SAN ANTONIO | City and Metro Transportation Thread

[JACKinBeantown]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

The lack of connections was purposeful, not borne from negligence—it helps keep interstate traffic from easily transferring to it as a 410 bypass so that the capacity is reserved for local trips which also reduces the likelihood of lane additions/expansions in the future which would have likely involved heavy eminent domain usage to expand right of way. If it was connected, traffic would have been worse than 1604.

That may be the case, but as a result the traffic for the locals who live in the area is horrendous because people DO use it to and from I-35. So instead of all that traffic connecting via highway ramps, they clog up the entire section between Weidner Road, O'Connor and 35.

Now, this next part is in the fuzzy memory department. But I think at the time the city was trying to entice the Spurs to either build a practice facility or an arena in the area where Morgan's Wonderland is. With that in mind the parkway was purposely built as a connector to/from the northwest side where most of the Spurs live(d). So maybe that's why it wasn't purposely connected to 35. Again, fuzzy memory, but I remember people on the northeast side being upset about that (and the lack of connection to 35) during the planning stages of the parkway.

[Spoiler]

"The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority could decide Wednesday whether to pursue one of two proposals — including one from SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tunneling company — to shuttle visitors between San Antonio International Airport and downtown.
Austin-based The Boring Co., backed by Musk, “is proposing twin underground tunnels that would accommodate Teslas” to transport riders, according to a January presentation to the RMA board. The estimated cost would be between $241 million and $298 million.
Bexar Automated Transport (BAT) proposed “an autonomous bus traveling via a combination of elevated and underground tracks,” according to the presentation. It would cost an estimated $330 million.
BAT is a consortium that includes SAK Construction LLC, a Missouri pipeline services and tunneling firm, North Carolina’s Thalle Construction Company Inc. and ModuTram Mexico, a software company in Guadalajara, Mexico....
...BAT’s plan calls for passengers paying $6.50 per trip, according to documents provided by Praetor Capital, a firm that invests in automated transit networks and that’s partnering with the consortium. Passengers could catch rides from several stations between the airport and downtown. They’d board eight-passenger electric vehicles that run at 45 mph for a trip from the airport to the Convention Center. BAT estimates ridership at about 500,000 per year, for revenue of $13.7 million."



edit: forgot the link
https://www.expressnews.com/business...o-17004620.php

I really, really wish Texas (heck, 95% of the US) took public transit seriously and wasn't so heavily invested in private vehicle ownership. It would make such a difference in how our cities are built, household budgets, energy consumption, emission of pollutants, wasting resources, basic quality of life, health outcomes, property tax revenue increases resulting from denser development which would in turn fund more programs to improve quality of life. But we're stuck with these ludicrous clown show transit ideas funded by billionaires and multi-national corporations in order to make money.

[JACKinBeantown]

Originally Posted by Spoiler

"The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority could decide Wednesday whether to pursue one of two proposals — including one from SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tunneling company — to shuttle visitors between San Antonio International Airport and downtown.
Austin-based The Boring Co., backed by Musk, “is proposing twin underground tunnels that would accommodate Teslas” to transport riders, according to a January presentation to the RMA board. The estimated cost would be between $241 million and $298 million.
Bexar Automated Transport (BAT) proposed “an autonomous bus traveling via a combination of elevated and underground tracks,” according to the presentation. It would cost an estimated $330 million.
BAT is a consortium that includes SAK Construction LLC, a Missouri pipeline services and tunneling firm, North Carolina’s Thalle Construction Company Inc. and ModuTram Mexico, a software company in Guadalajara, Mexico....
...BAT’s plan calls for passengers paying $6.50 per trip, according to documents provided by Praetor Capital, a firm that invests in automated transit networks and that’s partnering with the consortium. Passengers could catch rides from several stations between the airport and downtown. They’d board eight-passenger electric vehicles that run at 45 mph for a trip from the airport to the Convention Center. BAT estimates ridership at about 500,000 per year, for revenue of $13.7 million."



edit: forgot the link
https://www.expressnews.com/business...o-17004620.php

I really, really wish Texas (heck, 95% of the US) took public transit seriously and wasn't so heavily invested in private vehicle ownership. It would make such a difference in how our cities are built, household budgets, energy consumption, emission of pollutants, wasting resources, basic quality of life, health outcomes, property tax revenue increases resulting from denser development which would in turn fund more programs to improve quality of life. But we're stuck with these ludicrous clown show transit ideas funded by billionaires and multi-national corporations in order to make money.

The only information I have on the ModuTram project is what I see in your post, but based on that it looks like a good idea to me. Sure, you could stuff a bunch of clowns into one of those cars as a promotional stunt, but eight clowns wouldn't be worth the clowns' time; you'd need at least 30. I think it looks like a good proposal (again, based on limited information). The tunnel is stupid. Elon Musk is brilliant, but also narcissistic and needs to be checked from time to time.

[kingkirbythe....]

Elon Musk’s Alamo Loop underground tunnel proposal will get further study

https://sanantonioreport.org/elon-mu...further-study/

A plan by Elon Musk’s Boring Company to build a tunnel between San Antonio’s airport and downtown was selected Wednesday by the local regional mobility authority for a feasibility study.

Board members serving the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (RMA), an agency tasked with improving transportation in Bexar County chose Boring over a bid from a local consortium, SAK/Bexar Automated Transport, to enter into a development agreement to study the feasibility of the project.

[forward looking]

Surely Elon Musk is a nut. From what I've heard during the last couple of news cycles Elon Musk also wants to fist fight fight Vladimir Putin for the future of the Ukraine.
With the country of Ukraine going to the winner of this brawl. Putin tweeted back calling Elon Musk, Elona instead and said Musk is a wimp.

Better for Vladimir Putin to fight native Ukranian Vitali Klitschko the mayor of Russian encircled Ukranian city of Kyiv for the freedom of Ukraine. At 7'2" the U.S. could not come up with anyone to defeat this Ukranian giant when he was the Boxing's Heavyweight Champion of the world, not long ago. Few wanted to try. A couple did, Holyfield was one.
Now Klitchsko is the mayor of the besieged southern City of Kyiv.

Originally Posted by JACKinBeantown

Elon Musk is brilliant, but also narcissistic and needs to be checked from time to time.

[jkill34]

Originally Posted by forward looking

Surely Elon Musk is a nut. From what I've heard during the last couple of news cycles Elon Musk also wants to fist fight fight Vladimir Putin for the future of the Ukraine.
With the country of Ukraine going to the winner of this brawl. Putin tweeted back calling Elon Musk, Elona instead and said Musk is a wimp.

Better for Vladimir Putin to fight native Ukranian Vitali Klitschko the mayor of Russian encircled Ukranian city of Kyiv for the freedom of Ukraine. At 7'2" the U.S. could not come up with anyone to defeat this Ukranian giant when he was the Boxing's Heavyweight Champion of the world, not long ago. Few wanted to try. A couple did, Holyfield was one.
Now Klitchsko is the mayor of the besieged southern City of Kyiv.

Is this about transportation? Take it somewhere else.

[kingkirbythe....]

Originally Posted by forward looking

Surely Elon Musk is a nut. From what I've heard during the last couple of news cycles Elon Musk also wants to fist fight fight Vladimir Putin for the future of the Ukraine.
With the country of Ukraine going to the winner of this brawl. Putin tweeted back calling Elon Musk, Elona instead and said Musk is a wimp.

Better for Vladimir Putin to fight native Ukranian Vitali Klitschko the mayor of Russian encircled Ukranian city of Kyiv for the freedom of Ukraine. At 7'2" the U.S. could not come up with anyone to defeat this Ukranian giant when he was the Boxing's Heavyweight Champion of the world, not long ago. Few wanted to try. A couple did, Holyfield was one.
Now Klitchsko is the mayor of the besieged southern City of Kyiv.

Testify!

[starvinggryphon]

Originally Posted by jkill34

Is this about transportation? Take it somewhere else.

Thank you!

[kingkirbythe....]

Elon Musk’s tunnel company has a lot of ideas. Would its San Antonio project be more than that?

https://www.expressnews.com/business...d-17020631.php

In spite of the company’s name, its proposal is far from boring.

The Boring Co., headed by Elon Musk, wants to build a loop of tunnels that would zoom passengers between San Antonio International Airport and downtown. It might even include stops at the Convention Center and the Pearl.

Last week, the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority voted 5-0 to move forward with the proposal.

But Musk is known almost as much for his overzealous promises as for his considerable accomplishments in building reusable rockets at SpaceX and electric vehicles at Tesla Inc. Over the past five years, he and his company have announced several tunneling projects, but only a few have worked out.


...


What’s worked

Las Vegas Convention Center Loop


What’s not worked

New York City-Washington D.C. Loop

Washington D.C.-Baltimore Loop

Chicago Express Loop

Los Angeles Dugout Loop

Los Angeles Westside line


What could work

Vegas Loop

South Padre Island to Boca Chica

Fort Lauderdale tunnel

San Bernardino County tunnel

North Miami Beach tunnel

[JACKinBeantown]

It seems like it would be relatively simple to build something like this over McAllister Freeway... with stops at the Quarry, Trinity/Zoo, and the Pig & Pearl. Making a tunnel would cost so much more and present so many known and unforeseen problems.

[kingkirbythe....]

Innovation or rabbit hole? Experts weigh in on Musk-backed firm’s San Antonio tunnel plans

https://www.expressnews.com/sa-inc/a...l-17028470.php

Greg Griffin is intrigued by the Boring Co.’s proposal to build an underground transportation loop between San Antonio International Airport and downtown — and by the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority’s interest in the project.

Intrigued, but not necessarily in a good way.

Griffin, an assistant professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Texas at San Antonio, has been talking with his graduate students about the Alamo RMA’s March 16 decision to try to work out a development agreement with the tunnel maker.

True, Griffin and his class don’t have much information about the project to go on.

The Alamo RMA and the Boring Co., which is is backed by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, so far have kept most of the plan’s details under wraps. Neither one has publicly addressed the route the loop would take from the airport to the center city, the potential environmental impact of all that boring or the right-of-way challenges with property owners.

The biggest looming question is also the most basic: Why spend hundreds of millions of dollars to shuttle tourists, conventioneers and businesspeople underground for a trip of less than 10 miles — one that usually takes fewer than 15 minutes on surface roads?

...

“There’s a lot of projects we could do for a quarter of a billion dollars,” he said. “For the same cost, you can build out an entire pedestrian and bicycle transportation system, you can improve sidewalks and streets, and create unique visible projects that connect major destinations.

“I’m not saying that we shouldn’t look at the Boring Co.’s project, but we need to consider what the community wants.”

[JACKinBeantown]

Originally Posted by kingkirbythe....

The biggest looming question is also the most basic: Why spend hundreds of millions of dollars to shuttle tourists, conventioneers and business people underground for a trip of less than 10 miles — one that usually takes fewer than 15 minutes on surface roads?

...

The easy answer is planning for the future when that trip takes an hour because the city has done nothing to plan for yet more car traffic. But I think there are many other questions that are equally and more important.

Why spend hundreds of millions to dig a tunnel that you can't easily expand when needed?

Why not build (for example) the elevated modular tram system over existing roadways such as 281? It would be much cheaper to build and much easier to expand.

Why not make a law that with each new or expanded highway project, you must include a two-way rail system using the same right of way so that you have ready-to-use rail transit systems?

There are many other questions to ask.

[forward looking]

You are accurate in your figures, Bostonite, I think. A ten mile long tunnel bore would produce millions and millions of yards of earth. Roughly nine or ten million cubic yards worth of spoils for a 25 or thirty foot diameter tunnel which is a very small tunnel, really. All of the underground utilities they would have to cross? Maybe they have new engineering ideas I have never heard of perhaps a very deep tunnel? They might encounter solid rock and the Edwards Water Authority might object also.
An above ground rail, seemingly, makes more sense to me.
Chicago has trains which run up and back the middle of the two way traffic freeway lanes at ground level to the outer city limits. Interstate I-94 is it Jack?
I know the I-94 freeway runs between Chicago and Detroit.

Originally Posted by JACKinBeantown

The easy answer is planning for the future when that trip takes an hour because the city has done nothing to plan for yet more car traffic. But I think there are many other questions that are equally and more important.

Why spend hundreds of millions to dig a tunnel that you can't easily expand when needed?

Why not build (for example) the elevated modular tram system over existing roadways such as 281? It would be much cheaper to build and much easier to expand.

Why not make a law that with each new or expanded highway project, you must include a two-way rail system using the same right of way so that you have ready-to-use rail transit systems?

There are many other questions to ask.

[kingkirbythe....]

VIA’s first advanced rapid transit project recommended for federal funding

https://sanantonioreport.org/via-adv...deral-funding/

The first route in a planned advanced rapid transit system for San Antonio could be well on its way, with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announcing Wednesday the agency would recommend the project for federal funding.

What could become San Antonio’s first such system was among seven projects in six states nationwide added to President Joe Biden’s list recommended for funding in 2023.

If approved, VIA Metropolitan Transit would receive $158 million from the federal government for the project in 2024.

The estimated $320 million project would establish dedicated lanes along San Pedro Avenue for a north-south rapid transit bus corridor between the San Antonio International Airport and downtown. If funded, construction on the 12-mile corridor for a rapid transit system could start in 2025.

...

“It’s the same route that Elon Musk’s Boring Company is wanting to take, only it’s going to serve a lot of communities and businesses all along the way,” he said. “It’s going to serve locals, not just tourists that are coming in through the airport.”

...

If funding can be secured, a second east-west transit system that would stretch from General McMullen Drive on the West Side to near the AT&T Center along parts of Houston and Commerce streets is also in VIA’s plans.

“That’s the line we still do not have a local match for but we do have money to begin the planning process,” Arndt said. “We’re going to move the east-west line up to the brink of where we can enter into project development with the FTA the same way we did with the north-south line.”

[jaga185]

^^^ That's super exciting. I would love a bus route directly to the airport and given transit options as well. It's a wonderful start for us to have dedicated lanes.

[forward looking]

Far out!

[kingkirbythe....]

New details of Elon Musk firm’s San Antonio tunnel loop emerge — but many questions remain

https://www.expressnews.com/business...p-17066875.php

The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority doesn’t exactly know where Elon Musk’s Boring Co. wants to build its proposed underground transportation loop in San Antonio.

The RMA’s board voted 5-0 last month to enter negotiations with the tunnel maker to construct a loop system — at an estimated cost of between $247 million and $289 million — connecting San Antonio International Airport and downtown.

The system could include a leg linking the Convention Center to the Pearl area on Broadway.

Questions about the project abound. Is there a need for an underground loop? What would it cost taxpayers, if anything? What impact would digging tunnels have on the area’s cavernous karst topography? Would it make sense financially?

The Alamo RMA also has a lot of questions. Its chairman, Michael Lynd Jr., said the project remains largely conceptual.

“The tunnel is not designed,” he said during an Express-News editorial board meeting Thursday. “We have no idea even what the route is today. All of that will have to be determined.”

[forward looking]

This tunnel would possibly be deemed to interrupt water recharge routes for the aquifer. Flooding possibly. Plus the disposal cost of moving 20 of million cubic yards worth of earthen spoils? Have an idea of what it costs per cubic yard to move that much earth? Stinks of fish to me. A great deal of wealth would change hands.
Even if ends comes out consisting of all limestone.

Originally Posted by kingkirbythe....

New details of Elon Musk firm’s San Antonio tunnel loop emerge — but many questions remain.



Questions about the project abound. What would it cost taxpayers, if anything? What impact would digging tunnels have on the area’s cavernous karst topography? will have to be determined.”

[kingkirbythe....]

Yeah, I'm extremely skeptical of this project.

[SproutingTowers]

For the rapid transit project the city needs to release road schematics for San Pedro Ave where the street narrows after Base Rd. Perhaps like the METRORail in Houston it will turn a 4 lane road into 2.

For the tunnel system a study needs to be done to see how many people arriving actually descend directly to downtown hotels. Many years ago I was a bus station coordinator for convention downtown where a charter bus service was hired. Many attendees were not staying downtown but at remote hotels like Hyatt HCR and Omni (now Westin).