aat - Alamo Alternative Transportation

It's that time of year again, it's time that we ask those who run for city council questions to see if they are bicycle friendly. Now before you just count this one out like one of the city's latest bicycle survey, please hear me out. Because of these efforts, the city is doing surveys again, VIA has finally got the funding to expand and increase frequency and many of the major city projects now do include bicycle infrastructure. Because of everyone using this voters guide, we were able to keep unfriendly people off of the council and out of the mayor seat. Whether you hate the current mayor right now or your council members, please let me know who and why in the comments below. After doing this for the last two election cycle I have learned many lessons and finally I will have a list of politicians who you should never contact or vote for in April 2021. As a rule I try to contact everyone running for office including Mama Bexar who ran for Mayor in 2017. If you don't h...

 As the weather cools down outside, most of us will go inside and turn on the space heater and put on Netflix.  Some of us brave souls will try to put what warm garments we have and brave the low temperatures only to have our fingers and toes freeze off. Looking for the proper garments can be hard especially here in San Antonio where buying a winter coat is the last thing on our minds. So in this blog post, I will be going over where to look for good gloves and a breathing technique that I learned from the Ice Man Wim Hof that I practice to stay warm. The Wim Hof Method: I don't know if you heard about this guy before, but he's famous for going under artic ice and holding his breathe for several minutes. His name is Wim Hof and he is famously known as the Iceman. He teaches a simple breathing exercise to be able to deal with the cold. I practice this breathing exercise about 3 times a week. Now I cannot say that this method will work for you, but I can tell you what has h...

I know that this is going to make some of my readers mad, but it must be done. I understand that most of the Cycling community is against this but all of you should be for ATD Proposition A when you go vote for a President and here's why.... Can't use the trails after dark : I hear constantly from my fellow cyclist that the trail system should be a part of an overall network for bicycle transportation. That's sounds great until you eventually learn that it's illegal to use the Linear Creekways after dark, Sec. 22-28. Public parks hours of operation and curfew. I have heard of several instances of people trying to use the Leon Creek after dark only only to be kicked off the trail and ticketed. I have been lucky enough to only to be kicked off the Salado Creek Greenway once by Park Police and told not to go through Los Patios which I promptly stopped. I would prefer to have overnight bus service over being ticket for using the safe way after dark. Also, these trails are l...

For most of the month of Sept, 2020 I have heard about this Micromobility Survey of the Public Works Department. I even took the survey, but at the end of the day, what's the point?  I lost count of the number of surveys I took over the past 10 plus years only to have a city that don't have any useful bike lanes, but have miles of seprate trails that are illegal to use after dark.  Sec. 22-28. Public parks hours of operation and curfew. (e) Notwithstanding subsection (a), parks designated as natural areas by the director of parks and recreation and parks developed as part of the Linear Creekway Parks development program (Leon Creek, Salado Creek, Medina River) shall be closed for all purposes each day at sunset, or after events scheduled by the department of parks and recreation are completed, and will re-open each day at sunrise. Image 2020-28-1 I understand what they want to do, but they're doing it all wrong.  During the TPR's The Source on Sept 23, 2020 , Timothy H...

Since January, finding time to write has been a hassle for me.  I've tried several times to find the time and the inspiration to type the words, but this year, my work load has been higher than normal, especially since there was a scarcity of toliet paper and guess what I haul as a region truck driver?   But now it's September and I'm beginning to get my inspiration back and find the time.  I still want to write about the propaganda part on why transportation sucks and write more about upcoming city infrastructure projects. But this time'll be typing on blogspot again.  It's just easier so here are my blog sites. The former blog: Bicycle San Antonio:  http://bikesanantonio.blogspot.com/ my wordpress site:   aatblog.com my new blogspot site:  https://aatblog210.blogspot.com And I already wrote my first blog post for the site called " Small Luxuries = Happy Riders ." Each new blog post will have both the blogspot link and the wordpress link at ...

This event took place back in Aug 15, 2020 Image 2020-9-1 For as long as I can remember, VIA alway sucked.  I've been riding since 1990 and during the hot summers, you are forced to wait out in the sun at a +100°F bus stop.  That was until Saturday, August15, 2020 when me an my girlfriend got off at McCreless to transfer buses.  At the bust stop was a "Shelter Bus" (Image 2020-9-1) with the AC struggling to keep the inside of the bus nice and frosty. With the hot Texas sun frying the surrounding concrete, we rushed aboard the shelter bus, and of course, we wore our masks.  I meant to take more pictures, but my connecting bus arrived soon after and we rushed off. Two things that VIA should consider in the future when setting up these buses.  One, if you are going to keep the front door open, leave the ADA ramp out as well. Two, have the bus driver who is minding the Shelter Bus be prepared to run over to allow people who are slow to be able to catch their conecti...