#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. 

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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) 

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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/

#ivotebike2017

It's that time of year folks, when you need to do your civic duty and go out and vote for a new mayor and a city council.  With out your input, I might as well shut down this blog and rely on the lack of reporting by the Rivard Report on this issue.  Where else are you going to read about the removal of a bicycle lane because a developer wanted parking over a safe place to ride your bicycle?

This year, I wanted to target everyone running for office, both mayoral and district council candidates and ask all of them the same questions.  With help from the some of the bicycle groups on Facebook, I chose 11 questions; 8 relating to bicycle, 3 relating to VIA.  Also those who decided to vote to remove the S Flores bicycle lane back in 2014, I decided not to hold that vote against them due to the fact that this is the first asking them about it.  I needed a yes and no answer and some just left the answer blank.  They also left explanation which you can find out by clicking here and clicking on the candidate name.  Also I designed the questions to hold those running for office accountable to their answers. As much as I wanted to ask them about enforcing the 3ft rule, I knew that we as a community couldn't hold them accountable to that.  These questions are the things that I hear about my fellow cyclist and bus riders complain about all the time, getting a ticket riding your bicycle on the sidewalk, not being able to use the Howard Peak Greenways after dark, and VIA needing more buses and routes.

Also I decided to add Incumbent D1 candidate (I) Roberto C. Trevino answers.  His staff sent me the info just to late and because of that, he'll not be on the handout that I made.

I originally had a cutoff date of March 24, 2017, but due to my work and the lack of internet getting in the way of sending reminders, I decided to add one more week to the cutoff because I decided to grade every candidate.  The result is what you and everyone else can go ahead and print out on where each candidate responded.  If they didn't responded, then they're not on the printout, but I have them listed on the City Election 2017: Candidates Position on Cycling with the explanations accessible by clicking on the candidate's name.  Below are and my reason for the questions I chose.  there was going to be 12 questions, but due to room, and being the question that was voted the least priority, I left it out.  It was, are you willing to make 25mph the speed limit of San Antonio unless otherwise posted.

The Bicycle Questions.

A. Will you as Mayor/Councilman implement the Bicycle Master Plan throughout the city/in your district?
This is the biggest complaint I hear, that the city isn't building enough bicycle lanes. They're suspose to update this document every two years, sadly the last updated document that I could find was last updated in 2013. Despite this document not being updated, council members never tell Transportation and Capital Improvements do this plan when repaving streets and stroads. 
So you probably asking how do we make sure that the candidate will actually do this?  Well I cannot do this alone, you are going to have to do this. I'll try to organize a meeting sometime in the fall, if your interested in attending, please contact me sirbikesalto06@gmail.com

B. Will you vote to remove a bicycle lane?
With a supposedly bicycle friendly candidates voting to remove the S Flores Bicycle lane back in 2014, I felt the need to enforce this.  So if by any chance that by voting for a development or to actually remove a bicycle lane, then the next time they run, we'll be holding them accountable despite future promises. This is the reason why you see Rey Saladan

C. Will you make it illegal to park a car in the bicycle lane?

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This is the biggest complaint of all, a car just parking in the bicycle lane because it's not like anyone uses this lane is on a bicycle. Now I'm willing to make exceptions like broken down vehicles of no more than 2 hour and parking in one that is next to a church during church services, but that's it.  If no legislation is passed by the council, then we hold this accountable. 

D. Will you make sure Broadway has a protected bicycle lane from Houston to Hildebrand?
If the Bond passes, then the money is available to build a protected bicycle lane on the city's busiest corridor that people ride their bicycles on.  We have a chance to make sure that Broadway has a protected bicycle lane, even one just 10 feet wide.  Despite what some candidates replied that really they have no say and that is true.  It is not true that they can't influence the mayor or the future district 1 council member. (Image 63.1)

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E. Will you insist on new developments to include bike infrastructure such as a bicycle lane, mix used 10ft paths, and bicycle racks?
After what to the Bicycle lane on Broadway at Jones, I felt the need to add this. (Image 63.2)  If any future development decides to remove a bicycle lane, then we hold accountable the council member.  Lack of any action by the mayor or council with legislation, we hold them accountable.

F. Will you amend Sec. 19-286. Driving or parking on sidewalks prohibited, so people can ride their bicycles on the sidewalk?
When I wrote about this in back in 2014, I really didn't have a answer and thought that since B-cycle was around, that this law won't be enforced.  But alas, I have been hearing recently that people have been getting ticketed for riding their bicycles on the sidewalks.  I see it done all the time and I do it too especially when I need to ride against the flow of traffic.  This is an outdated law and if law enforcement can ride their bicycles without hitting people walking, then the rest of us can do it too.  I'm even will allow the amending of this law that if you hit a pedestrian with your bicycle, then it's the fault of the bicyclist.

G. Do you support a city ordinance that prevents any further Development of park or green space lands for development of sports fields?
This is a question that was recommended to me by people who love to mountain bike in McAllister Park with the recent bond fight to build more baseball fields.  It's not a park that I regularly go to, but even I feel the need to point out that we're losing green-space outside loop 410.

H. Will you either amend or repeal Sec. 22-28. Public parks hours of operation and curfew, so people can use the Howard W. Peak Greenway trails after dark?
This is another complaint I heard from people who live around the Leon Creek Greenway, how they were forced to give up commuting by bicycle because they got ticket for using the safest place to commute by bicycle.  I decided to say hell with the law and broke this law regularly.  The most deadliest thing I encountered wasn't an ax murder but a spider web blocking the path underneath Houston St. (Image 63.3)  I regularly rode past the Eastside Substation with police refueling their vehicles and never once got a ticket.   The worse thing was almost running over a racoon.

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I understand that some parts of the Greenway is private property and I can understand that they will not allow people to use those parts of the greenway after dark.  I got nudged by Park Police not to trespass north of Loop 410 on the Salado Creek trail and found an alternative neighborhood route and rode on the sidewalk doing it. 

VIA Questions

I. Are you willing to look for more funding options to improve and expand VIA bus service?
When I attended a meeting about the system change in 2003, I came across a lady who said the following. "Do you want the money that is spent on bus stop amenities to be spent on more service."  Everyone hand shot up. If you read Empty Buses, it is the biggest complaint that Rey Saldaña, heard when he started riding the VIA bus.  Whether this leads to more funding option, or an increase in the sales tax, I would like the candidates who said yes to this to do their due diligence to find more funding options for VIA.

J. Will you support free bus rides for all residents of SA?
Being the only one asking these questions, I decided to ask my own and this is it.  For the reason behind this question, you'll need to click on the story "The Case for Free Bus Rides."

K. Are you willing to bring Light Rail to a vote?
Read any story lately about bus service, the riders demand that we have light rail.  Now this question isn't about whether you supported light rail, it was whether you are going to bring it to a vote.  I'm not going to argue here why a The mayor of Addison, TX is threatening to leave DART if they don't get light rail by 2025. But if you want to understand why people prefer rail over buses, you can go read Streetcar Part II: Buses aren't Better than Rail. What I wanted to know and Candidate Tony Valdivia for District 8 said it best in his explanation quote: "I am not a fan of light rail at this time as I believe the rapidly changing technology will shortly create a more efficient and economical means of travel. As a representative of the City, I would give the citizens a chance to vote on light rail, if requested. " And that's is the answer that I wanted to see. 


Images:
63.1:  Cross Section of my proposal and with the City proposal for Broadway.
63.2:  The new apartment complex at Jones and Broadway showing that parking was build over the existing bicycle lane.  The proposal that was told that the bicycles would be on the sidewalk.  This pictures shows how dangerous it would be for cyclist getting off of the sidewalk back onto the bike lane.
63.3:  A picture of a spiderweb blocking the Salado South creekway underneath Houston Street.