Doing Commuter Rail Right Part I

I would like to admit that I was wrong about something.  In my post Streetcar IV: The Future of Rail in SA, mentioned that if any rail transit would be built in San Antonio, it would be along the rail line that parallels I-10 on the northwest side.  Well it looks to be that I was wrong, for now there's talk about actually building the Austin/San Antonio Commuter Rail and the city council approved the money for the project back in August.

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Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for this project and whatever the outcome may be, I will be using it and encouraging everyone else to use it if only to encourage people to see what a proper protected bike lane should look like. In the end, it's not like it's going to be a great success. Now I'm going to put this in a two part series. In this blog post, I'll be focusing on the train operations.

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If you ever rode the DART light rail in Dallas, or any of the other rail transit systems in the DFW area, you would know by now that this train takes about 45 minutes to get from the end of the line to downtown. It takes the Trinity Railway Express about an hour to get from Downtown Fort Worth to Dallas Union Station. The train makes stops at all the station along the route. To ride this train, you have to buy a ticket to ride from one of many tickets machines at the station. If you happen to board the train without a ticket, you'll most likely encounter a fare enforcement officer of DART and if you fail to produce a ticket, you'll either get a $150 fine or a warning which I received after failing to produce a day pass I purchased earlier on a DART bus. This same situation also is on the Red Line in Austin.

Now when I was in Chicago, I rode the Metra Electric District train. I purchased my ticket from a ticket machine as I've always done when I went to other cities, but I didn't have to. For as I just finished purchasing my ticket, I almost missed the train. It's a good thing that the conductor saw me and open the door to allow me to get aboard. As I was riding the train to Millennium Park, I came to discover that I could have purchased my ticket from the conductor on-board the train. For the record, the conductor's official title on-board the Metra Electric District is Trainman. 

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Now this train doesn't stop at every single stop along the way. Several stops are bypassed and can be requested when informing the Trainman that you want to stop there. If you happen to be at one of the stations which the Metra Electric District bypass, there's a light you can turn on to signal the train that you want to board.

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The PBS News Hour recently did a story on the DART light rail system in which they mentioned the fact that more people ride the light rail in Houston compared to Dallas, yet Dallas has more miles of track. The reason that the story gave was that Houston's Metro light rail system is built where people already go compared to Dallas DART system which is built along old railroad tracks. The Metra Electric District is also build along a railroad R.O.W., it was built back in the 19th century built along an active class one railroad, Canadian National.

So here's a question, if the goal is to get people to ditch their cars in choice of transit, why can't DART, DCTA,  the Trinity Railway Express (TRE), CapMetro, and now The Lone Star Rail District, (LStar) the name for the Austin/San Antonio Commuter Rail, do what they do on the Metra Electric District?  The way we plan for transit here in Texas seems to go against the reason on why we all drive cars. The way we operate all the rail transit service including the way we're going to operate the LStar, is by having the train stop at every station. This is akin to driving your car along the freeway and stopping at all the gas stations along the way from origin to your destination.

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We punish everyone who fails to buy a ticket either on their smart phone or at a station. Instead of punishing the people who are unable to buy tickets early on, why don't we give them a chance to buy them on the train with a small surcharge fee so they're more likely to use the system again especially if they're running late.

If we're going to operate the LStar the same way the TRE, and every other transit system in Texas operates it's trains, I can say with certainty that only one percent of commuters between Austin and San Antonio will ever use it. If we fail to plan for express trains between Austin and San Antonio, driving will still be the preferred choice. If we make it hard for first timers to use the train, we simply make it harder for other people to choose it. We have a chance to not repeat the mistakes that every other system in Texas has done. We can either learn from their mistakes or keep on doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result; the very definition of Insanity.

If you wish to comment on the future LStar, you can click here. Don't be afraid to leave a link to this blog post.

Images: 

46-1: The DCTA Commuter Train at Downtown Denton Station.
46-2: The Metra Electric District Train at Homewood Station. 
46-3: A Lady hurrying off the Train while The Trainman stands watch at Homewood Station
46-4: DART Light Rail Blue Line Arriving at Garland Station
46-5: TRE Arriving at Fort Worth ITC Station. 

Empty Buses

Some good news is coming to VIA.  Apparently Rey Saldaña’s short dependency on VIA convince him that things needed improvement. So he is proposing that the Advance Transportation District funds that are dedicated to the City, be given to VIA to improve bus service.  It's an awesome plan because one of the main reasons why VIA SUCKS, despite being an incredible system, is that they only receive 1/2 cent sales tax. 

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For those who aren't familiar with the Advance Transportation District, (ATD) it was voted on back in 2004 to raise the sales tax 1/8 cent sales tax for transportation improvements.  Half of the 1/8th cent tax goes to VIA while the other have is further divided between the City of San Antonio and TxDot. Rey Saldaña’s plan is to take the City's portion of this sales tax and give it entirely to VIA to help pay for more bus service. 

Now for the record, I'm all for this, with VIA having more money to spend, they can increase the frequency of some of their routes and even speed up the process of buying new buses. But despite the improved service, there's a simple flaw, you're going to have more empty buses. 

You see there's a reason why service sucks for the people of District 4, and that is because when you have empty buses in the first place, the people in charge tend to either remove those resources entirely or put those resources into other ares.  Now just because Saldaña wants to improved the frequency of some bus routes doesn't mean that more people are going to ride the bus, it means that those like myself who depend on VIA, we're going to get more options and less time at the bus stop.

There are many reasons why people don't ride the bus. I mention those reasons last year when I wrote about the Streetcar project.  It is a simple fact that the majority of San Antonio gets around by car and no matter how much you increase that service, those people aren't going to choose to ride the bus.  I have met people who cannot comprehend getting around San Antonio without a car and when they lose that car, they basically become prisoners in their own home. I cannot understand why such a person would choose to remain a prisoner despite having some type of bus service that would help them get access to the wider world.  Now this happens all the time and it's been my experience that this refusal to use VIA seems to be with the majority of San Antonio when they become car less. 

The main reason why public transit bus service pretty much sucks throughout North America is because we get empty buses.  Despite what you might hear about buses being superior to rail because it's "Flexible."  Well always remember that the bus's flexibility is also the biggest weakness to buses for buses are so flexible, that they can be removed from service tomorrow.  And that what pretty much happens across the country.  When buses start carrying less and less people, the politicians and the naysayers against public transit start pointing out how a waste of money it is to operate all those empty buses and thus the service starts to dwindle.  At first, its just one or two buses removed from a 30 minute frequency to every hour.  Because the service is less reliable, fewer people ride it, thus more service is cut and it becomes an endless spiral to where there's less and less service to in the end, there's none. 

And That is my fear, we're for a short time are going to get improved service, but when that improvement isn't being utilized by the general public, it will eventually be cut.  And that is something I don't want to happen.  There's a reason why I call Transit Dependent people like myself Hostage Users, it is because we're a hostage to the decisions of people who drive cars and those people for the most part, don't think of the consequences when they remove bus service because of that service having empty buses. 

If  Rey Saldaña and the rest of the city council can allow to have empty buses for the next ten years, then I'm all for giving the city's share of the ATD to VIA.  But if he and the rest of the City council wants more people to ride the bus, well I suggest that he makes the bus fare free for the residence and make the tourist and others who are not residences of San Antonio pay for their bus rides. I wrote about this on how we could improve VIA especially providing free bus rides for the citizens of San Antonio for it was number 6 on my list.  

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Now in Gilbert Garcia's Story in the Express News (Image 45-1) mentions that there's some city staffer's who are resistant to  Rey Saldaña’s idea and that's because the city lacks funding to pay for roads and sidewalks.  The reason why we have such a shortfall of funding is because  we don't utilize our tax base efficiently enough.  If you want to understand this more, I recommend that you take an hour of your time and watch the presentation of Joe Minicozzi at the Strong Towns Memphis Boot Camp (Video Above) for he'll explain why cities across the nation has such a shortfall in providing for transportation and other civic services we all take for granted.



 







Images:
45-1:  An image of  Rey Saldaña’s waiting for the bus in the rain from the SA Current. http://media1.fdncms.com/sacurrent/imager/u/blog/2447710/10494822_982330635112615_1703404577049168581_n.jpg?cb=1434657782
45-2:  Screenshot of of Gilbert Garcia's story.  Remember you need a subscription to read the entire article. http://www.expressnews.com/news/news_columnists/gilbert_garcia/article/Salda-a-s-plan-could-soften-S-A-s-bus-stop-6599428.php

The Latest Useless Bike Lane

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. 

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Images:
43-1:   The protected Bicycle lane on Arsenal between the San Antonio River and S Main Looking East.
43-2:   The chart that Mikael Colville-Andersen created can be found on his blog:  http://www.copenhagenize.com/2013/04/the-copenhagenize-bicycle-planning-guide.html

One Year later, no changes

Last Year as I started this blog, I wrote about how two accidents that didn't need to happen.  One was Jose Carlos Macy who died across from the HEB on W Commerce and Calaveras and another Chase White on Broadway right before Hildebrand.  One year late nothing has changed, these  stroads are still terrible places to ride your bicycle.

Jose Carlos Macy was riding home along the 5ft bicycle lane on W Commerce St when two people decided to turn W Commerce into a race way.  People are unaware that when they're driving, the size of the lane that they're traveling in will either encourage or discourage speeding and the wider the lane, the more accidents are likely to happen.  W commerce St has two 12 ft lanes and only 5ft for a bicycle lane on the left hand side while the right hand side is 9ft wide.(Image 42-1)  When I'm going down this stroad, I am always riding in the right shoulder because you have 9ft to use.  There's rarely parked cars and for the most part, I don't have an issue with VIA buses stopping at the bus stops. 

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Now about two years ago, I complained about this very issue to the BMAC at one of their bike nights and I recommended that they keep the current design but move the bicycle lane over to the right side of the stroad.  I spoke about this before this tragedy took place.  Well they recently repainted both Buena Vista W Commerce St and you guessed it, they kept the same dangerous design. Just another example that the city don't really care for you riding your bicycle unless it's for recreation.

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Here's my suggestion on what they should do to both Buena Vista and W Commerce St.(Image 42-2) But they won't because cars would have to stop behind a VIA bus we can't have a car be slowed down.

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Ben White was riding home northbound on Broadway when a guy in an oversize pickup truck struck him and drove away.  Since then, the Construction has ended and what they left behind was 12ft travel lanes and no bicycle lanes.  Ben White was lucky, he's still alive and there's talk about improving Broadway, but don't count your blessings for if the history of the city's action are any indications, they'll keep the oversize stroad, in favor of my common sense suggestion that I publish back in August 2014.(Image 42-3, 42-4) Worse yet, there's talk about removing the protected bicycle lane behind Sams Burger Joint to put in parking.  Again, these actions goes to show that an unoccupied vehicle is more important than providing a safe place to ride. If this action is not with the saying Keep San Antonio Lame, I don't know what is.  

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Now I've been talking about to people who got into car crashes while on their bicycles.  Many told me how SAPD virtually does nothing to catch the terrible driver and don't expect the hammer to come to your rescue.  I've been told by those on bicycles who got hit by cars end up being told by such law firms that their cases aren't worth it.  Even worse, a slap on the wrist is pretty much what the perpetrator gets for injuring or even committing involuntary manslaughter. 

The latest victim is a cyclist that was hit last month at the corner of Fredricksburg Rd and N Flores.  The driver ran a red light and hit her and simply drove off.  So far as I understand it, they haven't even caught the guy who thought it was more important to get to where he was going fast than a value of a person life.  Her name is Devona, and she could use your assistance.  Her family has set up a go fund me site to help pay for her medical bills.  http://www.gofundme.com/d-rod   They are still pretty short of their $4000 goal so please donate a dollar. 



As my new job keeps me away from San Antonio and time from writing this blog, I'm going to slow down a bit and keep a post at least once a month and at irregular periods.  My goal is still the same, and I hope that you keep doing what you can do to make San Antonio a better place to ride a bicycle and to Keep San Antonio Real. 

#ride4Devona

A member of our community has recently gotten hit by an careless driver.  Please attend and help her pay her medical bills.  http://www.gofundme.com/d-rod

Sorry for not posting

I am apologizing today for the fact that I've been unable to keep up with this blog.  I'm still dedicated to writing but my job has been keeping me away from San Antonio and away from posting due to the fact that I lack internet access to write and and publish most of the time.  I'm also sorry for not keeping up to date of all the bicycling activities that take place monthly.  Hopefully, my job will allow me to publish my next article soon. Because of my new employment, I will stop publishing the "Whats Happening" and start publishing roughly once a month with the post. 

Until then, Please stay safe, make sure you have your lights on and lots of them. 

SA Voted to Remove Bike Lanes

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After seeing the results of the city election, I couldn't help but notice that those who voted to remove the S Flores bike lanes last year, won the election.  Apparently the only people who vote in San Antonio are old, stuck in cars, and complaining that you are taking up the entire lane while your on your bicycle.  What surprised me the most that Ivy Taylor won enough votes to make it to a run off with Leticia Van De Putt.  So for the next two years, expect no new bicycle lanes unless they serve a useless purpose and more useless Sharrows, (Image 41-1) kiss Uber and Lyft goodbye, and most of all, expect these same politicians to complain about the same transportation issues which is traffic congestion and why can't San Antonio have light rail.

There were also propositions on the ballot as well concerning the buying of property over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone and the continue expansion of the Howard W. Peak Greenway Trail system, both of which passed.  So when they build the expanded trails by your house, you can get a ticket for cycling after hours because it is the safest way to get to work by bicycle after dark.  

Charter Amendments were also voted on including the most famous one, Charter Amendment 1, which required any future light rail system or Streetcar.  I was told by several people from VIA that my story on the Future of Rail in San Antonio was utterly wrong.  After this vote, I will reiterate the fact that my view is the most likely thing we'll ever see of passenger rail transit in San Antonio because the only people who would vote for light rail in San Antonio are the people who live right next to the proposed line just like what happened in Austin.

Another Charter Amendment that was also passed was to provide a salary to the Mayor and City council.  Now your probably thinking that I'm against this and that is farther from the truth.  I might not like who got elected, but I still believe they deserve a paycheck.  All large cities have it, there's no reason why we shouldn't keep paying our officials the same amount that we give for serving on a jury.  That's just not right.