Public Transit Ideas for SA...

[8ft.tall.tejano]

...i heard that VIA is going to have another rate hike in January, instead of just having a vote on a sales tax increase and i just wanted to see if anyone else had any ideas for changes we could make to the public transit system in SA...

i just think that its sooooo wrong to increase the rate when so many of the city's citizens depend on via to get to work/school especially when the price of oil is dropping....

...aside from doing more to stop the sprawl in this town, i was thinking.........monorail? what do you think? any other ideas?

[Nbadan]

- a monorail could work in combination with VIA, but they shouldn't compete against each other....the buses could work the residential areas from the monorail stations that carry passengers quickly and efficiently to major hubs throughout the city...that doesn't mean that cross-city buses should stop, or at least not until people got used to the convenience of riding the monorail....what it does mean is that monorail stations would need to be convenient and close to home and maybe some shopping....unfortunately, that would require a immediate subsidy from the government till it turned profitable, but with improvements to hubs, efficiency in advertising and word of mouth leading to higher ridership rates, the project could be profitable within 5-10 years, maybe for residential tax cuts for community easements for monorail construction and future improvements, studies, etc....

[8ft.tall.tejano]

- a monorail could work in combination with VIA, but they shouldn't compete against each other....the buses could work the residential areas from the monorail stations that carry passengers quickly and efficiently to major hubs throughout the city...that doesn't mean that cross-city buses should stop, or at least not until people got used to the convenience of riding the monorail....what it does mean is that monorail stations would need to be convenient and close to home and maybe some shopping....unfortunately, that would require a immediate subsidy from the government till it turned profitable, but with improvements to hubs, efficiency in advertising and word of mouth leading to higher ridership rates, the project could be profitable within 5-10 years, maybe for residential tax cuts for community easements for monorail construction and future improvements, studies, etc....

now thats a smart response...the reason i said monorail to begin w/is that we could never have a sub in a city whose water supply is beneath us...but something like a monorail or maybe a maglev connect b/t austin and sa and all the smaller suburbs that meet near where major bus terminals are...i doubt it would ever be profitable, even is ridership was at near-India train levels...but i do think something needs to happen fast or else we would be spread out like houston and those that don't have cars would be screwed.

[Smackie Chan]

Not to piss off Buddy Holly but San Antonio is being run by Morons so it doesn't really matter what idea Einstein himself comes up with,there will be plenty of bags in this town to find a way to things up.

[Nbadan]

I think Hardberger has done a decent job.....public health and safety should be priority #1 for a city leader....then transportation....

[exstatic]

Monorails are EXPENSIVE, and frankly, an eyesore, blocking views wherever they are. Also, you can rule out a MAGLEV train any time in the next 50 years. They need their own VERY EXPENSIVE type of tracks, and since Texans seem to be allergic to taxes, you can scratch that, too.

The best bet is this short light rail proposed from Downtown/Southtown to The Rim. The track exists already, and the current railroad is about to abandon it. For the cost of some passenger rolling stock and the building of some stations, you've got yourself a light rail. It would be relatively low cost, and it has a built in clientele from the start that will use it all day: UTSA students going from campus to campus.

[MannyIsGod]

WTF? Monorail? How about we start off with a light rail. We could easly build a subway here but it would be pretty re ed to do so and it has nothing to do with the water and everything to do with San Antonio having plenty of room above ground.

[Nbadan]

How about we start off with a light rail

....that's what I've seen in other cities....they look like buses on rail, so they would be on the less-expensive side of things, plus if we could find the best use combination to reduce emissions and that is a payment on a debt we have yet begun to pay....

[Desert Plains]

How about we let someone from Chicago run this town for the next 8 years?

[Buddy Holly]

VIA has put BRT on hold and is re-explorering light rail so let's just wait and see what they come up with.

[Buddy Holly]

Fyi, if you're not too familiar with Bus Rapid Transit, here's VIA's BRT page.

http://www.viabrt.net

In my opinion, look for BRT to get the axe in favior of LRT (light rail) or VIA may roll out with both BRT and LRT (which would be the best thing).

[fyatuk]

Meh. VIA sucks, period. Need to get someone else to plan their routes to be more useful and get more large transfer points where a bunch of lines meet. VIA already gets the lion's share of .5% sales taxes or so, so I'm opposed to any rate hikes from them.

Then again, I quit riding VIA like 15 years ago because they absolutely blew, except when it came to large event planning (park and ride service to games, fiesta specials, etc). My friend assures me they still suck, however.

[xrayzebra]

How about we let someone from Chicago run this town for the next 8 years?

You gonna have someone from Chicago running things for the next four
years anyhow. San Antonio and your life. His name is O B A M A, the
most worshipful master and messiah. FDR II.

[exstatic]

Fyi, if you're not too familiar with Bus Rapid Transit, here's VIA's BRT page.

http://www.viabrt.net

In my opinion, look for BRT to get the axe in favior of LRT (light rail) or VIA may roll out with both BRT and LRT (which would be the best thing).

The problem with rolling out both is that the selected routes are too close. The BRT is supposed to run from downtown, up Fredericksburg road to the Med center, The light rail is supposed to run from Southtown up to The Rim, essentially paralleling the BRT route. Now, if they put the BRT somewhere else, like maybe the San Pedro/281 corridor or somewhere in the Austin highway/I35 corridor, then it might work, since they'd be serving two different major traffic arteries.

[tonylongoriafan]

if everyone just drives bigger trucks and suvs, the streets wouldn't be crowded with all of these small crappy rice rockets!

[8ft.tall.tejano]

[/QUOTE]

if the train was above ground like that it would be perfect, while also utilizing some of the existing rail es that we have across town...so it would save the expense of building a monorail...

The problem with rolling out both is that the selected routes are too close. The BRT is supposed to run from downtown, up Fredericksburg road to the Med center, The light rail is supposed to run from Southtown up to The Rim, essentially paralleling the BRT route. Now, if they put the BRT somewhere else, like maybe the San Pedro/281 corridor or somewhere in the Austin highway/I35 corridor, then it might work, since they'd be serving two different major traffic arteries.

i think the BRT is a cop out...poorly planned too...we can't increase ridership if we just focus on areas where we already know people will ride...we need to think bigger than just going out to the rim...incorporating the suburbs as well...put a train to boerne, new braunfels/san marcos, spring branch, floresville, poteet, castroville, seguin, etc...that way it would encourage those that want to live out in suburbia to do so w/o sprawling out SA more...it would take congestion away from those who comute, and would still have stops on major arteries in the city which would then connect to bus stops....all brt would do is put more frequent congestion on heavily traveled roads that have a heavy bus ridership...we need something thats not road based to leave the road to cars........

Meh. VIA sucks, period. Need to get someone else to plan their routes to be more useful and get more large transfer points where a bunch of lines meet. VIA already gets the lion's share of .5% sales taxes or so, so I'm opposed to any rate hikes from them.

Then again, I quit riding VIA like 15 years ago because they absolutely blew, except when it came to large event planning (park and ride service to games, fiesta specials, etc). My friend assures me they still suck, however.

via is really effecient as long as you don't work late nights and live inside of 410/or medical center...if you don't then it's been my expierence that you have to wait anywhere between 45 min to an hour at off peak times for a bus...all the large transfer points are where there are more riders...why would they build one in stone oak?

[CubanMustGo.]

You gonna have someone from Chicago running things for the next four
years anyhow. San Antonio and your life. His name is O B A M A, the
most worshipful master and messiah. FDR II.

Move on...............

[MannyIsGod]

VIA is extremely effective. It doesn't blow at all. Even on days when i drive to school as opposed to taking the bus, I end up not saving time because I have to find parking and because of traffic. I'd much rather be on the bus reading a book in that time than sitting in traffic or circling a parking lot.

[ChumpDumper]

They pretty much finished construction of the downtown light rail platform here in Austin. I think I read it won't run until March.

[Anti.Hero]

So how about Rhode Island's awesome state transportation LOL

[ChumpDumper]

Just looking at the maps, the light rail line about to open and the proposed Austin-San Antonio regional commuter line would really seem to address most of the logical commutes from the north of Austin.

The south is completely screwed. As it should be.

[Buddy Holly]

It's funny, I thought the le of the thread was:

Public Transit Ideas for SA...

Hmm.... someone can't ruheed.

[Buddy Holly]

Back to the actual topic.

Yeah, the light rail that the county is proposing/pushing to build would connect downtown with The Rim. I believe also FSH but I'm not completely sure.

However, this is completely separate from what VIA is doing.

Bottomline, when the Westside Multimodal station is built, it'll process VIA buses, VIA BRT, Lightrail, commuter and Greyhound.

It's going to be nice!

[ChumpDumper]

It's funny, I thought the le of the thread was:

Public Transit Ideas for SA...

Hmm.... someone can't ruheed.

Yeah, you.

The discussion was dovetailing nicely into the Austin-SA regional plan (which, by the way, includes San Antonio), but you blew it with your small-minded, parochial thinking.

[Buddy Holly]

WTF? Monorail? How about we start off with a light rail. We could easly build a subway here but it would be pretty re ed to do so and it has nothing to do with the water and everything to do with San Antonio having plenty of room above ground.

I don't think there's a need for a subway line but I think you could tunnel a line in segments in various places around the city.

For one example, build a subway line underneath the airport.

Maybe an express line that tunneled underneath downtown?

I remember in 2003 some "physic" predicted two things.

One: San Antonio and Fort Worth would become the fastest growing cities in Texas.

Two. San Antonio would have a subway.

Well, the first one came true.