Shelter Bus Stops & Comparing San Antonio to other cities.

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About yesterday (Sept 12, 20216), I decided to respond to a tweet from D2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez.  Even though it's on Twitter and it's a very long Twitter thread, I feel that others need to read it.  Instead of sharing the entire twitter thread, I've decided to turn it into a blog post. 

On Sept 10, 2021, Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez tweeted the following: 

Tweet 1

My response to this tweet is a very lengthy one.  But lets get started. 

Tweet 2

Tweet 3

I've seen better bus stop shelters in "other cities." So far the bus shelters that I've seen do the job right is the standard model that is used by Trinity Metro and DART in the DFW area. 

Tweet 4
Tweet 6

The Pictures are of the bus stops on 3rd st between Houston and Ave E and the other is on Houston St between I-10 and E Commerce.  Although they don't do a good job at showing a bus stop located on a narrow sidewalk, they do shows VIA attempt to put seats down. 

Tweet 7

There's the carrot and stick approach.  There are times to use punishment, but not here.  My solution is to bring back the bench advertisements, but this time, instead of blocking sidewalks, we make whatever advertising company providing the seating to pay the property owner a fee for placing the bench off of the sidewalk and onto his lawn.  What that fee is, I don't know but here in San Antonio, people who drive cars don't have any incentive to care about those who ride the bus and the advertisement company doesn't have any incentive to keep the bench from blocking the sidewalk.  As for shade, well I don't have an answer either but maybe the advertising company could also provide a little shelter.  
Tweet 8

And making all the stops nice to sit at doesn't help ridership.  Nearly all the routes on the Eastside and Southeast side are more about coverage then they are about ridership. When you can sit at a bus stop and within 5 minutes a bus arrives is when ridership increases.  The CEO of VIA and I'm paraphasing: "In Real Estate, it's LOCATION, LOCATION, and LOCATION.  In Transit, it's FREQUENCY, FREQUENCY, and FREQUENCY. 
The the link referenced above is to Human Transit's article "Basics: The Ridership – Coverage Tradeoff" which is a must read if you want to improve transit ANYWHERE.

Tweet 9

Although I didn't site the proper tweet, "cannabis connoisseur" (@matthew_gauna)
was comparing San Antonio to a bigger, more dense city and to me that like comparing apples to

Image 1 2021-9-14

watermelons. (Image 1 2021-9-14)  The problem with comparing cities is that each city is really a unique place with it's own 'vibe' and comparing two communities is never exact.  However, I do challenge my readers to visit Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana.  Drive from one side of the city through the city to other side and spend some time on the ground with your bicycle. Then come back and tell me if I'm wrong.  Chances are you will not find two unique cities that are close alike to being able to comparing apples to apples.
The stories that I linked to are "The Politically Correct Streetcar" and "What VIA Gets Right".  What I didn't mention is how the Cato Institute used propaganda and this forever set our city down a path to never ever having passenger rail transit.  Ah hell, even the new  San Antonio Zoo's new train has a diesel locomotive  design that is used for freight service and not passenger.  Although the two topics aren't related, I feel that this is an omen that San Antonio isn't getting Light Rail or Commuter Rail ever.
On a side note; as a person who once drove this train, I consider this an insult that they picked their new locomotive, the SD40 which is a type of locomotive that hauls freight. For the past 40 years, the standard diesel locomotive for passenger service has been the F40PH.  The Locomotive that the Zilker Zephyr in Zilker Park in Austin is based off of is the F40PH.
Also Back to that Cato Institute propaganda, I'm currently working on that story called "Why Transportation Sucks: Propaganda" and I should have it finish by Thanksgiving 2021.

And Finally:

Tweet 10

Image 2 2021-9-14
Bus Stop ID #49443, located on the south side of 3rd between N Alamo and Ave E.  This was taken about 10am in the morning on Saturday and as you can see, it's literally covered in shade.  But if you look closer, the only bus that stops here is the number 11.  The number 11 is currently not running but the two routes that pass by this stop are the 24 and 25.
And I have a question to VIA. Is this act not in the form of Keeping San Antonio Lame?  The nearest bus stop for the 24 and 25 eastbound is located one block away in the hot sun (Image 2 2021-9-14) and goes to the heart of the complaint of Councilman Jalen Mckee-Rodriguez.  I'm hoping that VIA and the councilman's of D1 and D2 will expedite the change to this bus stop for it's shade is currently going to waste. 



Sources:

Jalen Mckee-Rodriguez Tweet:  https://twitter.com/theloserteacher/status/1436479638956609548

Ezra A Johnson Tweet:  https://twitter.com/EuphMan_210/status/1436461551163252737

Basics: The Ridership – Coverage Tradeoff:  https://humantransit.org/2018/02/basics-the-ridership-coverage-tradeoff.html

What VIA Gets Right:  bikesanantonio.blogspot.com/2015/04/what-via-gets-right.html

The Politically Correct Streetcar:  bikesanantonio.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-politically-correct-streetcar.html

cannabis connoisseur" (@matthew_gauna):  https://twitter.com/matthew_gauna/status/1436504319063375880

Storied San Antonio Zoo Eagle trains on track to be replaced with newer versions:  https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/san-antonio-zoo-eagle-trains-retired-16434097.php

EMD F40PH:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_F40PH

EMD SD40:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_SD40

Facebook Zilker Zephyr:  https://www.facebook.com/ZilkerZephyr/

Zilker Eagle:  https://www.zilkertrain.org

 San Antonio Zoo Train:  https://sazoo.org/behind-the-scenes-experiences/zoo-train/

Images:  

Image: 1 2021-9-14:  https://twitter.com/matthew_gauna/status/1436504319063375880
Image 2 2021-9-14:  A picture of my stuff at VIA's bus stop #49447 illustrating how it's just a bench blocking the sidewalk, baking in the South Texas sun.  

All the Tweets Reference can be found here:  https://twitter.com/BikeSanAntonio/status/1437115793708404739

Tweet 10:  A picture of bus stop #49443 that is currently closed and the route 11 is currently suspended due to COVID-19 restrictions:

Tweet 7:  An example of a modern day bus stop bench with an advertisement. 

Tweet 6:  two pictures of bus stops illustrating VIA's current benching options. One on 3rd St between Ave E and Houston St and the second one is on E Houston St between E Commerce an I-10.


Shoup: Cato HQ the Perfect Lab for Reforming Commuter Parking Subsidies:  https://usa.streetsblog.org/2010/09/09/shoup-cato-hq-the-perfect-lab-for-reforming-commuter-parking-subsidies/



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