Pedestrians nervous to walk along the North St. Mary’s strip will have to wait a few years before millions of dollars are turned into more noticeable safety improvements near the half mile stretch of bars, clubs, and restaurants. However, they are coming.
“St. Mary’s has been on our radar for many months,” said Arthur Reinhardt, assistant director of the city’s transportation and capital improvements department.
City officials have made pedestrian safety a priority. So far, in 2017, there have been 28 pedestrian deaths in San Antonio. Under the Vision Zero program, which aims in part to eliminate pedestrian deaths, some funds have been dedicated to a mid-block pedestrian crossing further south on St. Mary’s.
Reinhardt and Deputy City Manager Peter Zanoni spoke with the Rivard Report on Friday, two weeks after the transportation department spent $8,700 removing a crosswalk clandestinely installed by an anonymous group. The individuals told the Rivard Report they were concerned about what they consider to be inadequate pedestrian infrastructure along the busy strip.
Zanoni and Reinhardt outlined the city’s timeline for spending $7 million in bond money on the half mile portion of North St. Mary’s from East Mistletoe to Josephine Street, where pedestrian traffic seems to be the heaviest.
“It’s focusing on pedestrian improvements,” Reinhardt said, adding that sidewalk connectivity, intersection improvements, pedestrian infrastructure, increased street lighting, and signal enhancements are all viable improvements to be constructed in 2019.
Before construction starts, the city must design the upgrades based on community input. Councilman Roberto Treviño (D1) said he wants to help facilitate that communication between his constituents and the transportation agency staff in 2018.
Citizens can suggest infrastructure improvements by directly reaching out to their council representative, contacting the department, or by calling 311.
“We can track [calls made], we can follow up, contact the people [and] let them know the work’s been done,” Reinhardt said. “Any request, whether its a pothole, to an engineering investigation, or traffic review.”
Reinhardt said that there were no calls made to 311 about the East Mistletoe and North St. Mary’s intersection, which will not receive a new crosswalk.
“National studies have shown that when you put a crosswalk in a residential neighborhood, it has no impact on safety or vehicle speed reduction,” Zanoni said. “Generally crosswalks, with the exception of school zones, are for major arterial or collector roads.”
Zanoni said the clandestine crosswalk was removed because it was dangerously misdirecting the traffic turning right off of N. St. Mary’s onto E. Mistletoe. The increased turn radius created by the group’s dangerously drawn perimeters caused vehicles to overturn into the opposite lane, creating an increased chance for head on collisions.
Moreover, connecting solid white lines to the bike lanes along Mistletoe technically closed off the entrance to them off N. St. Mary’s. Those $22,000 bike lanes were finished this past August and were paid for out of the district 1 neighborhood access and mobility program.
Each council member has an annual allotment of $200,000 in their respective NAM programs to address infrastructural needs at their discretion. Along with offering protection to bikers, the E. Mistletoe bike lanes also slow the speed of cars by shortening the space they have in their lane.
Beyond the bond funds and money for the neighborhood access program, the city is also spending its annual $1 million Vision Zero funds on pedestrian safety improvements.
It seems like Zanoni and TCI are rather auto focused in their approach. They were concerned about turn radii for cars at that intersection. This seems bogus. What about the distance from curb to curb that makes for an incredibly long route for pedestrians and fast speed for cars, as SDOT stated in the last article? Why can’t the city just admit they created many dangerous intersections like this throughout the city and they need to fix them rather than be hyper focused on the dollar amount to fix this intersection? What type of message does this send to that community and residents throughout the city? It seems they couldn’t care less about pedestrian safety.
SA needs to learn from other great cities that have started to prioritize bikes and pedestrians over cars like Portland, Boston and DC.
It also seems the city is prioritizing infrastructure improvements based on council phone calls and 311. This is also bogus. What about the equity lens? What about people in areas that might not know how to call in or read the Rivard?
Zanoni’s comment on crosswalks in residential neighborhoods seems disingenuous. Hard to believe St. Mary’s around that area is “residential” – cars fly down St. Mary’s at high speeds, hardly safe.
I have been thinking all week, WHO DO I CALL when I see dangerous intersections and incidents. This week I saw something to report and I called the Police Non Emergency but it was a terrible experience, see story below.
But First….
Some observations from living in San Antonio for 1.5 years:
#1 Cross walks mean nothing in SA. I’ve seen no education or information out there to tell people that they are legally supposed to stop and let walkers cross the street. No one will stop for you in one unless you physically walk in front of a vehicle and wave your arms and hope they will stop and not run you over. I do this a lot on McCullough where they put one in at Melrose/McCullough recently. Drivers get pissed at me because I make them stop but that road is hard to cross on foot with endless streams of vehicles and I’d rather cross calmly at the crosswalk they put in then walk three blocks down to the light or run across as fast as I can. Why was a cross walk put there if you can’t get across on it? I’m glad I don’t have children I’m trying to walk with in San Antonio, what a mess. And this cross walk no one stops at is right in front of a lego store.
#2 Cars/Vehicles do not understand bike lanes. No you can’t park in them. Yes bicyclist use them and you need to look for a bicyclist to your right (where the lane usually is) if you are turning across a bike lane (or anytime you turn frankly, as bikes are still allowed on the road bike lane or not). Nearly daily a driver turns in front on me (when they needed to wait for me to bike past), some days, so close I get shook up.
#3 Cars/Vehicles often whip around a corner onto another road. I’ve watched many close calls. In some cases I understand the light may be yours but the turns are often blind and there needs to be some breaking… just in case. For example animals (dogs etc) and or debris as well as people could be around the corner. Please, slow down when on a blind turn, even if it’s your “go”.
Trying to do the right thing by reporting…..
This week I called 311 and went through to the non emergency police line to report an incident of road rage/and pedestrian safety and a problem corner. The first dispatcher I talked to told me I had nothing to report because I didn’t have the car make/color or all of the license plate. I explained I’m also concerned about this intersection (because it comes right off the freeway and people fly off the freeway and if it is green will fly around the corner which crosses an actually striped ped walk). Anyway I said to the operator if you don’t think I have anything worthy of reporting then I guess you can hang up on me. And I was hung up on.. by the people I’m supposed to trust to help me or at least care about dangerous areas.
Luckily I know there are bad seeds everywhere. So I called back and was able to make a police report with a more competent operator. But I’m discouraged because someone may have called for their first time, was treated that way. and would never feel comfortable reporting bad behavior/problem area again.
Again who is the most effective person to call? Is someone in the city want us to call and is collecting information? It doesn’t seem enough to say call your city council member. There needs to be a dedicated HOT LINE or number and wide-knowledge that it exists.
At the very least, San Antonio NEEDS to to roll out mass education to drivers about cross walks, bicycle lanes, and speeding turns. Too many unnecessary deaths and tons of injuries that don’t need to happen could be eradicated.
Hi Carye, we’d like to learn more about your experience with 311. Can you reach out to me: emily@rivardreport.com for a brief follow up?