The city’s study suggests that with certain intersection improvements, traffic flow could be maintained or even improved with one less lane for cars in each direction. The city and state have completed dueling traffic studies for Broadway Street in San Antonio. Greg Abbott announced an $85 billion transportation plan late last month, with the stated goal of “preserving roadways for Texas drivers.” The Texas Republican Party’s 2022 platform explicitly calls out “road diets” that reduce automobile lanes as “anti-car measures that punish those who choose to travel alone in their own personal vehicle” and calls on the state “to protect drivers from these California-style, anti-driver policies in Texas.” Texas Gov. The moves are in keeping with state leaders’ focus on reducing traffic congestion on state roads, and part of a broader culture war over transportation. It is supporting another project in neighboring Alamo Heights after local leaders there agreed not to convert any traffic lanes. Last month, San Antonio Report stated that TxDOT would oppose another planned street improvement project on Roosevelt Avenue in San Antonio as well. The department’s opposition to the Broadway project isn’t a one-off intervention, but part of a broader policy of maintaining all current vehicle lanes on all TxDOT roads all around the state. “This sudden shift to say that the plan we did - working hand in hand with TxDOT - was no longer going to be possible was pretty surprising to us.” “We had been working with TxDOT since 2016, when the initial concepts for Broadway were being developed,” McBeth says. ![]() Not only that, says David McBeth, assistant city engineer for the Public Works Department, but the city had actually had meetings with TxDOT about the project over the years, and was proceeding on the understanding that the road would be returned to city ownership once a project was complete. Years prior, even before the bond referendum in San Antonio, TxDOT had initiated a “ turnback program” meant to let cities take control of state roads that the department no longer wanted to maintain. Broadway was actually State Loop 368, the department said, and no lane reductions would be allowed. Its final design called for two of the six driving lanes to be converted to protected bike lanes - one in each direction - with wider sidewalks, new street trees and other safety improvements.īut earlier this year, the Texas Department of Transportation put the brakes on the plan. The Department of Public Works spent parts of the last four years planning the project, holding community-engagement meetings and designing the flow of traffic. ![]() Among the projects funded in the bond was a “complete street” redesign for a two-mile stretch of Broadway, a north-south arterial with three vehicle lanes in each direction. In 2017, voters approved a bond measure to fund a range of public-realm improvements, including 200 miles of new sidewalks. ![]() Like a lot of other big cities, San Antonio has tried to make some of its streets safer for bikers and pedestrians. ![]() And it’s true in San Antonio, where pedestrian deaths have been on the rise for four straight years. It’s true in Texas, which has one of the highest rates of traffic deaths overall and has seen recent spikes in pedestrian deaths. Around the country, more pedestrians and bikers are being killed and seriously injured by drivers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |