San Antonio - VIA unveils BRT plan

[sakyle04]

VIA has launched their BRT plans officially now, which can be found in detail on their dedicated website www.viabrt.net.

I grabbed some graphics from their site:

Site Home Graphic
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z83/theburkholders/BrtTopHome.jpg

BRT Timeline
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z83/theburkholders/Timeline.jpg

Fred Rd Route Map
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z83/theburkholders/FredRoadRouteMap.jpg

Typical Station
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z83/theburkholders/StationInterior.jpg

WestSide (Cattleman SQ) MultiModal Center
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z83/theburkholders/WSMMRender.jpg

And the info on the first route:
The BRT line will travel mostly along Fredericksburg Road connecting the South Texas Medical Center to downtown San Antonio. VIA is planning to develop a transit terminal at both ends of the route.

On the northwest end of the line is the proposed Medical Center Transit Center. From there the line travels on Medical Drive through the South Texas Medical Center to Fredericksburg Road. Once on Fredericksburg Road the line travels through Balcones Heights and the Deco District. At Fredericksburg Road and Woodlawn Avenue the BRT line will enter IH-10 and travel a short distance, exiting near the proposed Westside Multimodal Center (WSMM) in Cattleman's Square. From the WSMM the line travels east through downtown on Market Street to the Robert Thompson Transit Center before making the return trip.

The line is approximately 8 to 10 miles in length and will serve the two transit centers at the ends of the BRT line, 6-8 station locations along the corridor, and several stops in the central business district.

[vertex]

Interesting. So will it have a dedicated and exclusive lane while on Fredericksburg Road, or will it share lanes with other traffic?

[Lakelander]

How much will it cost? Sometimes dedicated busways cost more than light rail to implement.

[Cirrus]

That multimodal station looks gorgeous. I hope they build it exactly like that rendering.

The last thing anybody needs is yet another glass curtain wall purporting to be unique.

[urban_encounter]

It's difficult to get too excited about brt. San Antonio needs Light Rail..

Now combine brt with a decent LR system and that's a start.

[oldmanshirt]

^^^There's a streetcar line that's in the design phase for downtown and River North, but a full-on light rail system could be 5 years away or 25 years away :shrug:

[urban_encounter]

^^^There's a streetcar line that's in the design phase for downtown and River North, but a full-on light rail system could be 5 years away or 25 years away :shrug:



the streetcar will be a popular draw downtown..

[Trae]

Interesting. So will it have a dedicated and exclusive lane while on Fredericksburg Road, or will it share lanes with other traffic?

Have no idea since it looks to be running ON I-10. Don't understand that..

[oldmanshirt]

I wonder if it will run on the upper or lower level of I-10. Seems like there's less traffic on the lower level, but there's more lanes on the upper level. . .

[sakyle04]

Interesting. So will it have a dedicated and exclusive lane while on Fredericksburg Road, or will it share lanes with other traffic?

...Exclusive lane on fred rd on the northern half of the line. In the "deco distict" it will join street traffic before finally skipping onto I-10 for 1.4 miles to the Westside MultiModal Staion at Cattleman Square on the western edge of downtown.

[electricron]

It's difficult to get excited about BRT. BRT is fine if there's a large base of transit riders, but really doesn't get non transit riders out of their own cars.
San Antonio could do better serving downtown to northwest. Fredricksburgh isn't even a divided highway, being an undivided 4 lanes to 6 lanes highway most of the way. The only good thing about the plan is that there's little traffic on this route, as most of the traffic is on I 10 paralleling the route. So, double length buses traveling up and down this street isn't going to make congestions worse. Which brings up the question, wouldn't express lanes on I 10 be better?
A streetcar on this street would pollute less, probably attract more ridership, and probably cause some transit ordinated development along the route. I'm not so sure a huge bus will do much to increase property values.