Dear Councilmember Alan Warrick II,
First off, congratulations on winning your seat — we look forward to having you serve our interests in District 2. I am writing you today about the traffic and pedestrian lights at Broadway Street and East Mulberry Avenue. Yes, this seems like quite a small town thing to write to you about, but this particular light has caused — and will continue to cause — a dangerous environment for our smallest San Antonians and, really, all pedestrians.
I’ve tried to talk to three different District 2 Council members about this issue – Ivy Taylor before she became mayor, interim Councilmember Keith Toney, and now yourself. I was able to meet with a District 2 staffer once, but the response has been largely, “we’ll call you back.”
You see this intersection is incredibly dangerous for pedestrians. I won’t get into the minutia, but heading east or west on Mulberry can be frustrating at Broadway. Each direction gets a green light at the same time, but there is not a protected crosswalk signal – cars are given a green light to turn while pedestrians are crossing the street. Consequently, traffic backs up and drivers don’t know what is causing the delay.
I’ve had some close calls multiple times and so have my neighbors in Mahncke Park that you represent. Check out the video I shot to see what I’m talking about. Pedestrians are at risk.
But worst of all is the fact that children are at risk trying to cross the street to Lion’s Park, Brackenridge Park and the Kiddie Park. These are three destinations that are popular with San Antonio families, especially in this beautiful 77 degree January weather.
But I don’t have to describe how dangerous this intersection is, you told me that you were aware of it in a tweet you sent me during election season.
The availability of new apartments east of Broadway on Mulberry and the forthcoming the Do Seum, the new San Antonio Children’s Museum, will exacerbate this problem. When the Do Seum opens up, our neighborhood will see an influx of traffic on Mulberry — and we are excited to welcome people to our neck of the woods. But many of the visitors may not be familiar with this light, will grow frustrated with the long delays and will speed through without regard for others crossing the street. This can be dangerous for all those kids crossing from the Do Seum to one of the nearby parks.
I have a plan to fix this light. In fact, it is quite simple and doesn’t require a redesign of the road to correct these issues. Essentially, giving the eastbound lane a green light while stopping westbound traffic will allow for an increased flow of traffic, unencumbered left-hand turning, a truly protected crosswalk on the southside of the street for our children. You then do the opposite for the westbound traffic.
Something needs to be done about this intersection now while it is a road less travelled. If nothing is done and the new children’s museum opens its doors, I can tell you from first hand experience that our kids are at risk at this intersection. In fact, when I crossed the street with Ashley Harris, a staffer for Councilmember Toney, we almost got hit by a truck.
The case number is 1011807312 and I would love to meet you and your staff at the corner of Broadway and Mulberry (maybe we can even get a burger at Good Time Charlie’s?) and walk the intersection so you can see first hand what I am talking about.
Thanks so much for reading this letter, Councilmember Warrick, I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best,
Garrett Heath
If you want to contact Councilmember Warrick about this issue, please call his City Hall Office at 210-207-7278 or email and reference the light at Mulberry and Broadway. The case number is 1011807312.
A version of this story was originally published at SA Flavor. Love hearing about the food and flavor of San Antonio? Be sure to subscribe to the SA Flavor newsletter for what’s good in San Antonio, like SA Flavor on Facebook or follow us on Twitter at @SAFlavor.
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Garrett,
Nice article. Most of Broadway is pretty hostile to pedestrians, in particular the stretch from Newell Av (near the I-35 underpass) to Austin Hwy. The intersection you highlight is a complicated configuration and one of the intersections that is most likely to see pedestrian traffic on a road that has otherwise done a good job of suppressing pedestrians, so adds additional risk to pedestrians.
Your suggestion deserves consideration.
This is fixing the symptom and not the disease. Let’s expand the sidewalks by reducing Broadway by a lane. Add some trees. Make Broadwat the champs de elysee and not the bad outcome of 1950s era urban planning it is now.
Great post. I would go a step further though and say that some redesign does need to be made. On several occasions I’ve seen the intersection at a stand still due to a larger vehicle not being able to make the right turn from southbound Broadway onto westbound Mulberry. This area is about to explode w/ infill and pedestrians, let’s get this right from the get go. This intersection remind me a lot of Basse and Blanco. Cross streets not lining up and creating confusion for drivers and pedestrians alike. The recently came back in and realigned Basse to flow more as a thru street, and this has greatly resolved the issue. The same could easily be done here by consuming the vacant (former convenience store) lot to align Mulberry. Great post…I hope to see a response (and maybe some construction updates) on this page in the near future!
I couldn’t agree more that Broadway has some issues for pedestrians and would like included in this a plan for pedestrians at the Pearl Parkway entrance. This is the entrance to the farmers market, access to the popular Pearl Brewery area and extremely frustrating and scary to cross for a pedestrian. Broadway needs some attention from the view of the pedestrian.
Drivers must yield to pedestrians who have the right of way in a crosswalk, this is the law. An education and enforcement campaign would make the crossing of any street safer and less stressful for pedestrians.
Thanks for the feedback from The Rivard Report readers—I have a meeting scheduled this Friday afternoon!
I agree 100% with the author. Let’s start with the straightforward quick-fix solution. Simply add green-light turn arrows onto the Mulberry stoplights. The intersection is not only difficult for pedestrians, but also for motorists trying to make a left turn from Mulberry to Broadway.
If we are anticipating Broadway becoming a “complete street” in order to solve this issue, we could be waiting a LONG time…!
I agree with all the agreements.
The councilman should be very familiar with this intersection. He stood at the SW corner of said intersection around election time waving and holding a “vote for me” type sign.
This is a TxDOT controlled “highway,” not the city of San Antonio. All street work on Broadway begins with TxDOT…
Hey look someone did research. Thanks for the response, to bad the editor didn’t catch on to this fact.
Paul, you didn’t review your response very well. You mistakenly used the preposition “to” and not the adverb “too”. Wow! I guess it’s kind of fun being a naysayer. lol