I'm starting to notice a frightening trend here in San Antonio. Bicycle lanes are being removed from parts of San Antonio. The two so far that I am aware of is the northbound lane on Broadway at Jones and the second one, not a bicycle lane, but a shoulder nonetheless on Fredricksburg Rd.
If you read my previous posts on improving Broadway, you would have seen my cross-section on that part of Broadway which I called it the 281 Section. Today, the new development decided that we don't need a bicycle lane. (Image67.1) That on street parking is more important than providing a safe place for `people to ride their bicycles.
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I contacted several people and since I was talking off the record , I am unable to provide contact info. This is what I learned when I talked to these individuals. City Council had no way to stop the removal of the bike lane. San Antonio Transportation and Capital improvements are designing a pretty sign to tell you, the cyclist to go onto the sidewalk. I didn't get a chance to ask if SAPD will give us tickets if we go onto the sidewalk but I'm assuming no. If you happen to get a ticket for riding on the sidewalk, please contact me. The main thing that will make this lousy solution not work is that there will be no ADA ramp back into the bike lane that is already left. (Image 67.2)
If you want to complain at somebody, call the district 1 Councilman Robert C Trevino (Info at the bottom) and the private engineer firm (Image 67.3) that said that removing a bicycle lane was okay. That's the only thing I can tell you what to do in protest.
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The second is the new park at the intersection of Fredricksburg and De Chantle (Image 67.4). Where there was a shoulder to ride in safely, now a curb and a tiny sidewalk was built. For the record, they only removed the northbound shoulder. Instead of leaving well enough alone, they decided that the space surrounding the left turning vehicles needed extra protection, so they created these painted barriers directing traffic around the center turn lane. (Image67.5) I find it ironic that if you go up just one block to Williamsburg, (Image67.6) you'll see the original paint pattern, and there seems to be no need to remove a shoulder to protect left turning cars.
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As Halloween rolled around I came across this picture tweet from David Killmon. He wanted to dress up in the most frightening costume he could think of, so he dressed up as a construction sign saying the bicycle lane is closed. (Image67.7) I have a saying that goes, it takes a dead person to put in a traffic light and a crosswalk. I can only hope that it doesn't take a tragedy to fix this mistake.
District 1 Robert C Trevino City Hall
P.O. Box 839966
San Antonio, TX 78283
Office Line: 210.207.7279 Constituent Office
1310 Vance Jackson
San Antonio, TX 78201
Field Office Line: 210.207.0900
Images:
67.1: Viewing South on Broadway showing newly constructed parking where a bicycle lane use to be.
67.2: Showing the end of the sidewalk construction where no ADA ramp was installed.
67.3: The Engineer Consulting firm info advertising their destructive work.
67.4: Viewing North on Fredricksburg Rd showing the Shoulder disappearing.
67.5: Viewing north on Fredricksburg Rd Showing added painted lines around the center turn lane at De Chantel.
67.6: Viewing north on Fredricksburg Rd Showing the intersection at Williansburg.
67.7: Tweet from @kohidave with him wearing his Halloween Costume. Link to tweet: https://twitter.com/kohidave/status/792946517443092480
The latest Useless bicycle lane is now open. Has been open for almost a month now and you can use this latest uselessness on Arsenal along the HEB headquarters. (Image 43-1)
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To understand why this was built, you're going to have to listen to a awesome podcast called 99% Invisible, episode name Arsenal of Exclusion. It talks about how infrastructure can be used to funnel and control human behavior. In the case of this useless protected bicycle lane, it is used to encourage people on bicycle to not ride down S Flores, but to choose S Main instead and connect with the protected bicycle lane that was build behind the new grocery store.
In the end, by not putting it down on S Flores, the people who live in the new apartments along S Flores will choose to drive to the new HEB grocery store instead of doing the environmental thing to do which is to ride your bicycle or walk. If you don't think that putting bicycle lanes where they're not needed don't have an effect on the rest of us, just look up into the sky, we're not in compliance anymore.
Now it's not completely useless after all, it provides space for joggers and people walking who live in the King William area. Only time will tell if this useless bicycle lane becomes a parking lane during fiesta. Then the rubber barriers will be destroyed and thus the joggers will loose out on their new jogging strip.
In the Netherlands and Denmark, they don't put protected bicycle lanes down streets like Arsenal, instead they lower the speed limit to about 20 mph. The Author of Copenhagenize.com, came out with a chart on where to put bicycle lanes. It clearly shows in kilometers per hour on where to put the bicycle lanes. (Image 43-2) By using this chart, it clearly shows that a street like Arsenal don't need a protected bicycle lane, speed limit is just too low.
As I continue to write this blog, I constantly show how the City of San Antonio and it's political leaders aren't interested in providing anything in the way of transportation improvements unless it has at least 4 wheels, an internal combustion engine and helps keeps the myth going that global warming is a conspiracy.
Back in April, I wrote the post Useless Bicycle lane, showing how three bicycle lanes in the city are completely useless in providing actual protection. They were S Main Ave, S Pine St, and Elmendorf St on the west side. Since my publishing of that story several things have changed and I can add two new ones to that list which are Village Parkway on the Far West Side, and Diana on the East Side.
I think a lot of you are asking what constitutes a Useless bicycle lane, and this is how I come to figure out that conclusion. The first thing I go by the Dutch principal which you can see below this paragraph in this video explaining when and where you put one and a quote of Jeremy of the Critical transit blog Transit Tip #14 which states: "There’s a tendency among bike advocates to champion the delineation of a
“bike space” even without any actual space being created. You know, “if
there’s room for a bike lane” without changing anything else on the
street". When the Dutch put down a bicycle lane (and they do just like us Americans) or a cycletrack, they put them where they are needed, like places where cars go faster than 30 KM per hour. For us Americans, that roughly 20 Miles per hour. There's a reason why nearly all school zones are 20 miles per hour, because that is the safest, fastest speed possible to prevent collisions and reduce harm when collisions occur. The Dutch put those 20 mph zone not just in school zones, but down residential streets. You also see 25 MPH in the neighborhoods of Terrell Hills and Alamo Heights, which makes me think they sort of get it.
The Improvements
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Back in July, S Main Ave (Image 22-2) got a new paint job, and this time taking into account of the parking occurring on the street. Before, they had a bicycle lane with parked cars, (Image 22-1) now there's a bicycle lane, a parking lane, and smaller drive lanes. It's not perfect, but it's better than the last time. I call these type of lanes, Double Edge Swords for you have a space to ride, but when a parked car and a vehicle is passing you, you have no escape route. So if your ever riding down S Main or any other street with this type of paint job, simply ride in the parking lane when there are no parked cars and treat it like a buffered bicycle lane that is currently popping up all over Austin. Take it from me, you'll feel better in doing so, and safer.
Elemndorf out by Woodlawn Lake also got a small improvement, that of a 25 MPH sign and as I was riding down it, I notice that most of the cars were following it too. The bicycle lane with parked cars in it is still there, but the wasted paint it's fading day by day.
New Useless Lanes
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Village Parkway on the far west side off of Culebra Rd is one of these useless bicycle lanes. (Image 22-3) With cars not just parked in it, but it is down a residential street where cars should be traveling at 20 mph instead of the 30 mph posted. To add a touch of stupidity to this useless lane, the neckdown at the corner of Cross Springs and Village Parkway (Image 22-4) was poorly built. You would think that if the city of San Antonio is going to build a traffic calming device, they would do it right in the first place and actually calm (slow) cars, but no, they did not. You see the ideal of having these neckdowns is to slow vehicles while making right turns.
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Now I wouldn't be complaining about the neckdown along with the bicycle lane, (Image 22-4) but since they build it with rainwater runoff being more important than having adequate protection of the cyclist. Common sense should have told the idiot who designed it that cyclist and cars don't mix and should have had a 5ft opening through the neckdown. Or better yet, realize that the bicycle lane is useless in the first place and build the neckdown out to the place where you see the outer stripe of the bike lane, but no, they had to reroute the bike lane around it bring it into close contact with impatient drivers. The good news about all of this is the bicycle lane on Culebra and although I think removing the right traffic lane and putting down a protected cycletrack would be better, it's better than nothing.
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Diana on the East side has one of these useless bicycle lanes. (Image 22-5) It's a very wide street and does nothing for safety of the pedestrians or cyclist. It does however provide a small space for people walking along the east side of the street because the city felt that not having a sidewalk would help people not fall into the ditch that runs along side Diana. There's barely enough traffic along this street to really warrant the width of the street or the bicycle lane there except when the school is ending or starting the day. This bicycle lane doesn't need to be on Diana, but should have been placed on Rigsby where the fast moving traffic on that stroad should have a least a bicycle lane or better yet, a protected cycletrack.
The solutions that I come up are something that the city cannot do because that would slow down cars, and we just can't do that. One of these solutions is changing the law that forces the CMI people to use AASHTO standards which are great for long distance interstates instead of the NATCO (National Association of City Transportation Officials) standards that were developed for urban areas and looking in there to determine how wide the street needs to be because this road surface needs to be narrowed with wide sidewalks along both sides with planted Pecan trees between the sidewalk and the street. This would do wonders for the property values and provide shade along the street along with 25 mile per hour signs would also do good. Maybe a parking lane along the elementary school and the city park would also be good instead of a useless bicycle lane.
Now there are others that I've been considering to be useless such as SW 19th St, Timberhill, Rittiman, and even Semlinger Rd, but I'm not yet to declare these useless because traffic volume is just enough to consider their need, but what's the point, after all people consider this space to better use by parked cars than a space for a cyclist to be. Keep San Antonio Lame.
Images:
22-1: A picture of S Main Ave looking north back in April, 2014
22-2: A picture of S Main Ave looking north back in August, 2014
22-3: A picture of Village Parkway looking west
22-4: A picture of the neckdown at Cross Springs and Village parkway looking east.
22-5: A picture of Diana looking north.
Every two years, Bicycling Magazine creates this list of the 50 top bicycle friendly cities in America published in Oct 2014. We're down to #48 (Image 21-1) from #47 back in July 2012 (Image 21-2). 83 Miles north of us, is the Weird city of Austin, and they're also on the list at #11 from #13 back in 2012 (Image 21-3). Another blogger recently wrote about this in Fit In S.A. saying quote: "The completion of the Mission Reach is one of the reasons San Antonio made it onto the list." That's the only reason why we're even on the list folks because of a "recreational trail" and with B-cycle serving it.
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Don't get me wrong I love the Mission trail, but unlike back in 2012, Bicycling Magazine also mentioned the bicycling community quote: "An emerging cycling-friendly vibe fueled by 1,700 miles bike network of lanes, paths, and sharrows." What the hell happened, oh, that's right, the City council voted for the removal of such a system with only one member, Shirley Gonzales voting to keep it. Also happened was that Boneshakers got it's property cut off by the San Antonio River Authority, and they went out of business at their river location and their Hays Street Bridge location. Cars still park in the cities only cycletrack on Avenue A, and to top it all off, the city don't give a damn about cars parked in your bicycle lane.
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But I don't think it is because of our expanding B-cycle or a completed recreational trail that we made the list, in my own opinion I believe it is the fact that San Antonio has a rich bicycle culture. It is you the people who come out to Frankenbike, Downtown Highlife Bicycle Club Ride , the Zombie ride, and all the other rides in San Antonio. It's bicycle groups like The Wild Dawgs, the Street Ratz and many many more. It's those who get on their bicycle or as I like to say "put the fun between your legs," and ride everywhere just because. You see it every First Friday with people just riding down S Alamo and going to the bicycling friendly places like Alamo Street Eats, and other bicycle friendly places like the Bottom Bracket Social Club.
Recently, Several Stroads where recently repaved in District 1 near downtown. Here on Colorado St, they finish repaving it and repainting it (Image 21-6). According to the Bicycle Master Plan, Colorado St from I-10 to Caesar Chavez (Image 21-5) has a plan for a road diet similar to what was done to S Flores. But as you can see in my recent photo of the place it has the same configuration that makes a stroad a stroad. Hey Mr Bernal, where's the bike lane that you promised? (Image 21-4)
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But lets face the reality here, San Antonio is too stuck behind the wheel of a car to ever envision a Netherlands network of bike paths and Cycletracks or ever have light rail transit. Although the city is constructing a cycletrack in front the Henry B Gonzales Convention Center along I-37, chances are it won't be used like the city ever intended because there's no signs, sharrows, or painted green like you would see on a similar path in Austin (Image 21-7). If things don't start changing, we will not be on the Bicycle Magazine list come 2016 while I'm betting that Austin will be comfortably in one of those top ten positions because they're committed to building more bus stop islands like this one on Guadalupe St (Image 21-7). Keep Austin Weird, Keep San Antonio Lame.
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Images:
21-1: A picture of the Bicycle Magazine October 2014 rating of San Antonio, TX as #48 of one the top 50 Bicycle Friendly Cities in the USA.
21-2: A picture of the Bicycle Magazine July 2012 rating of San Antonio, TX as #47 of one the top 50 Bicycle Friendly Cities in the USA.
21-3: A picture of the Bicycle Magazine October 2014 rating of Austin, TX as #11 of one the top 50 Bicycle Friendly Cities in the USA.
21-4: A Screenshot of my Facebook Re-posting of Diego Bernal's FB posting of how San Antonio has 1,700 miles of bile lanes planned and my friends response to his comment.
21-5: A Screenshot of page 28 of the Bicycle Network PDF of the Bicycle Master Plan.
21-6: Colorado St Looking North one block north of Martin St.
21-7: The Bus Stop Island on the Guadalupe St Cycletrack in Austin, TX.
Sorry for the wait, but as usual my life has been busy. Since I got a new job and my hours have change, I'll be changing the publishing day to Monday or Tuesday every week and I'm still committed to publishing every week.
Also, I'll be creating two new pages, one, of important meetings that cyclist or concern citizens should attend to make San Antonio a real place, and two, one of bicycling related events that are taking place in San Antonio. Streetcar Part III, No Need for Streetcars Down Broadway.
Now lets get one thing strait, I was a streetcar supporter. Why you ask, because even this slow, lousy system would be a plus to our transit system that sucks. It would have gotten some political supporters that "choice users" bring to the transit discussion that San Antonio currently lacks, and most of all, I wouldn't have to worry about a bike rack being full especially on a rainy day for I would be able to take my bicycle aboard and not just the minimum three allowed and most of all, maybe a chance to actually get a protected bike lane on Broadway. I also felt that this was a scheme in Via's long range plan from the former CEO, Keith Parker, now in charge of Atlanta, GA MARTA in which he said, that once you build it, the people are going to change their tune from the current "rail sucks" to "when are you going to bring it to my neighborhood." I felt that after they build it, they would have eventually either expanded the system to include more of the city like out to Loop 410 with faster speeds, or put light rail back on the ballot like back in 2000.
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The more and more I heard about the development results of the streetcar, the more I felt that the goal of the Streetcar was based on the McKinney Ave Streetcar (Image 19-1, 19-2) in the Uptown neighborhood in Dallas which to me seems to be a place a lot like La Cantera. It was the dream of Mayor Hardberger to connect the Pearl with the rest of Downtown and the streetcar would have done that.
Back in September 2013, I went to Dallas to see the new transit service to the largest city that lacks transit service, Arlington, TX; although, what I found was disappointing, I also wanted to ride with the Dallas Critical Mass to get their opinion on how they deal with McKinney Ave Streetcar tracks for which they said they treat it like any other street with lots of pot holes.
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That night as we rode, they took me to a place called the Truck Yard just off of Greenville Ave, and there I discovered a place that was the pinnacle of what good urbanism brings out, a First Friday every night, or at least every weekend. For those of you who don't know what First Friday is, well think of the Pearl Farmers Market is every Saturday morning. It was after that that I finally realize that we don't really need a streetcar to achieve development goal of what the Streetcar promised,(Image 19-3) but what we really need to do is create the foundation of a neighborhood that creates the conditions that makes a really happening place.
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To create that foundation of development that was sought with the Streetcar, we need to fix the problem that is currently found on Broadway or for that matter, the entire downtown where the Streetcar was planned to travel down.
Before the big sidewalks were added, Greenville was much like Broadway is currently. A stroad with fast moving, many lanes of traffic and nothing happening along it. Today, Greenville Ave is a place is much like South Alamo but with super size sidewalks. Even though S Alamo lacks the big sidewalks, the concept is virtually the same, two lanes of slow moving traffic with sidewalks protected by plants or parked vehicles, and a community that is allowed to reinvent itself. Broadway is the opposite of that with fast moving cars, multiple lanes of traffic and tiny sidewalks with no protection from traffic full of obstacles like this bus stop at Fourth and Broadway.(Image 19-4) It's a Stroad in every sense, every space for cars, not much for anything else. We also need to fix the zoning when it comes to new development and make it more flexible, such as no parking minimums with new development.
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You can tell just by looking at the area around Greenville Ave that it's a happening place and not just by the dancing frogs on top of the Taco Cabana.(Image 19-5) The sidewalks that are here use to be vehicle lanes (Image 19-6) and because there's a space for parking the cars along the street, it provides that barrier between the moving vehicle traffic and the pedestrian activity. Here's my 6 minute video of the place across the street from the Trader Joes. In this video you'll see what is making Greenville Ave a great place and what is missing from Broadway, Slow moving Traffic and good sidewalks.
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For this purpose, I'm only going to focus on Broadway and not other stroads that the Streetcar would have went down. Now the Streetcar was planning to go as far north as Josephine St, but for our purposes, we can actually include the part of Broadway as far north as Hildebrand due to the fact that my fixes won't cost $270 million and the fact that the stroad scape is the same. I've divided Broadway into three parts, (Image 19-7) the first part is the Broadway that has 7 lanes, 6 travel and one center turn lane is the Midtown Section. The part goes underneath the freeway I call the 281 section, and finally, the Downtown Section from Jones to Martin, where we have useless sharrows, narrow sidewalks and to the rest of the general public, abandon buildings. (Image 19-22)
Also for the examples, I'll be using cross sections illustrations like the one below which is how Broadway is pretty much designed today.(Image 19-8) All cross sections illustrations will face north and all lanes have been measured by me on the actual stroad in this case, Broadway. Through these cross section illustrations, I'll be demonstrating the possibilities for Broadway and use this same form for other stroads in future posts. In this cross section illustration(Image 19-8) you see the term "bus lane." For our purposes, this is a regular drive lane where you're most likely to see the bus traveling in.
Midtown Section
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The Midtown section starts from Hildebrand Rd and goes to Casa Blanca. I written about this section before in other blogs such as Two accidents that didn't need to happen, and #sasidewalkssuck. Here you have 1 center turn lane, and 6 drive lanes. Much of the 5ft sidewalks in this section live up to the hashtag #sasidewalkssuck. The Streetcar would have made the sidewalks wider along this part of Broadway, at least to Josephine, and perhaps added some parking in what is now that right 10ft lane. To improve Broadway, the cheapest thing we could do to improve this stroad is to turn that right 10ft drive lane into a buffered bike lane or a protected bike lane by poles. (Image 19-9) By doing this we make it feel a little safer to walk and bicycle along by removing the fast moving traffic that is now next to the sidewalk.
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The Problem with this design comes when we get to the bus stop. You see, currently if a Via bus wishes to stop along Broadway with the Cheapest concept in place, it will have to invade the buffered bike lane. So lets add a small bus stop island (Image 19-10) so the cyclist can keep cycling and the bus can stop without having to worry about running over a cyclist.
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But lets face it, if we are to really improve Broadway, the way the streetcar would have done, we're going to have to remove that center turn lane and put down some on street parking. Here (Image 19-11) is what the city should be proposing to this part of Broadway. I call this the "Ideally Concept" where I reduce the number of drive lanes from Current (Image 19-8) six lanes to four lanes. I remove the center turn lane and put that space for parking on the west side of Broadway and made the sidewalks bigger. Now remember, your always looking north on my cross sections illustrations and the reason why I put the parking on the west side, (the Witte Museum side) is because that's the side on which you'll find Brackenridge Park and businesses without on street parking for the most part. I did my measurements for the Midtown Section in front of the Tuk Tuk Taproom,
so all measurements are to that area, however, the Right Of Way,
that's the Government property part of Broadway, gets a little bit bigger
as you go further north so these things could be widen a bit.
19-11
Now to put in the bus stops with the "Ideally Concept," I put in two different versions. On the west side of Broadway, we remove the parking lane and put in a bus stop island with Shelter. (Image 19-12) For the east side, since the bus stops aren't as big like the current bus stop at Lions Field park, I've decided to go with the bus stop island being about 4ft wide.(Image 19-13) This way, no matter what side your on, you'll always have a protected bike lane without having to worry about a bus making a stop in the bike lane.
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Now Traffic flow is important for this Stroad is a major thoroughfare. But we need less of the stroad and more of a famed Boulevard (BLVD) design. So reducing the number of driving lanes from six to four, we reduces the current scene of cars trying to out run each other. By reducing the travel lanes from 6 to 4 and removing the center turn lane, we also reduce the amount of distance a person on foot has to cover when they do cross Broadway from 74ft (Image 19-8) to 44ft (Image 19-12). And with the protected bike lanes, we create a safe place for both person on foot and on bike.
281 Section
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This section as indicated in Image 19-7, is between Casa Blanca and Jones. It's also the section underneath the interchange of I-37/US 281and I-35. In this section, (Image 19-14) you currently have a 5ft bike lane, four 11ft drive lanes and one 10ft center turn lane. Not much improvement needs to be done to this section, for the 5ft bicycle lanes does provide some type of barrier between the traffic and the sidewalk. We could use some wider sidewalks, but as a cyclist, I don't want to give up on my bike lanes. So to do this, we need to remove that 10ft center turn lane and put that 10 ft to the sidewalks and a barrier to make a protected bike lane. We can also put in some Bus Stop Islands with out having to reduce the driving lane width and not having to reduce the walkability.
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Now We've done our improvements to this Section to the street scape, we now have to figure out how to use all this green space underneath the bridges. Has anyone ever thought as this space as a city park? Up until about mid August 2014, there was a small pond that formed underneath one of the bridges (Images 19-17, 19-18) and across the stroad, you'll see a dog park (Image 19-16). Here's my question, why can't we have a bigger dog park that takes advantage of the shade that this exit ramp from I-35N to I-37S bridge produces? And this rain water created pond, back in June and July, I saw several species of birds including a pair of Black Belly Whistling ducks with a family of duckings as well as a Green Heron gorging on tadpoles, and other bug aquatic life. (Image 19-17). Currently the pond has dried up, but given another big rainstorm, it will be back.
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City Parks and open space for that matter has been known for years helps with making people happier and healthier. It's that touch of nature that makes city living better. When we lack green spaces in the form of city parks, gardens and trails, we make our communities just a little bit of a dimmer place to be in and take it from me, San Antonio lacks a lot of parks for people to play and relax in.
Downtown Section
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This is where the Streetcar would have served the entire section. It is also the section where even though we are pretty much in downtown, we have a bunch of abandoned buildings, or at lest to the general public, they are abandoned.(Image 19-21) It's also the section where we would have seen most of the development that the streetcar promised to delivered.(Image 19-3) But look at what is wrong with it right now, you have an abandoned street scape with narrow sidewalks, useless sharrows (Image 19-22) with places that nobody goes to unless they work there. It's pretty much a dump even though it's like two blocks from the Riverwalk Museum Reach. Now the cheapest thing we could do to improve this section of Broadway is to remove that god awful 16ft lane with the useless sharrow/parking lane (Image 19-20) and bring back the bicycle lane, but that would make it somewhat safer for us cyclist, but that's it. (Image 19-23) And this stretch of Broadway use to have bike lanes, but somebody thought that parking was more valuable, but go there on any day of the week, and tell me, who in the hell is parking on Broadway because for the most part, I barely see two vehicles, maybe three. If Spock from Star Trek said that "the needs of the many, outweigh the needs, of the few," wouldn't a painted bike lanes serve more people instead of just three or four individuals with parking spaces for a car?
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Now I don't know what the street scape was going to look like with a streetcar, but my general feeling it would have looked something like this, with improved wider sidewalks.(Image 19-23)
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Now we just don't need Improved sidewalks, we also need a zoning ordinances that will encourage the type of development that the streetcar would have brought, but before we play with the zoning ordinances, we need to make it a more comfortable place to be walking.
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We have 76ft to play with, and we could do a whole bunch of designs, but this is where I cannot decide what is the best choice for the Downtown Section of Broadway. So the question should be asked, do you want Broadway to have flowing traffic, or do you want it to be like Greenville Ave in Dallas? You have to remember, Broadway is one of those important corridors for the city for it is sandwich between a freeway, and a military base. Now in all of my Cross Sections, I have a protected bicycle lane and that's simply because protected bike lanes bring out cyclist and reduce injury risk by 90% and from my experience of riding the one in Austin on Guadalupe St, it's way nicer than riding in traffic with useless sharrows.
The reason why they took out those bike lane in the first place back in 2011, was because there was no on street parking. Well if parking is really that necessary, then this is how The Downtown Section of Broadway should be designed. It should be designed with a Center Turn lane, two drive lanes and two parking lanes on both sides, but this design keeps the sidewalks living up to the hashtag #sasidewalkssuck.
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Now here's the question, do we need parking for both sides of Broadway? If we do, then the concept you see above (Image 19-25) is what we're going to get, but if we want wider sidewalks and keep the traffic flowing, we're going to need to keep the center turn lane, and we're going to need to remove a parking lane from one side of the street. The question is, which side should that be on? For my suggestion, lets put it on the east side of Broadway and add that space that we've taken away from the parking, to the bike lanes and sidewalks. And because we've added space to the sidewalks, lets plant some trees which are lacking right now on this part of Broadway.(Image 19-26)
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For the Bus stops, let's add the 4 ft bus stop islands on either side, only this time when we put it on the east side, we put the bus parking place where the parking lane is. On the West side, I simply added a bus stop island allowing for vehicles to pass in the center turn lane like they do currently on S Flores where the city council voted to remove the lanes.(Image 19-27) We don't want to switch the traffic lanes from one side to the other block by block for that would create some confusion on where to drive and it will create some bad politics that we've experience like before with S Flores.
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I've just showed you how we could improve Broadway with simply changes the way we lay out the street design for Broadway. Now remember, this isn't enough, we also have to change the zoning ordinances so we can allow the development to come from the ground up and we also have to leave room for traffic flow. This is possible, but as long as we have an unwillingness to allow transformation, slowing down vehicle speeds, and putting people on foot and bicycles first over personal motor vehicles, we'll never see a great place that could be Broadway.
Images
19-1: McKinney Ave Streetcar Stop in front of the Starbucks at 3699 McKinney Ave looking Southeast
19-2: McKinney Ave Streetcar Cityplace Station looking west.
19-3: Via Metropolitan Transit Streetcar advertisement claiming about the streetcar developments it would have brought to Downtown. 19-4: Via Metropolitan Transit Bus Stop at the corner of Broadway and Fourth looking north.
19-5: The Taco Cabana at 1827 Greenville Ave, Dallas Texas looking South
19-6: The View of the large Sidewalks on Greenville Ave at Prospect Ave looking south.
19-7: Google Satellite View of Broadway with illustrations showing the different sections of Broadway.
19-8: Cross Section Illustration viewing North on Broadway that is between Casa Blanca and Hildebrand
19-9: Cross Section Illustration viewing North on Broadway having the right drive lane turned into a buffered bicycle lane (Right) or a protected bike lane (Left) 19-10: Cross Section Illustration viewing North on Broadway with a bus stop island being placed over the Buffered Bicycle lane. 19-11: Cross Section Illustration Viewing North on Broadway. The Ideally Concept with 4 lanes of traffic, 1 parking lane, two 6ft protected bicycle lane and 7 1/2 ft of sidewalks on either side. 19-12: Cross Section Illustration Viewing North on Broadway. The Ideally Concept with the Bus stop island on the west side of Broadway.
19-13: Cross Section Illustration Viewing North on Broadway. The Ideally Concept with the bus stop on the East Side of Broadway.
19-14: Cross Section Illustration Viewing North on Broadway that is between Casa Blanca and Jones.
19-15: Cross Section Illustration Viewing North on Broadway. The Ideally Concept with Protected bicycle lanes and bus stop islands.
19-16: The Dog Park at the corner of Broadway and Roy Smith St looking Northwest.
19-17: The Pond During July underneath the bridge with a family of Black Bellied Whistling Ducks and a Green Heron. Viewed from Broadway eastward. 19-18: The Pond At around August 10, 2014. Viewed from Broadway eastward.
19-19: 3 Cyclist riding southbound in the bike lane on Broadway underneath 281 looking North.
19-20: Cross Section Illustration Viewing North on Broadway between Martin St and Jones.
19-21: Picture of one of the buildings that looks abandoned at the corner of 6th and Broadway looking West.
19-22: Picture of one of the Sharrows on Broadway in front of the DPT parking garage viewing North
19-23: Cross Section Illustration Viewing North on Broadway between Martin and Jones. My ideal concept on how Broadway would have looked if it added Modern Rail Streetcars.
19-24: A map of San Antonio illustrating how because of Fort Sam Houston and US 281, how Broadway is a "funnel" for traffic into downtown.
19-25: Cross Section Illustration Viewing North on Broadway Between Martin and Jones on how it would look if they removed the 16 ft right lane and turn it into a parking lane with a protected bicycle lane.
19-26: Cross Section Illustration Viewing North on Broadway Between Martin and Jones on the "Ideally Concept" would look like
19-27: Cross Section Illustration Viewing North on Broadway Between Marin and Jones on the "Ideally Concept" would look like with bus stops islands at either side of Broadway.
For once, and it's good to hear, that there were more cyclist than angry motorist. And because of that, they cut the meeting 20 minutes early. I would like to thank all the cyclist that showed up and took time out to show support for the bicycle lane. Since I wasn't able to go and show my support, I asked three people who went and to tell me what they saw.
Louis R, showed up along with almost 70 supporters of the bicycle lane. Like him, bike lane supporters warned the crowds that were there for the removal of the bicycle lanes that the cyclist aren't going away. He heard from the pro-driving crowd that the lanes are unsafe and that they aren't able to drive fast anymore. Like many others, feels that removing the bicycle lanes is an act of going backwards, not going forward. He also pointed out that the manager of La Fiesta complains about the bicycle lanes but normally sees at least two bicycles in front of the store. He told me that maybe the manager should embrace the new lanes and stop complaining about them.
John G also attended the meeting and he uses these lanes every day. He lives off of Nogalitos and after being run off the road twice on that street, he now goes out of his way and ventures. He also provided the pictures so in the comment section, please say thanks. ;) He said that the manager of La Fiesta is blaming the wrong thing. He told me that he should be blaming HEB for fewer people going to his grocery store instead of the bicycle lanes. He also mention the crossing Guard to Morrill Elementry who spoked. He told me that she
was very concerned about the traffic build up and would rather have
more traffic flow. But over all she wanted all to be safe. But she does enjoy the cyclist using the bike lanes.
7.2
7.3
7.4
Jenny A was also in attendance at the meeting. She doesn't live in the are, but would like to live with in the center of the city. She feels that the alternative route presented at the meeting is a way of the city of San Antonio to indirectly saying to it's citizens that you must own a car. She saw several people speak including a cyclist who came up to the microphone and said that he goes to La Fiesta, and that store stuck before the bicycle lanes came in. She was also at the meeting in April and told me that this time the people in attendance were for the bicycle lanes than against. She also said that she barely heard about the last meeting where back in April, only a small group showed up in support of the bicycle lane. She also mentioned a old man who spoke in April and
From what I concur from everyone, that this time, a lot of people showed up, brought their bicycles into the cafeteria where the meeting was being held and out numbered the naysayers two to one. Many of you are apart of the Monday night Zombie Club bicycle ride, and thanks for showing up. Many of you pointed out that we cyclist aren't going away and if there's no bicycle lane, we'll be using the full lane.
7.5
But here's my question, such an important meeting for the city and the future of bicycle lanes in the city of San Antonio, why wasn't this meeting posted in the events calendar for the Transportation & Capital Improvement site? Since the beginning of this, it seems that people within the city government wanted to keep these meeting under the radar from the cycling community. I heard from my friend Lydia last year that when she attended the very first meeting on these bicycle lanes, she was one of only two people showing support for these lanes. According to her, she only heard about the meeting at the last minute. And ever since then, it seems that the city has intentionally kept these meeting from the public. Just look at this picture from March, 2014 (Image 7.4), as you can see you can see the posting of the meeting for S Flores on March 17th. But in April (Image 7.5) and May (Image 7.6), you see no mention of such a meeting at Morrill Elementary.
7.6
Now I have no proof other than the pictures I have posted of the Transportation & Capital Improvements (TCI) event calendar that elements of the city tried to keep these meetings under raps. Now the meetings I've posted come from this page and I can only wonder if more cyclist come to these meetings, that will I see these events not come up anymore. Because at these meetings, this is where we get the public input on these projects. This is democracy in action at these meetings and if you don't get your voice in, then your concerns will go unanswered.
The next thing that everyone should do now is contact their council member either by Phone, email or Facebook, and tell them that they should not vote for the removal of the bicycle lanes. That removing the bicycle lanes is a step in the wrong direction. I personally am going to contact my member and tell them that removing the bicycle lanes is an act of Keeping San Antonio Lame. For all those who vote for removing the bicycle lanes, I will personally point that out constantly during election time next year and present a chart similar to what Terri Hall from the Toll Party has in the next election cycle.
Here are some fact that you should mention to your council member when calling them or emailing them:
S.
Flores is a major traffic corridor that doesn't belong to any one
neighborhood. As such, to allow any one neighborhood to dictate the way
traffic flows along this citywide thoroughfare is inherently unjust.
The
local residents claim the bike lanes make the street unsafe. However
since the road diet, traffic accidents have been reduced along the
stretch of roadway in question.
The city's own traffic engineering studies show the road diet did not adversely affect traffic flow.
The
proposed alternate bike lanes require the spending of anywhere from
$480k to $700k to implement and will result in a bike lane that too
closely parallels the existing Mission Trail, rendering it largely
useless due to its proximity to the much safer off road trail.
Instead,
spend that $480k+ on left turn arrow lights at key intersections. This
is truly the only legitimate complaint local residents have.
The
road diet was part of the city's master plan which was adopted after
lengthy public input over the course of three+ years. Its purpose is to
create more, useful and safer multimodal traffic corridors across the
ENTIRE city.
Such
corridors are designed to REDUCE automobile-centric dependency over the
longterm, which results in reduced automobile traffic by encouraging
walking and cycling for shorter trips. Such activity is in line with
both the Mayor's fitness AND clean air campaigns.
And Thank You George L. for these suggestions.
According to the Express News article, the City Council will hear about the bike lanes on May 29th. If any event comes along. I'll be keeping you informed.
The proposal is to be rerouted a mile and a half away from S Flores to Mission Rd. As for boycotting La Fiesta, well inner city neighborhoods now a days lack grocery stores but if the lanes get removed, well I guess having a lousy grocery store go out of business might be a good thing. I'll feel sorry for the residence who will have to travel further to get food.
Ivy R. Taylor, City Council District 2: Constituent Office
Eastside Office
4458 E. Houston St.
San Antonio, TX 78220
Field Office Line: 210.207.0950
Northeast Office
4351 Rittiman Rd
San Antonio, TX 78218
Field Office Line: 210.207.0970 Email: district2@sanantonio.gov
REBECCA J. VIAGRAN, CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 3 Constituent Office 3319 Sidney Brooks, Bldg. 510 San Antonio, TX 78235 Field Office Line: 210.207.0969 Email: district3@sanantonio.gov
REY A. SALDAÑA, CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 4 Constituent Office
5102 Old Pearsall Road
San Antonio, TX 78242
Field Office Line: 210.207.0880 Email: district4@sanantonio.gov
Shirley Gonzales, CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 5
Nogalitos Field Office Office
3226 Nogalitos, Suite 102
San Antonio, TX 78225
Phone: 210.207.0960
Fax: 210.207.0963
Ray Lopez, City Council District 6 Constituent Office
Culebra Crossing
8373 Culebra Road, Suite 202
San Antonio, TX 78251
Office Line: 210.207-DSIX (3749)
Fax Line: 210.207.0985 Email: district6@sanantonio.gov
CRIS MEDINA, CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 7 Centerview Field Office
Finesilver Building
4414 Centerview Dr., Suite 160
San Antonio, TX 78228
Office Line: 210.207.0870
Mainland Field Office
7976 Mainland Rd.
San Antonio, TX 78250
Office Line: 210.207.0855
Fax Line: 210.207.0859
Email: district7@sanantonio.gov
Ron Nirenberg, City Council District 8 Constituent Office
Colonnade Centre Building
9830 Colonnade Blvd. Suite 165
San Antonio, TX 78230
Office Line: 210.207.0943 Email: district8@sanantonio.gov
JOE KRIER, CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 9 Constituent Office
16500 San Pedro, Suite 290
San Antonio, TX 78232
210.207.0955 Email: district9@sanantonio.gov
Mike Gallagher, City Council District 10 Constituent Office
Catholic Life Building
1635 NE Loop 410 Ste. 604
San Antonio, TX 78209
Field Office Line: 210.207.0999
Fax Line: 210.207.0994
Email: district10@sanantonio.gov
Cycle In-Cinema . When: Every Thursday, June-August at Dusk, 8:45pm Where: Main Plaza, 115 N Main Ave, 78205 Description: Out Door Movie. If you have any event you want me to post about, please email me. Up Coming Important Meetings If you want to make a difference, please attend.
VIA’s South/West Corridor Study Public Meeting When: Tuesday May 20, 2014 6:00PM Where: Harlandale Community Center, 301 Sussex, 78221
When: Thursday May 22, 2014 6:00PM Where: The Neighborhood Place 3014 Rivas St, 78228
When: Wednesday, May 21, 2014 3pm to 6pm Where: Madla Transit Center
When Wednesday, May 21, 2014 6AM To 9AM Where Crossroads Park & Ride
Description: VIA is conducting a study to identify transit improvements along the South/West Connector
Corridor in the San Antonio region. The corridor study area includes Military Drive from
IH-37 on the east to General McMullen on the west; and General McMullen and Zarzamora
from Military drive on the south to Fredericksburg Road on the north. More info can be found here: http://www.viainfo.net/Planning/Corridor.aspx
What Should You Say?You
should ask for more frequency on the
crosstown routes and bicycle racks called bikelids at bus stops to
provide safe places to park your bicycle. If you want an example what
I'm talking about, look at the image to your right or visit Dallas Area Rapid Transit Bicycle Information page .
Also ask that via look into creating bus islands so the bike lane can go
around a busy stop. Via has only one of these lids at Medical Center Transit Center.
6.11
Another important meeting people should be attending
is City's Budget Meetings for fiscal year 2015. I don't know about you,
but we could sure use a lot more money than just a lousy million
dollars to bike lanes and sidewalks.http://sanantonio.gov/budget
Community Budget Work Sessions
When: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 6:00pm
Where: St Bonaventure Catholic Church 1918 Palo Alto Rd, San Antonio, TX
When: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 6:00pm
Where: University United Methodist Church 5084 DeZavala Rd, San Antonio, TX
When: Wednesday May 21, 2014 6:00pm
Where: Northeast Service Center Tool Yard 10303 Tool Yard, San Antoni, TX
When: Thrusday, May 22, 2014 6:00pm
Where: TriPoint Grantham Center 3233 N St Mary's St, San Antonio, TX
What Should You Say?
Demand that the city provide more money for bicycle lanes, cycletracks,
reducing speeds through neighborhoods, sweeping bicycle lanes and
sidewalks. http://sanantonio.gov/budget
Open House - Improvements to US 90 from Loop 1604 to I-410
Where: Mary Lou Fisher Elementary School Cafeteria, 3430 Barrel Pass, San Antonio, TX 78245
When: Tuesday, May 27, 2014, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Description: TxDOT invites you to an open house on proposed improvements for US 90
From Loop 1604 to I-410. The project staff will be on hand to answer
questions and provide information. No formal presentation will be given.
Attendees are invited to come and go at their convenience.
Proposed improvements along US 90 from LP 1604 to I-410 on the west side
of San Antonio are designed to improve operations and safety along this
section of US 90. The proposed improvements include:
Conversion of the two-way frontage roads to one-way operations
Relocation of entrance and exit ramps
Intersection improvements
What Should you say? Ask for bicycle lanes/Shoulder or a
mix use sidewalk along the proposed Frontage roads and Safe bicycle
lanes that stay to the right of the lane intersection. Also ask for
these types intersections called "Protected Intersections" so they can
become safer for all users. https://vimeo.com/86721046
Bronco Lane Bridge Project Public Meeting When: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 6:30 PM Where: Virginia Gill Community Center, 7902 Westshire Drive, San Antonio, TX
What Should You Say? Ask that the Bridge has a minimum 6ft width sidewalks across with 25mph speed limits. No need for bicycle lanes. contact: Peter Rodriguez at 207-8154
Shaenfield Road Bridge Public Meeting
When: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 6:00 PM Where: Burke Elementary School Cafeteria, 10111 Terra Oak, San Antonio, TX
When: Tuesday, June 3, 2014 7:00PM Where: Burke Elementary School Cafeteria, 10111 Terra Oak, San Antonio, TX
What Should you Say?
Ask that the Bridge Contain 6ft bicycle lanes on either side with
extra stripping between the bicycle lane and the traffic as well as 6ft
sidewalks. Also ask them to remove the Turn Center lane and add that
space to the sides of the rd for bicycle lanes. Also Ask that they
abide by the Bicycle Master Plan as well. contact: Peter Rodriguez@ 207-8154 Frio City Sidewalks Public Meeting When: Thursday, May 29, 2014 6:00 PM Where: Collins Garden Branch Library 200 N. Park, San Antonio, TX
What Should you Say?
Ask that the Sidewalks are at least 6ft wide with neckdowns at every
intersection on the streets that connect with Frio City Rd. Demand that
a protected Bicycle lane is also added and that they abide by the
Bicycle Master Plan. If parking is added, demand that they put in the
parking as a barr.ier so that the bicycle lane is along the curb, and
the parking is a natural barrier to the bicycle and sidewalks.
Also ask for these types intersections called "Protected Intersections" so they can become safer for all users. https://vimeo.com/86721046 contact: Peter Rodriguez at 207-8154
West Huisache Project Public Meeting When: Monday, June 02, 2014 6:00 PM Where: Young Women's Leadership Academy 2123 W. Huisache, San Antonio, TX
What Shold you Say?
This time, no bike lanes, this is a neighborhood street. It should
have neckdowns to keep traffic flowing slow with islands and speed
humps. It should also have 25MPH on this street. Putting a bicycle
lane down this street is just a waste of paint. Also ask for these types intersections called "Protected Intersections" so they can become safer for all users. https://vimeo.com/86721046 Contact: Peter Rodriguez@ 207-8154 or David Pulido @ 207-8128
Bandera & Eckhert and Bandera & Tezel/Prue Public Meeting
When: June 5, 2014 6:30 PM
Where: Maverick Branch Library, 8700 Mystic Park, San Antonio, TX
What Should you Say? Demand that the city follows the guidelines that were lay down in the Bicycle Master plan. Also demand that they build the "Protected Intersections" at protectedintersections.com so this area can become safe for all road users.https://vimeo.com/86721046 And ask for sidewalks too. contact: Peter Rodriguez at 207-8154
