the evil communist train in Dallas, for just recently he made this statement celebrating the recent connection of the Orange Line to DFW Airport.  Yet we're told over and over again that buses are better than rail.

I don't know about you, but if the best thing about buses is that there flexible, and yet they're uncomfortable, bumpy and take a utter long time to put wheelchairs and bicycles on board, then why are they so great?  If San Antonio wants to have a dependable public transportation system, we are going to need to invest in passenger rail infrastructure, light rail or otherwise.  Bus have there use, but not for the mass movement of people.  They have their limits, not just in the passenger capacity, but in utter dependability.  This is the main reason why GM brought out all those streetcar systems in the early 20th century and  San Antonio wasn't immune to this for by 1932, the rail was gone.

If San Antonio is to have a good public transportation system, it will eventually have to adopt rail as a mode of travel.  The Streetcar, would have provided this only in the downtown area, but we're going to need a system that serves all of San Antonio's 535 square miles if it going to be effective.  And yet as you read this now, next week, you be reading how we don't need a streetcar to have a great city.  That's because even though more people would have used it, the goal of the Streetcar wasn't to improve transportation but to increase downtown development.  This is something San Antonio doesn't wish, for it wishes for the speed of a Subway, not the slowness of a Streetcar. 

 Images:
18-1 thru 18-3:  used original image from http://mobility.tamu.edu/mip/img/san_antonio-map600.png  and photo shop the rest. 

 Up Coming Important Meetings
If you want to make a difference, please attend.

 

Lee's Creek, Joe Ward and Sunset Hills Parks Plan Review Public Meeting

When:  Wednesday, August 20, 2014 6:00 PM

Where:  Joe Ward Community Center,  435 E. Sunshine, San Antonio, TX 78228

What Should You Ask For:  The thing to ask for at this meeting are good sidewalks,  20 mile per hour speed limits and safe ways to get to the park down Hillcrest and St Cloud such as bike lanes down those stroads.  

San Pedro Creek Improvements Project Public Meeting

When:   Saturday, August 28, 2014, 9AM-12PM
Where:  Christopher Columbus Italian Society 201 Piazza Italia.
Description:  Bexar County and San Antonio River Authority, in cooperation with the City of San Antonio, will host a public workshop seeking input on concept designs for the San Pedro Creek Improvements Project.  The project will focus on flood mitigation, the revitalization of natural habitats, water quality, and recreational and economic opportunities.
What Should you say:  Ask that safe routes for bicycles be included on the streets such as bike lanes, Protected bike lanes, cycletracks, and good sidewalks to and from the creek to safely connect neighborhoods. Ask that NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials) standards be applied to these improvements. 


Up Coming Bicycle Events

Glow Roll SA 
When:   Saturday, August 28, 2014
Where:  Travis Park, 301 E Travis
Description:  Every 4th Saturday!
3p-9p: Amor y Arte Travis Park
5p-6p: NYA
5p-9p: Shop & Eat, artisans from SA Made by Hand Mercado
6p-8:30: Live Dance Routines/Instruction
6p-8:45: Bike Decorating with The KickStand SA
9p: Wheels Down (*ride thru Downtown SA & return back to Travis Park)

Andy's Bike Garage will be on hand for bike service & bike accessories!
Come light up the night on your bikes & take a social ride with us through Downtown SA!! Glow Sticks provided, limited supplies while they last!  Or go to the DollarTree and buy them. ;)

 Cycle In-Cinema .  
When:   Every Thursday, June-August at Dusk, 8:45pm
Where:  Main Plaza, 115 N Main Ave, 78205
Description:  Out Door Movie.  

Siclovia:
When:  Sunday Sept 28, 2014 10AM to 3PM
Where: Broadway downtown
Description:  Where San Antonio returns the streets back to the  people for a few hours.  Really a great event.  More info at http://www.ymcasatx.org/siclovia