#ivotebike2017, the VIA Questions.

It's that time again, another Municipal Election is coming up in May.  It is now time to see if my questions from 2017 had any effect. In this posting, I'll be focusing on the three questions that I asked about the candidate position on VIA and how they influence the last two years.

The previous question that I asked.....

I. Are you willing to look for more funding options to improve and expand VIA bus service?

Thanks to the the efforts of Rey Saldaña, VIA got more funding from the city general funds for the fiscal year of 2018, and due to his efforts, by May 2018, VIA saw an increase in ridership on the routes that they improved frequency with more plans to increase frequency on several more routes. The problem coming up is that Saldaña is being term limited out of office thus threatening continued funding of VIA from the city general funds.  So in the upcoming election, I will be asking That as council member, will you continue to fund VIA with general funds to maintain VIA's level of service. 

82.1

J. Will you support free bus rides for all residents of SA?

This was my own personal question that I asked and laid out my case for it in a previous blog post "The Case for Free Bus Rides."  Since May 2017, we saw VIA offer free rides on Sept 5, 2017 due to the gasoline shortages only to have some people complain, "you don't go where I need to go."  There was even talk about "Fare Free Zones" at some of it's busiest stops, but that talk has gone away.  I cannot tell that if VIA's current UPass was a result of asking this question, but it definitely a move in the right direction.  UPass is a service to provide free rides for OLLU students and to all Alamo Community College students and faculity.  

Since the time of the election, a new idea has come along called "Fare Capping."  Already DART in Dallas has started using this method to make the buses more equitable and there's talk from Indianapolis about joining the ranks of DART and TriMet in Portland, Oregon using this method. In San Antonio, a VIA board member Ezra A Johnson said in a tweet (Image 82.1) that he'll be working on getting Fare Capping working here in San Antonio as soon as the technology becomes available to VIA.  
If you want to know what "Fare Capping is, I recommend that you watch the video below which is the best video out there explaining what it is.  

The Fare Capping Chronicles from TransitCenter on Vimeo.

K. Are you willing to bring Light Rail to a vote?
I added this question because a lot of people who read this blog want some type of passenger rail service in San Antonio if not a Tramway, then a Commuter Rail that is currently operational in the DFW and Austin area. But with the Mayor's reversal on this decision about rail and silly talk about the "Politically Correct Streetcar," he clearly went back on his word.  And because I know so much about transportation, I'm split.  On the one hand, I understand that having a rail line especially out to the AT&T Center will get spur fans out of their cars. But tramway systems built after the 1980's in the USA don't go where the people want go because they're usually placed on old abandon railroad right-of-ways where much of the abandoned industry was located. The train stations that are build are built with acres of parking lots surrounding the train station and not in locations connected to where people want to go. This recent story from Streetsblog Denver explains why even though Denver has a tramway system in place, the transit system as a whole isn't really useful. The same thing goes for Dallas. My fear that if we go with rail, then we'll end up like those other cities. 

In some ways, not going after rail does force San Antonio to focus on solutions that includes bicycles, making buses work fast and efficiently, pouring resources into VIA bus routes that stand to gain the most ridership, and working on land use policies that will that will promote not needing to own a person vehicle.  I am going to make the argument that if we had a tramway built in San Antonio, VIA would have never focus on the current Primo bus expansions that are taking place on Zarzamora and in the future, Military Dr. (Image 82.2) 

82.2

I can only hope that the leaders of this new nonprofit called ConnectSA have the vision to see past an automobile for people who are over the age of 60 are the main ones always complaining about the lack of available free parking and bike lanes making their driving miserable as if the lack of exercise isn't the real culprit.  I suggest that you get signed up to ConnectSA on information about meetings and events and to show your disgust when they come up with the same non solutions we have seen forever of not removing parking minimums, adding no HOV lanes, ignoring protected bikeways and avoiding bus only lanes. 

So it's now time to take a survey to see whether or not you think that the city council and mayor are even bicycle or transit friendly.  To Access the survey, please click here.   

My Plans for the Future of this Blog.
Since this blog shares a similar name to the Advocacy Group "Bike San Antonio," I'm going to be changing it to Alamo Alternative Transportation in March and will be doing any election recommendations for the 2019 election through that new blog. I'll post a link in this blog right before I write the last post. 

Also the questions that I will be asking the candidates about VIA will be....

• Do you support "Fare Capping"?
• Will you either maintain or increase the funding for VIA from the city of San Antonio general revenue?
• Do you understand what the "Trackless Train" is?

If you have any other questions that you want to ask the candidates, either take my survey on #ivotebike2017 which ends on March 1st, 2019 at 12:01am or leave them in the comments below. 
URL to Survey:  https://goo.gl/forms/aXNpGIILN96hwcHl2

Images:

82.1: A Screenshot of Ezra's Tweet. https://twitter.com/Ezra4SA/status/1088200720615202816

82.2: A Screenshot of the New Primo Bus Schedules.  https://www.viainfo.net/primo_service/

VIA is blocking Bike Facilities

Working 12 to 14 hour a day don't help when I need to write this blog post so I do miss a lot of things that I should be writing about, but I cannot pass this up.  It has come to my attention that the city of San Antonio isn't interested in providing the protected bikeway south of Josephine that virtually all people who ride a bicycle in San Antonio wants.  From the grapevine, I hearing that VIA is standing in the way of a Protected Bikeway because they would like to see future rapid transit go down Broadway.  I am also going to tie in a public announcement going around asking you to stop at red lights. 

I discovered that this public announcement on the Chain Reaction San Antonio Facebook Page and other friends timelines asking cyclist to stop at red lights so they don't hate us so much. I'm here to inform you stopping at all the red lights while riding your bicycle will not make motorist stop hating you. 

There's a reason why people who ride are happy and that's simply because when you exercise, your body produces endorphins. When you are in operation of a motor vehicle, you are more likely to get angry because you are sitting down, not moving and stuck inside a cage, literally. Having to stop your car constantly creates stress so when you happen to see someone run the red light on two wheels, well you're pissed off.  It's not just having to stop and go, stop and go and not hit the idiot in front of you, but you're worried about your finances because you barely make ends meat, you don't have money to pay for the deferred maintenance on the car your driving let alone gas and you need a car to get by. And now, a fucking cyclist who can't keep up with your car is slowing you down. Unless that driver is aware of the law, he or she will be thinking that damn cyclist should be on that non existing sidewalk that the driver cannot see because they're sitting so low to the ground. Let's not forget that angry driver will be unaware of the law, City of San Antonio (Code 1959, § 38-52) Sec. 19-286. - Driving or parking on sidewalks prohibited.  (a) It shall be unlawful for any person to drive or propel or park or stand any vehicle upon any sidewalk.

So I have a question to ask anyone, how is having people stopping at red lights and stop signs going to make that motorist happy? I run red lights all the time and I know that's it's against the law. But I found that in many cases, it's safer to run that red light then it is for the motorist violates the 3ft rule passing me as I ride through an intersection after the light has turned green. What makes motorist the most happy in my experience is when you're waiting at a red light, (yes I don't run them all) that you get out of their way and allow them to make that right turn. Another thing is when your in the left lane waiting for the light to turn green, is to go strait across the intersection and then go left By doing this you allow the car behind that were waiting behind you to speed away and pass you at the same time.

My rules for running a red light is located at the end of this blog post.

A thing that the city could do to encourage people on bicycles to stop at red lights is to build the necessary Protected Bikeways for they encourage people to stop at red lights and in my travels to other cities that I rode, I see people stopping at red lights more often when they're in a protected bikeway but not always in a bike lane.  Now this brings me to Broadway for I have heard that VIA is now the biggest opposition to a protected bikeway.  You've probably have seen my post on FB and Instagram asking people to email richard.grochowski@sanantonio.gov of the engineer in charge of the project.  Well we need to contact VIA by clicking here. When on the page, click on "Submit Online Comments Here". In the first box, choose ". Let them know that you want them to put a Protected bicycle lane instead of Rapid Transit.  Also sending tweets and posting on their Facebook page will also help. 

If you want me to explain what a "Stroad" is, please watch this video.  

Here's the dilemma.  Do we as a city want cars to go fast, or are we serious about Vision Zero?  For if we want motor vehicles to go fast, well we really should rethink the entire project and turn Broadway and N Alamo into one way stroads.  To make these one way stroads into compliance with Vision Zero, then we are going to need a protected bikeway both down N Alamo and Broadway due to the fast moving motor vehicles.

Now if we want to encourage development along Broadway, we're going to have to slow down the motor vehicles including VIA's buses, reduce the travel lanes from 4 to 2. The decision has to be made on what the final goal for this project should look like.  VIA should be advocating for one way stroads if they want faster buses along with protected bicycle lanes to keep the slow moving bicycles out of buses way.

Now if you remember the last city election in 2017 I had a voters guide and in that guide, I had a question that asked, Will you make sure Broadway has a protected bicycle lane from Houston to Hildebrand?  Well I'll be holding the Mayor Nirenberg and Councilman Trevino to account for this if it's not in the final plans come march, then well, these two people will not be recommended by me or this blog.  So please let the mayor, the councilman Trevino know when you email them.

To Contact the Mayor, please click here...
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To Contact Trevino, Please click here....
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Rules for Running a Red Light on your bicycle.

Always remember that it is illegal in 49 states to run a red light on your bicycle.  The exception is the Idaho Law.

Always treat a red light as a stop sign and COME TO A COMPLETE STOP.  Look left and look right.  when the intersection is clear and you know you have time to make it safely acroos, proceed.

When approaching a red light with cars waiting DO NOT GO AROUND THE CARS.  Wait behind the car until the light turns green and the car proceed.

When riding in  bicycle lane and you're approaching a red light, look for the cars with their right blinkers on and wait behind them.  Treat the person behind the wheel of the car with their right blinker as if they aren't paying attention.  Stay behind the vehicle until they make their turn then proceed.  Make eye contact with the person behind the car with the blinker and stare at them for a few seconds.

Always remember if you get hit by a car running a red light, it is your fault.

And those are the rules that I follow when I decide to run a red light. 

The Case for Free Bus Rides

As part of my City Election 2017: Candidates Position on Cycling I asked one question that stood out. Question 'J' is  the question about providing free bus rides to all citizens of San Antonio. It a question that I believe that we need to start answering for when it comes to the future of transportation options, well there's only one option for San Antonio and that's driving.

As I stated before in previous post, I said that we here in San Antonio consider driving a free thing to do. We attack the ideal of toll roads, we attack the ideal of getting rid of a vehicle lane to make room for a bicycle. We attack the very ideal of light rail, calling it a waste of money. Yet we never attack the fact we don't have money for roads, that freeways don't pay their way nor decrease the number of ozone action days we experience every year.  We call toll roads double taxation yet we never say riding the bus is double taxation. We paid for the bus service through a half cent sales tax and yet we are forced to pay to use the bus like paying to use a toll road. Let that sink in for a moment especially if you're anti toll road.

If you where to ask me 4 years go, I would have said that it was a bad ideal because of what happen in Austin. So what did actually happen in Austin when free bus rides were offered back in 1990? In 1990, Austin, Texas decided to make the buses free of charge. Things went well at first, but as the program went on, problems started to arises because people who wouldn't normally be able to ride would abuse the system.  There's a term for these types of people and they're called "problem riders." And after one year of offering free bus rides, they immediately institute a 50 cent bus fare.

I began to reconsider this when I heard what the city of Tallinn in Estonia was doing which was making the public transit free of charge and still charging the tourist.  Believe it or not, we do something similar here in San Antonio with the hotel/motel tax.  We charge tourist a tax to pay for our parks, and other improvements.  Some of the money that is going to pay back this bond 2017 and other previous bonds is coming from this tax right now. So why can't we do the same thing for the residence of San Antonio? 

So what did happen in Tallinn when they made the buses free of charge.  Well to use the bus free of charge, you have to be a residence which cost €2 to register.  There was no change in driving habits of people, but what they did see was a increase of rider from the most poorest areas of the city.  So far, they don't have a problem with vandalism or with more problem riders. 

So Why can't we do the same thing here?  My vision for free bus fare in San Antonio consist of paying a yearly fee of no less than $30 to no more than $100 per resident or household of San Antonio.  This pass will work like a regular 31 Day Pass, but will last 13 months, giving enough time for people to buy a new yearly pass. This pass will only be available to residence of San Antonio.  To qualify, you need at least 2 or three things.  They can be a pay stub or a your W2, an government issued ID, a CPS Energy bill, a SAWS bill, a lease to a property, or a property tax receipt from that Bexar County Tax assessor office. I envision having people from VIA setting up a table at VITA centers to register people.

Now this isn't the only strategy to consider. "Fare Free Zones" are places where people don't have to pay to board the bus.  Several cities use this to encourage people to use public transit mainly in their downtown area.  MATA has a fare free zone in West Memphis, AR (which I have actually used) and the UTA has several fare free zones in and around Salt Lake City, UT. For San Antonio, I could see fare free zones being transit centers or even parts outside of loop 410.
 
Today A 31 Day Pass cost $38.  If you don't think that's a lot of money for a struggling family then guess what, your doing pretty well.  That's up $4 from the cost of $34 when I last purchase one in 2015. (And no I still don't own a car.)  It means parents who use the bus system to say that their kids are still 11 yrs old when they're actually 14, (yes I have done it.) to people begging for bus fare on the bus.  And yes I have begged for bus fare on a VIA bus and I do donate my own money to help a person paying for bus fare when this happens.  And if you are wondering why I say that "driving is consider a free thing to do" then look no further at the cost of renewing your a car registration yearly.  According to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, it cost $51.75 plus (and since I don't own a car and don't know this fee) $10 local county tax fee, plus $7.50 Inspection Fee.  Now that not counting the insurance cost, so lets go by the cheapest and we'll just do a one month because if you don't think that people here in San Antonio who are struggling financially are cutting corners, then you are doing pretty well.  For sake of argument, well say that insurance is $50.  The Last time I got a car inspected was $30.  Add it all up, $51.75+$10.00+$7.50+$30.00+50.00 = $149.25.  So if you don't take into account for the cost of gasoline, maintenance, and insurance which when you are poor, you try to avoid paying, basically it cost only $149.50 to drive around.  Compare that to a 31 Day pas, which according to the math, you'll buy 12 passes in one year 365/31= 11.77.  $38 per pass times 12 passes comes to roughly a cost of $456 per person. 

Now if you want to contradict me in the comments below, go right ahead.  But if you fail to take into consideration that the average person who can't afford a car, lives primary from paycheck to paycheck and they're only looking at that $149.50 to pay per year to legally operate a car comparing to the $456 per year, then it's seem like a better deal. Just compare the travel times on google maps, with a car to that of VIA, especially since more blue collar jobs are outside of VIA's service area, then you begin to see why so many people who ride VIA says it sucks even though I pointed out how they really have their act together.  At the end of the day, it was Bernie Sanders says, it's more expensive to be a poor, and he's correct.

For more information on "fare free transit," please visit the wikipedia page, "Free public transport."

If we can find money for vacant sport stadiums, for sport teams that will never make San Antonio home, or anything else you believe is a waste of tax money, then we can definitely find the money to do this.  Now I know I'm going to hear the excuse "we don't have the money for this," but I know that I'm going to hear one or two ridiculous excuses.  If you follow news on VIA, just watch, you'll come across one that is just so out there, so nutty, it will be a good enough reason never to invest in a tool to fix things. 

Commuter Rail is Dead, Long Live Commuter Rail

A saying I read in a forgotten book which had a passage that said, "the king is dead, long live the king."  and if you been following the Austin/San Antonio Commuter Rail also known as the Lone Star Rail District this past year, my title fits perfectly.

57.1

Back in February 2016, Union Pacific Railroad decided to walk away from negotiation with the Lone Star Rail District. And since then, story after news story since then always had a headline saying how the project is not dead. They're several source at the end of this post.

On August 17, 2016, CAMPO (Capitol Area Metropolitan Planning Organization) board voted 17 to one against the commuter rail. But even then our local KSAT news had the biggest backer of the Commuter Rail, Joe Krier of district 9 pleading to keep the project alive. And to top it off, as I was starting to write this at the beginning of September, the Lone Star Rail District website had a list of CAMPO long range planning meetings urging people to tell CAMPO to keep the project in the long range plans. (image 57.2)

57.2

What most people don't understand, and that includes the backers, that if you want to have the commuter rail, maybe you should ditch the train and get buses running in it's place instead for the only way we're getting a commuter rail if our representatives make a federal or state law stating that Union Pacific will either provide the track or the service and that's not gonna happen ever. Cities like Atlanta, and states like New Jersey already offer intercity commuter bus services using Greyhound like buses. Houston's Metro (image 57.4) already use these type of buses for their express routes.

Now there was a time when San Antonio had such a service using buses and not that long ago. The reason why you never heard about this service is because VIA and CapMetro didn't allow these buses to use their existing bus stops and transit centers and fail to provide links to these services on their websites. There was limited bus service provided by Texas State University between San Antonio and Austin. The Alamo Area Council of Governments offered shuttle service from Palo Alto College to Poteet, Pleasanton, and Jourdation. And today in Austin the  Capital Area Council of governments provides shuttle service from several communities including San Marcos.

57.3

Texas State University use to have intercity bus service called the Bobcat Tram Interurban that between Randolph Park-n-ride, to the University with limited number of stops in New Braunfels, Kyle and Buda. Between 2007 to 2013,  you probably saw a brown bus parked across the street from Randolph Park-n-ride for VIA never allowed it to stop inside their facility. I only used the service three times. A trip to Austin cost $12 and the bicycle rack could hold three bicycles. I decided to buy a multi-ride card (image 57.3) for $40 at the time. In August, 2013, the service was canceled. When the service was canceled in August of 2013, I heard only crickets from the backers of Lone Star Rail District.

It is also worth noting that Greyhound barely provides services to San Marcos. Before Megabus took up residence at 4th and Broadway, Greyhound had several buses stopping there. Today there's only two trips available.

The service that ran from Palo Alto college to Jourdation was provided by the Alamo Regional Transit or ART. Now I don't remember when this bus was running and I never heard of it being canceled. I only found out about it when I went to use the restroom when I was out there. I never used the service because they never did have a bicycle rack on the bus. Today ART provides paratransit services to counties that are apart of the Alamo area Council of Governments.

The intercity shuttle service provided by CARTs (Capitol Area Regional Transit) run several small buses from their transit center in East Austin to several towns including San Marcos and they only run during rush hour. Also like ART, CARTs provide paratransit service to the members of the Capitol Area council of Governments.

57.4

Yes the rail would have been better than a bus, but let's face reality. Dwelling on this project is a waste of time and money. Unless laws are made from Washington DC or maybe Austin forcing Union Pacific to provide this service or the track, this dream will never be. Joe Krier with all his good intentions is simply beating a dead horse. Hey Joe, the horse is dead, long live the horse. It's time to start providing buses instead of waiting on a train in ten years that will never be.

Images:
57.1 Trinity Railway Express arriving at Victory Station in Dallas, TX
57.2 A Screenshot from http://www.lonestarrail.com/ in Sept 2016
57.3 A picture of a sample 10 ride ticket for the Bobcat Interurban bus.
57.4 A Metro Commuter Express Bus on I-69 in Houston, TX

Sources:

Despite setbacks, Lone Star Rail Project still on the table
http://kxan.com/2016/04/15/new-development-for-central-texas-commuter-rail/

Rail line from SA to Austin may be up for discussion again soon 
http://www.ksat.com/news/rail-line-from-sa-to-austin-may-be-up-for-discussion-again-soon

How Austin-San Antonio commuter rail backers plan to get back on track 
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2016/04/15/how-austin-san-antonio-commuter-rail-backers-plan.html

Officials: Commuter rail project still on track in Central Texas
https://communityimpact.com/austin/san-marcos-buda-kyle/city-county/2016/03/16/officials-commuter-rail-project-still-track-central-texas/

Officials: Commuter rail project still on track in Central Texas
https://communityimpact.com/austin/san-marcos-buda-kyle/city-county/2016/03/16/officials-commuter-rail-project-still-track-central-texas/

Lone Star Rail District Pitches Four Alternatives to Dead Union Pacific Proposal 
http://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2016/04/18/lone-star-rail-district-pitches-four-alternatives-to-dead-union-pacific-proposal

Future of San Antonio-Austin passenger rail could hinge on local planning group 
http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Future-of-San-Antonio-Austin-passenger-rail-could-7379356.php

Derailed: Union Pacific puts brakes on Austin-San Antonio commuter rail
http://smmercury.com/2016/02/12/derailed-union-pacific-puts-brakes-on-austin-san-antonio-commuter-rail/

San Antonio To Austin Commuter Rail Not Dead Yet
http://tpr.org/post/san-antonio-austin-commuter-rail-not-dead-yet#stream/0

Lone Star Rail on life support after CAMPO vote
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/transportation/lone-star-rail-on-life-support-after-campo-vote/nsCRf/

Austin, San Antonio leaders urged to help resurrect Lone Star Rail
http://www.ksat.com/traffic/austin-sa-urged-to-help-resurrect-lone-star-rail

Sources that came out after I wrote this:

Workable rail plan essential for our plan
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/editorials/article/Workable-rail-plan-essential-for-our-plan-9228331.php

Loss of commuter rail key focus of Austin-San Antonio Growth Summit
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2016/09/16/loss-of-commuter-rail-key-focus-of-austin-san.html

RIP Lone Star Rail
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/columnists/josh_brodesky/article/RIP-Lone-Star-Rail-9225837.php

Anatomy of a Bus Stop Sign

In my travels I have encounter a lot of bus stop signs and the more I see the many different designs, the more I'm grateful for the design of VIA's.

So what should be seen on a bus stop sign?  These are the 5 characteristics that every bus stop should have.

1. It should be recognized as a bus stop 
2. It should be seen from both sides. 
3. It should have the routes listed.   
4. It should have a serial number. 
5. It should have the times when the bus comes.

It is these 5 things that make a great bus stop sign. But sadly, most systems fail to have at least 2, and more just have a lousy sign.  On this page name the Transit System Bus Stops, you'll find a list of all the bus stop signs that I have encountered and my rating for those system bus stops.

1. It should be recognized as a bus stop.
Bus stops come in many designs, the most common features a figure of a bus on the sign. Others have the logo of the transit system. But anyone who's walking along the street should look up at the sign and realize that a bus stops at this location. (Image 55.1)

55-1

2. It should be seen from both sides.
This should be a given and it is in San Antonio, that you're able to walk down a street and look at the other side and see that there's a bus stop.  But sadly in other cities, this is not the case.  If you're walking down the street in another city, you come up to a blank grey sign, a tragic part of using public transit. Look at the picture below and tell me if you can see the bus stop. (Image 55.2)

55-2

3. It should have the routes listed. 
(Image 55.3) Now you would think that this would be a given, but no. At most, you just have a sign that indicates that a bus stops here, and no more. Other systems like VIA in San Antonio always have the number of what bus route stops at a particular stop. Having this simple indication goes along way with easing people's fears.  It also helps when having Skip Stop Buses, buses that serve the same street as another route, but bypasses several stops to have faster service. 

55-3

4. It should have a serial number.  
Again, every bus stop sign in San Antonio has a five digit number on the bottom of the bus stop. (Image 5.4)  It's like a bar code that list a particular stop telling what bus routes stop at that stop and the location it is at.  Other cities do have a serial number for a bus stop, but it is listed on the app and not the bus stop sign.  Houston is going this way, but it will be a while until we see it listed on all the bus stop signs.  But having every stop with a unique serial number can backfire. At the many transit centers in San Antonio, VIA has a different serial number for each bus stop sign at their transit centers.  At Randolph Park And Ride, the 550 will have bus stop number 59883 while the 21 will have 59886.  It makes it hard when using the VIA's 52020 text feature or trying to find the exact bus stop on google maps.  I hope the people at VIA reading this will fix this problem so we all can text to 52020 with one bus stop number for Randolph and get all the routes and when they're schedule to arrive and depart.  

55-4

5. It should have the times listed when the bus comes.
Sadly, a lot of systems fail to do this.  Whether it's because of money, or they just haven't figure out how to do it, all bus stop signs should have the schedule listed of the bus route that stops there.  In my travels, I've seen many examples, but they fail to solve the problem of putting the schedule on all the stops. In Charlotte, North Carolina, on the CATS System seem to have solved this dilemma.  Although all the bus stops fail to have a serial number, (Image 55.6) they all however have the times listed on the pole of when the bus is coming.(Image 5.5)

55.5

55.6

So for my home transit system in San Antonio, TX, you do a great job and I hope that those who are reading this will try to improve our bus stop signs and the way they are cataloged.  For everyone else, I hope you use these standards and improve your bus stop signs so you can bring your system into the 21st century.

Images:
55.1:  Fort Smith Transit Bus Stop. http://www.fortsmithar.gov/transit/default.aspx
55.2:  Fort Smith Transit Bus Stop as seen from across the street.
55.3:  Houston Metro Bus Stop. http://www.ridemetro.org/Pages/index.aspx
55.4:  VIA Metropolitan Transit Bus Stop. http://viainfo.net/Ride/Default.aspx
55.5:  A time Strip seen on the side of a CATS bus stop pole
55.6:  CATS: Charlotte Area Transit System. http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/cats/Pages/default.aspx

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

What VIA Gets Right

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As a person who criticizes VIA a lot and as a person who lives in a city that doesn't appreciate their public transit service, it is easy to forget what our transit agency does right. So in this posting, I have decided to point out everything they do right and just maybe this is the reason why we constantly see all those award signs as to how VIA is the best transit system, while at the same time we shake our head and wonder how the hell did they get that. It is because the average VIA rider rarely travels to other cities and uses those public transit systems to compare it to ours that we don't know how good we got it.


But Stops:

We take this for granted that VIA has well marked out bus stop sign and the routes posted on that sign to tell you if they stop there. Everywhere you go, you'll see one of these unique signs and you will know right off the bat that this is a bus stop and that these routes stop here and if there happens to be no Sunday service. They also have a bus stop ID number which makes it pretty easy to figure out what time the bus will stop there by using their app or texting that ID number to 52020. In other cities this isn't the case just like this perfect example of this bus stop on The T in Fort Worth across from the Fort Worth Convention Center.(Image 38-2) Many systems across the country fail their riders by not doing what VIA does to their bus stops.  .

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Route Numbers

VIA numbers it's bus routes very well. Except for the 100 Primo and perhaps future Primo routes, the bus routes 1-99 go to downtown and the 500's are crosstown buses and 600's are neighborhood bus routes in the suburbs. Also you can tell which set of numbers serve what side of town just by reading the number.  Image 38-3 shows how they pretty much number the buses that serve to and from Downtown. In other cities especially in Austin, the route number just don't tells it where it goes, but it also tells how it serves creating a complicated mess of multiple routes. Imagine if they renumbered the 76 Old Hwy 90 West,(Image 38-5) and gave it a new number like 376 to tell you people that it is a bus route that skips stops. VIA describes what type of service it is by the designation as either an Express, Skip, or Metro type route.

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In other cities, the same bus route number that serves one side of town, will also serves the other side of town and go in multiple directions.(Image 38-6) This isn't the case here in San Antonio for as the bus enters downtown, it changes it bus route number and continues to the other side of the city. People might complain about this, but in reality, this is a good thing because there’s no confusion on what numbers serve what side of town from Downtown.(Image 38-3) By allowing the bus route numbers to change it's route number, you allow the efficiency of providing buses to needed areas. Also by changing the route number, you remove confusion on where the bus is going.

VIA works on keeping the routes parallel and strait, rarely overlapping with each other. Only a handful of routes split off to serve a greater area like the number 28, or the 75 for example but always return to back the other way. Unfortunately they failed to keep this simple lesson when in mind when they returned bus service down Walters Street, thus causing chaos for those trying to get to either Walters St, or E Southcross and WW White. I hope those at VIA reading this will fix this problem in the next round of changes so that when the 515 get to McCreless, they can change the route number to 509, thus elevating any confusion.

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VIA allows Bikes on the BRT

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In all the other cities around the country, only VIA allows the bicycles to come aboard their BRT. In Austin, Los Angeles, Fort Worth (Image 38-4) and many other cities which have BRT services, they have a bicycle rack on the front of their BRT if they even thought it was needed to put a bicycle rack on in the first place.

VIA's Schedules are Easy to Read.
Unless you actually traveled to other cities, you never know how easy it is to read a bus schedule here in San Antonio.(Image 38-5) This has been the case for a long, long time even before they redid the routes back in 2004. Each bus schedule have the route map on the top the city's streets that you would normally see on a regular street map right behind the cover. Then they have the times of where and when below in vertical rows.(Image 38-5)
 

If you don't think that the average VIA bus schedule isn't easy to read, then I'll leave you with this beautiful bus schedule map of the number 1 from Fort Worth The T.(Image 38-6) If you can understand where this bus goes and what time it gets (Download the PDF schedule) there, please get back to me, for I barely know myself. Even when San Antonions used DART and CapMetro and say that those systems are better than VIA, for apparently even those schedules are a little hard to read. Why they couldn't use the same pattern VIA does on all it's schedule is beyond me.(Image 38-5) Seems to me it would be the logical thing to do.

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VIA Operates on Major Holidays.

We're spoiled San Antonio for we get bus service on Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years Day, and even the Forth Of July. You might not think this to be a big deal, but in other cities across this nation, they shut down the buses for major holidays. I was in Albuquerque on Christmas Day 2007 and there was no bus service on that day. I had to walk everywhere to get to where I needed to go. So the next time your complaining about only Sunday Service on Christmas, then take into account many major cities in the USA don't have service on that holiday.

Trash Cans at Bus Stops

This is a no brainer. Go to other cities, and they're a lot of trash on the sidewalk around the bus stop.

No Subcontractor Operating this Route

Except for Grey Lines Operating the Para-transit service, something I wish VIA would stop doing, every bus driver, every mechanic is a VIA employee. It's the main reason why we see them win awards year after year. It's the reason why we see their bus drivers on TV and newspapers worldwide touting how they're a good driver.  With this arrangement, VIA gets to tout the most efficient cost ratio compared to any other transit agency in the Sate of Texas, unlike Austin, Houston, and other cities, in which those transit agency outsources to a for profit corporation to operate their services. Somebody who's politically correct will say how this is a good thing and it saves money, but in reality it cost services and money to the tax payers and those who work for these corporations operating the transit services are not loyal to the transit agencies themselves but are loyal to the corporations themselves first. I should know for if I told you what I use to do for a living, you would have thought I worked for that company, but I didn't. In actual fact, I worked for a subcontractor that company hired. I was never loyal to the company that I did the work for because I was loyal to the subcontractor that I worked for because they signed my paychecks and that company the subcontractor did the work for was constantly mistreating us all the time and accused us, the subcontractor employees (me) of things we never did. You do not have this problem at VIA because that VIA bus driver is loyal to VIA. In Houston, the transit agency outsources it's operations to First Transit and I've heard stories from people who live in Houston of bus drivers passing by people waiting at bus stops with them clearly seen. Rarely do I hear of VIA bus drivers missing people at bus stops. It's one of the reasons why they're putting in those new bus stops shelters that I'm complaining about. This is so the bus driver can see people at the bus stop and well stop.

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The Lowest of Fares in the USA

So many people believe that they receive all their funding from the fare box which is a lie. And yet, we have some of the lowest fares in the Nation. A ride on VIA cost $1.20 and if you need to transfer to another bus, it will cost $.15 cents more. The Fare structure is pretty simple too (Image 38-7) for everyone can buy a Big Pass for $35 and use that pass for 31 days to ride all the types of bus services (including Express service) all month long. In Austin, they have three different fare types and monthly passes to accompany each type of fare. One for their local metro services, one for their Express services, and finally another one for their Commuter Rail and BRT (Primo) services. (Image 38-8) When I was in Austin last time without a bicycle, I bitch and complain that I had to pay extra just to use the Train there. What a ripoff to live in a city like Austin and have a terrible fare structure keeping those who depend on the bus off of the services they need the most. So far as I have understood, VIA has no plans to have a separate fare structure for any future rail services nor create a separate fare structure for any existing or new Primo services.

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It could be worse, you could live in a place that has a zone fare structure in place which makes the poorest of those who cannot afford to live in the inner city pay more just to get around.

VIA Receives only a 1/2 Cent Sales Tax

Compared to other cities such as Dallas, Houston, and Austin and even San Marcos which receive a full cent sales tax. Under the charter that created the agency, they can only collect ½ cent sales tax to pay for transit operations. Every time you buy a soda, a t-shirt, or any other retail item at a store here in San Antonio and only municipalities that pay for their services, do you pay for VIA. This is the reason why they cannot provide overnight bus services, and why they consolidate the bus services into combining bus routes in the Line-up services at 10:30pm, 11:30pm and 12:30am. But with such a limited funding source, they're still able to provide 15 minute services on many of it's routes and expanded services to other routes when they're able to just like they did recently to several routes. I have never know VIA to cut services unless they absolutely had to and when they were able to, they brought it back.


There's a lot of people here in San Antonio that equates VIA = Sucks. And I'm not immune to this for I write what is wrong with VIA all the time. I recently wrote a two part series on how VIA could improve their image and services, Part I, and Part II. Yes they need to improve this and that here and there, but it's small things and many times it's out of VIA's hand for they're lacking the resources to fix that problem in the first place like overnight bus service, or a lack of a grid street pattern outside Loop 410. While I was in Fort Worth, I found three things VIA could do to improve things (Image 38-9 thru 38-11) but you have to remember folks, we have a very good system and a system that is easy to understand. I would never want the route numbering system Fort Worth has nor their bus stop signs. That would simply work to keep San Antonio Lame and VIA for the most part works on Keeping San Antonio Real. 

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Images:
38-1: A 515 Bus Stop at the corner of Southcross Ranch and Copperhead LN looking South.  Illustrating the number, the no Sunday service,and Bus Stop ID Number.
38-2: The T Bus Stop in Fort Worth across from the Fort Worth convention Center on Houston St.
38-3: A illustration I designed showing how VIA determines how they number their bus routes.  It's rare to find this same technique in numbering routes in other cities.
38-4: The Spur at it's bus stop at the Fort Worth Intermodal Center illustrating the bike rack they have on board compared to VIA's Primo which allows bicycles inside the bus.
38-5: VIA's bus schedule showing how easy it is to read the map and the timetable. 
38-6: The T number 1 route map showing how confusing it is to figure out where that bus goes. 
38-7: VIA's bus fare structure, showing how simple it is and cheap to ride the bus.
38-8: CapMetro's fare structure showing how confusing it is to use.  
38-9:  Currently VIA doesn't allow people to put any item over the front wheels.  However in For Worth on the T, people routinely put things over the front wheel to keep the walkway cleared.
38-10: I found this humurous sign on the buses in Fort Worth.  Seems like we could do the same thing here in San Antonio
38-11:  Currently VIA doesn't  have a garbage can on the bus, but in Fort Worth, the placed one right behind the seat next to the back door. 

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.

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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.