On the Move

Loop 1604 getting a helping of stimulus

Work starting up to widen Loop 1604.

Workers began plopping orange cones into place along Loop 1604 near Randolph AFB and driving in heavy machinery last week. 

The job is to widen the road into a four-lane divided highway from FM 78 to Graytown Road by summer 2011, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Federal stimulus dollars are funding the $6.63 million cost.  

“These improvements have been in the works for several years but were unfunded,” TxDOT engineer Frank Holzmann said in a statement. “With availability of economic stimulus funding, we now have an opportunity to move forward on this.”

But moving forward could be a slow and/or muddy affair for now. The National Weather Service has forecast rain throughout the week.

Massive Loop 1604 study goes back to the public

The top ideas on how to add lanes to almost half of Loop 1604 will be laid out in a series of three public meetings this week so officials can get input.

With gas taxes strangled by decades of inflation, diversions and political inaction, toll fees and toll-backed bonds have emerged as a primary path to get some things done on the 37-mile stretch of highway. 

A previous study was derailed in 2008 after toll opponents and environmental activists filed a lawsuit in a federal court. The lawsuit in part called for Loop 1604 and U.S. 281 to be studied together, since they would have been part of an interrelated tollway system, and the judge seemed to agree.  

For this week’s meetings, study officials will provide several short presentations each night, from 6 to 8:30 p.m.:

• Monday, Valero Headquarters, Building D, One Valero Way.
• Tuesday, Live Oak Civic Center, Main Hall, 8101 Pat Booker Rd.
• Wednesday, Vale Middle School, cafeteria, 2120 N. Ellison Dr.

For more information or help, start out at More for 1604′s event page.

Other links:

• The environmental impact statement
• More for 1604 Blog

Top-rated cars for working people

The New York International Auto Show has been offering up plenty of glam and muscle to hog the spotlight since last week.

2011 Audi R8

MSN has had fun giving us the show’s 10 most notable unveils, and the 10 sexiest rides — i.e., to your right is a glimpse of the Audi R8 Spyder (go ahead, click the glitz for a full view).

“Give us sports cars and make them sexy as hell,” MSN’s Matthew de Paula declared. “We want 10-mile-per-gallon Lamborghini Gallardos and 510-horsepower Aston Martins all the way.”

Closer to ground level, Consumer Reports plodded forward to give us the New York standouts. Cars.com patiently poked and prodded the show’s winners and losers.

It’s a lot to digest, sort of like trying to eat your way into a bargain at an all-you-can eat buffet.

I guess that’s why my thoughts keep drifting back to a more meat-and-potatoes Top Picks announced just before the noise revved up in New York. Using affordability, comfort and safety as criteria, AAA selected the best cars to commute to work in.

And topping AAA’s list is the …

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Texans pay a lot for gas

I admit, I don’t know exactly how much I pay for gas every year. I bet most people don’t. But we should, because it’s a lot.

Average Texas drivers paid $1,819 for gas last year, chewing up 4.9 percent of their incomes, according to numbers crunched by the National Resources Defense Council.

Texas ranked seventh among states for percent of incomes spent on gas. Mississippi was first with 6.2 percent, while Connecticut was last with just 2.5 percent. 

Remember, though, regular-grade gas last year was 90 cents a gallon cheaper than in 2008, when prices careened to $4 a gallon. Thus, the point of this NRDC white paper: What would happen if prices, which are steadily rising, spiked again?

For Texans, the answer is gas bills 80 percent higher — or 8.7 percent of incomes. If the next spike turns into a steep plateau, the bill over a year would average $3,264.

Links:

• The 5-page paper, including all rankings
• The latest gas-price trends
• Lowest local gas prices

2005 Dodge Caravan 4th anniversary

This is somewhat obscure but while searching through papers for the upcoming tax adventure, I happened upon the original sales document for my 2005 Dodge Caravan which I purchased exactly four years ago to the day, March 28, 2006.  Since then I have added 69,271 miles to its already high one year total of 28,702 – it was probably a rental that maxed out early – making a grand total, as of today, of 97,973. more »

Suck in your knees, and meet the future

Imagine puttering around on a barstool, bumping elbows with the person next to you and hugging the bumper of the car in front.

You’re in an Electric Networked Vehicle, a smart electric car that will be able to drive, brake and pack more cars into shorter stretches of road while keeping traffic moving.

General Motors will display three models at the World Expo in May.

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INRIX: Congestion in SA slightly worse

Top 10 SA-area bottlenecks (in red)

Traffic data services company INRIX’s annual “National Traffic Scorecard” was released a few weeks ago, and it shows that traffic congestion in San Antonio increased slightly over the past year. 

This year, San Antonio ranked 25th in the nation in terms of overall traffic congestion.  After flip-flopping with Houston last year, the Dallas-Ft. Worth area regained the title as Texas’ most congested region, landing at the number five spot nationally.  Houston was sixth, and Austin was 23rd.  The Los Angeles area was tops.

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Austin back in the passenger rail game

Promo image from Capital Metro

After a 70-year hiatus, much debate and then a yearlong delay, Austin will soon join American cities that have added passenger rail back into the commuting mix.

On March 22, Capital Metro will start running diesel trains on a 32-mile route with nine stops from Leander to downtown Austin, the agency recently announced. A one-way trip will last a little more than an hour and the regular fare will be $3. 

Trains will come by every 35 minutes during peak travel times, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Nearly 200 people can fit in a car, including standing room.

To match the capacity of a highway lane, you’d have to hook up three cars at a time and run them every 15 minutes. 

Metro shelled out $105 million for its rail system, a figure that doesn’t include some direct costs, the Statesman said. Still, at about $3.3 million a mile, using an old rail line, the city struck a bargain as far as rail projects go.

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The only thing to look forward to is the past

Omnibus soaking its wheels in the SA river

With all the zippidy-doo-dah hoopla over the possibility of a return to streetcars, why not go the whole hog and bring back mule drawn omnibuses?  I mean, who else is doing that?  Let’s think outside the box and get out of Portland, Oregon’s shadow once and for all.  Think of the benefits.  No expensive overhead or the need to tear up streets for miles on end and tourists will love it.

Mule drawn streetcars were introduced in San Antonio in 1878 but omnibus service has that beat by seven years.  It cost 5 cents to go from Main Square to Alamo Plaza.  With all the money we’ll save by not installing staggeringly expensive streetcar systems and their unsightly overhead power lines, we could go back and charge the same fare in 2010 that it was in 1871.  I guess there is a flaw in my logic somewhere but, you know, I’ll be d****d if I know what it is.

Streetcar dreams: Now it’s time to talk money

Streetcar from VIA Metropolitan Transit report (looks like it's in Portland).

After starting the fiscal year by shaving $19 million in spending, including 330 jobs, the city is now being asked to kick in $17 million to build a two-mile streetcar line.

That’s just part of the bill to buy streetcars and lay rails along Broadway and South Alamo Street by 2014. The county, VIA Metropolitan Transit and the federal government could also pony up to help pay what would be an estimated $90 million.

City Council heard the pitch this afternoon.

“If there was any sticker shock … council members mostly kept it to themselves,” the Express-News wrote.

The city hasn’t made any commitments, at least not yet.

At $45 million a mile, the price tag is quite a bit cheaper than, say, turning U.S. 281 out by Stone Oak into a superhighway, or, I should say, tollway.

Ah, but already I’m talking apples and oranges. This quaint two-mile rail line wouldn’t be a wide commuter route helping connect San Antonio’s core to its fringes.

Nope, unlike U.S. 281′s role as an artery for sprawl, the rail line, if done well, would be a magnet for compact living, working and playing. The idea is to drive some growth to the inner city, by creating a place where people would gladly leave their cars behind more often. Tourists would love it too.

Nonetheless, critics and proponents will duke it out with such comparisons. And with so many angles on varying public and private costs, some visible and some not so visible, expect a debate that’s about as clear as mud.

Docs and links:

• City Council agenda briefing
• Downtown Circulator Study
• City 2010 budget highlights
• Express-News story