Navigating the Future of Public Transportation

1. There’s one important question to ask to determine whether this is all just talk or a serious consideration: The Primo 100 route is in your plan, yet it doesn’t meet the criteria as Rapid Bus Transport. It doesn’t have dedicated lanes. It still stalls for people to ask the driver questions. It still stalls for people to pay as they enter the bus rather than requiring them to pay at the platform or to use a prepaid slap card. It still stalls for handicapped access ramps to fan open rather than have extending flaps that stick out automatically to the level of the station floor for handicapped to just enter along with everyone else. It doesn’t enforce a circular on/off door system that minimizes the length of each stop. It doesn’t seem to use its ability to delay lights turning red until the bus has passed through. WILL PRIMO BE UPDATED TO MEET THESE GENERALLY ACCEPTED REQUIREMENTS FOR RAPID TRANSIT?

   Unless the answer is YES, then the whole plan is a lot of talk and a lot of spending that will result in disappointment and complaints.

2. Elon is building an express loop that makes BRT look DOA. It will require private investment though. So I appreciate VIA working with what it has to improve service.

3. I am disappointed to see San Antonio settle for a mass transit system that is essentially more busses. Busses create more traffic, are constantly stopping and starting and have very low ridership. Other cities have found this out (most recently Frankfurt, Germany) and I expect it to be no different for us. These plans from Via are short sighted. I keep hearing that the political will is not there for something more comprehensive (light rail, bike lanes, etc) but it’s up to real leaders to sell us something we didn’t know we needed. This plan doesn’t bring us into the 21st century— it locks us into gridlock.

   1. I don’t understand your complaint. They aren’t normal buses. They are buses with a dedicated lane (they don’t constantly start/stop adn have separated lanes from rest of traffic) and with prepay stations (don’t pay on the bus), which is the same way light rail operates. The only difference is you don’t need to pour new infrastructure to develop it and buses are way cheaper than trains. Thus, you can get more bang for your buck but have the same outcomes.

4. I think this plan is definitely one part of bringing us into the 21 century. This is a trackless train rapid transit system for the most part. Its the negativity and doubt (even from what sounds like transit supporters) that locks us into gridlock. one of the questions via asked in the survey I took at one of these open houses was something like: what would it take to get you to ride VIA rapid transit service? Commenters here should take the survey or attend the open house and tell VIA the important things noted in these comments: dedicated lanes, level boarding, pre-pay, all door entry and exit, not too many stops etc… Instead of throwing shade at the whole effort, go learn more about it, advocate for it and advocate for making it work.

5. Let’s start with the basics: The two lanes in FLORES cannot event (at this time) handle two regular size buses side by side (without invading each other lane), same applies for Broadway corridor. The current lane width does not support the concurrent travel of a VIA bus and large Food Delivery or Large Construction Trailer or a Texas Size 4×4 truck with oversized mirrors.
   Second we approve bond debt for bicycle lanes that later get turn around as private visitor parking (as the prime sample of Broadway at Jones. Third, we ask for cleaner buses, less congested buses and more frequent routes and we get cultural routes – while I understand the cultural routes are necessary and helpful, I do not understand why they have to be exclusive, while the real purpose should be to connect north to south, east to west, etc. For VIA BOARD and management, it should not be rocket science to know that among the most important routes in term of connective, accessibility and frequency (including weekends and late hours) should be downtown to Airport, south, west and north side to airport, same goes to medical center. one dedicated traffic lane in down should be sufficient, with designated stops so we do get 6 buses all lined up at once. While at present there is dedicated bus lane in downtown, STRONG ENFORCEMENT SHOULD BE Monitored of its use. It is sufficient to see that current bus lane is not being “temperately” used by construction crews at StMarys and Commerce. Then Commercial parking on Flores (at Houston and Commerce stretch) is daily taken up and used as private parking (more that the allowd 15 to 30 min) by city government vehicles), thus depriving the true commercial business deliveries, whether is restaurant purveyors and mail delivery (UPS, FedEx) from having to park on the actual traffic lane instead, thus leaving us (traffic flow) with one lane. Same situation occurs on St Marys (Travis to College), when there is often hotel and government vehicles parked and thus forcing via to park vertically at St Marys and Commerce bridge to unload people, thus blocking the traffic lane because VIA bus space is often taken by tourist buses and valet parking vehicles. Same goes for StMary (between Commerce and Market), while Commercial parking at Drury Hotel is for ONE BUS, there is OFTEN (DAILY) buses parked on VIA BUS lane to unload, load and WAITING FOR PEOPLE), they are usually parked there in NO PARKING ZONES and for a long period of time. Also on NAVARRO (between Houston and Travis), while we have valet parking on one side, there are often private vehicles parked on right hand side, leaving ONE LANE FOR TRAFFIC. Also on Travis in front of San Anthony hotel, valet parking often opens door for their guest, on the driver side, forcing incoming traffic to wait because there is not enough space for a parked vehicle with an open door and a driver getting out of a vehicle. Valet at San Anthony practically takes up the entire SINGLE TRAFFIC LANE to unload their guests. INSANE. Whatever traffic plan, please do not keep adding buses, study the traffic patterns, use in-depth online survey of users and commuters BEFORE IMPLEMENTING A REROUTE OR NEW PLAN. OFTEN TIMES THERE ARE BUSES TRAVELING EMPTY ALL DAY LONG, WHILE PEAK HOURS ARE TOO CROWDED AND RUNNING LATE .

6. Like it or not, light rail just isn’t happening in SA. Look at what just happened in Nashville, where it was shot down by a two-to-one vote. If we can get real BRT going, however, as described in the first comment, that will be a huge leap forward for SA. And if we can get support for trackless trains, which seem to have the best of both BRT and light rail, then we will leapfrog other communities. Check out “trackless trains” on YouTube.

7. It looks like the entire northwest area of the city has been left out of the plan.

   * There is no rapid transit corridor for 151 connecting Alamo Ranch to Sea World, Northwest Vista College, Wells Fargo, Chase, Frost, Nationwide, the NSA, Southwest Research and Lackland. Lots of hotels, major employment centers and large, dense apartment complexes along this route.
   * There is no rapid transit corridor along Bandera to 1604. Honestly it looks like there’s no credible plan to relieve congestion on Bandera.
   * There is no rapid transit corridor along 1604 between Alamo Ranch and 281. Rapid transit needs to be a part of the future on 1604 because we won’t be able to add lanes fast enough to keep up with the growing traffic there.

   This looks like a plan designed by someone who doesn’t really understand the west and northwest areas of the city or the employment centers out here. The plan does too much moving people from selected parts of the city to downtown, and not enough to move people between east and west on the north side.

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