MPO Needs Your Input

Our Local MPO is asking for Input on proposals for bicycle and pedestrian facilities across the region.  They Are....

Hillcrest/Babcock Intersection Improvements: $1,000,000
Converse Greenway Trail:  $1,382,725
Ackerman Sidewalks and Bike Lanes: $1,742,763
New Braunfels Citywide Pedestrian Connectivity: $1,516,711
Zarzamora Pedestrian Improvements:  $5,000,000
Schertz Pedestrian Routes & Bike Lanes: $1,158,266
Seguin, Walnut Springs Trail Extension Project: $2,801,246
Alazan Creek Linear Hike and Bike Trail: $6,000,000
Martinez Creek Linear Hike and Bike Trail: $3,125,000

If you add all the amounts together, you get $23,726,671.  Unfortunately, there's only $15,000,000 available for projects. The Alamo Area MPO wants you to rank these projects as to which ones are the top 3 (click here) and here are those projects and the reason why I put them in the priority.

5. Martinez Creek Linear Hike and Bike Trail:
    Cost:  $3,125,000
    Project Description:  Consists of 1.4 miles of 10 foot wide shared hike and bike trail along
    Martinez Creek beginning at Cincinnati Avenue and extending to Mario Farias Park.

 As a person who uses the linear Creekway for commuting and a person who violates the law that states such trails can't be used after dark, I am for the expansion of such trails.  These trails will only help the police go underneath and chase away the homeless that sleep underneath these bridges.  It

4.  Converse Greenway Trail:
     Cost:  $1,382,725
     Project Description:  Construct 1.2 miles of 10' wide concrete linear greenway trail between
     Converse North Park and Converse City Park.

If this trail is ever completed, it will serve a basic need of being able to connect two places. It will provide residence who don't own a car an alternative across Gibbs-Sprawl Rd (an aptly named rd by the way).  I don't know if Converse will ever allow this trail to be used after dark, but it would be really cool if they did.

3. Schertz Pedestrian Routes & Bike Lanes:
    Cost: $1,158,266
    Project Description:  Construct 10’ shared-used path. Construct 6’ sidewalks, including curbs, curb ramps, and drainage. Stripe 6-8’ bike lanes along two connector streets. 6.97 miles total.

When I wrote my post, Where 2 Live in SA W/O a CAR, I wrote it with the personal experience of not owning a car.  I'm always asked if other areas of Bexar County could be an area to live with out a car and my answer is only if there's proper infrastructure is available to be able to walk or to bike.  Schertz is such an area not only lacking basic pedestrian infrastructure, but VIA bus services.  I can attest with personal experience that the reason why VIA is so loathed even though they do a lot of things right is because many areas of San Antonio lack basic pedestrian infrastructure.  People would rather wait for a bus to go around a block than to walk there all together.  Having Schertz improve sidewalks and add bicycle lanes will help provide the residence with alternatives to go to the grocery story and compete with more walkable areas of San Antonio.  But take my advice Scherts, putting in protected bicycle lanes will help with the traffic problem way better than any painted bicycle lanes. 

2. New Braunfels Citywide Pedestrian Connectivity:
    Cost: $1,516,711
    Project Description:  Construct sidewalks, ramps, and other pedestrian-related infrastructure in the
    Seele Elementary School area and on key segments of San Antonio Street, Walnut Avenue, and
    McQueeney Road (2.2 total miles).

As a member of Strong Towns, I understand that improving sidewalks is the best investment that any municipality can make to receive the biggest return.  If you ever been to New Braunfels, you would know the community is lacking sidewalks. They could use some sidewalks. 

1. Zarzamora Pedestrian Improvements
    Cost: $5,000,000
    Project Description:  Install missing sidewalks, repair existing sidewalks, remove unnecessary
    utility poles, install pedestrian crossing infrastructure, implement ITS strategies, and perform road
    diets along Zarzamora Road and SW Military Drive (4.5 miles).

Out of all the the projects posted, this is the one that is number one on my list.  The project stretches from Fredricksburg Rd all the way to SW Military Dr.  It is a 4 lane corridor of speeding cars, impassable sidewalks on the west side.  It's also where VIA wants to put its next Primo route for the 520 is the second busiest route in the city. It is also no coincidence that the Diabetes Institue is located at 701 S Zarzamora St.  Offering alternatives to driving and to people who are using wheelchairs to get around would help the west side out greatly. 

Total Cost for all 5 projects:  $12,182,702

Now some of you are probably asking me, why didn't you include Alazan Creek Linear Hike and Bike Trail or Hillcrest/Babcock Intersection Improvements.  Well the reason why I didn't list them is because our MPO now includes New Braunfels, Seguin and Beorne, so when deciding the priorities on this list, I thought of those places too.  If It was being San Antonio centrist, I would have made Zarzamore, Alazan and Martinez the top of this list.  Also the other reason why I left out the project in Seguin is because I don't know enough about the project at all to give my two cents.

Remember, all comments are due February 28, 2017.

#sasidewalkssuck

13-1

The more and more I write this blog, the more I realize that to write a story about a ride or an opening in the culture of the bicycling community will simply have to wait until the following week and that is what's going to happen with Tour De Tube.  And since I've been busy and the internet cut off from me, I had to wait until today of the 4th of July.  So happy Independence Day everyone. 

Since my venture onto Twitter, I started a new hashtag called SA Sidewalks Suck, (#sasidewalkssuck).  I got the ideal when simply noticing all the messed up sidewalks that I see everyday.  It's rare that I get to see something build right, but when it is, it is at the expense of the private property owner.  A good example of this is at 1800 Broadway.  The sidewalk there in front of that new development is at the owners expense for it much of it is on the private property not the public right of way.  At the end of the property, you see it clearly for the old buildings still standing next to it are built to the end of the property line (Image 13-1).  The sidewalk becomes narrow with electric poles standing in the way.  The other new development at 1900 Broadway didn't do this at all  and can be clearly seen with the narrow sidewalks all around.  There's a reason why one have businesses, and the other is vacant, and no, it has little to do with the timing of the building of the structures for next year, 1900 Broadway will still be abandoned.  Well at least the business/retail part while people live above the abandoned space. 

13-2

13-3

There's a reason why everyone drives, and to accommodate that habit, we simply made sidewalks impassable, narrower so all the cars can go by and have parking spaces even in downtown.  In our neighborhoods, we made them non existence filled with cracks and abruptly ending (Image 13-2).  And even when we tout a new development in a bad neighborhood, we simply fail with the sidewalks.  The Guadalupe Cultural Arts center on the west side is the best example of an improvement gone wrong.  This is another one of those "act of racism" that I pointed out in "Two Accidents that Didn't Need to Happen."  As you can clearly see here (Image 13-3) that there's a sign and a potted plant blocking the sidewalk.  To me, this says "You people need to buy a car."  Now why they couldn't put this sign up over the street next to the traffic light is beyond me and if we're going to have decorations on the sidewalk, lets make sure they're plenty of room to get around. 

Now some of you will be asking, hey, it gets 100 degrees during the summer time, so nobody will be walking around.  Yet you would be wrong about that for if that was the case, I wouldn't see people walking nearby Guadalupe St on Brazos St at around 3:30PM, July 3rd or seeing the people walk on S Flores st right after the bike lanes were put in.  Now I know this excuse is being used by our political leaders and activist all the time, but I can tell you, it ain't true.  It's not just the tourist walking around Downtown, it is also the locals walking to catch a bus around the corner or workers in the offices going to lunch.  We have a chance to build great sidewalks here in San Antonio, but until we ditch the standards of 4ft wide sidewalks in favor of 6ft wide and driveway entrances at 1 percent grades instead of 2 percent grades, we'll continue to have a minority of people who will ride public transit for the people who ride the bus are not transit riders, they're pedestrians, period.  Until we come to that conclusion, we'll always have a VIA that sucks, well always be plagued with a city that is unhealthy and fat and most of all we'll always see the wheelchairs out in the street. (Image 13-4)

 

 

13-4

You can follow me on Twitter @BikeSanAntonio.  

Images:

13-1:  At the end of the development 1800 Broadway looking south.
13-2:  I forgot where I took this picture in Dignowity Hill, but I believe it is somewhere near Willow.
13-3:  A sign and a potted plant blocking a good sidewalk on Guadalupe and Brazos st Intersection looking west. 
13-4:  I don't know what happened to my wheelchair picture, but this kid riding on McCullough in the road near Basse is a cool illustration of the lack of sidewalks all around town, looking north. 

Up Coming Bicycle Events

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

FrankenBike #50When:   Saturday July 19, 2014  10AM to 4PM
Where:  Alamo Bike Shop/Taps y Tapas ~ 1016 N. Flores St ~ 78212
Description:  San Antonio's Bicycle Swap Meet and Flea Market.