Mass Transit Efforts Revamped

In May 2016, The Streetcar Coalition successfully submitted 20,000 signatures to our city government and amended the city’s charter to require that:

Sec. 3a. Limitation on powers; streetcar or light rail.
No grant of permission to alter or damage any public way of the city for the laying of streetcar or light rail tracks shall ever be valid, and no funds shall be appropriated and no bonds or notes shall be issued or sold for the purpose of streetcar or light rail systems, unless first approved by a majority of the qualified electors of the city voting at an election containing a proposition specifically identified for and limited to such purpose. (Ord. No. 2015-05-20-0423, § 3 (Prop. 1), 5-20-15)

Unfortunately, efforts to repackage and revive the mass transit issue began immediately after the amendment took effect. The latest variation has resurfaced under the name of ViaVision 2040, which “was adopted after almost two years of community outreach and engagement to help shape the future of transit for our region.”

VIA Metropolitan Transit is currently soliciting input for Phase II of the Rapid Transit Corridor (RTC) Studies. An introductory videos of the plan can be viewed here.

Several members of the Streetcar Coalition responsible for the amendment change have attended the public meeting discussions. The following are observations made by attendees:
*VIA stated that their $20 million investment cannot be used to fund streetcars
*VIA is only considering two options for transportation, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT). There was no explanation for why these two modes are the only ones being considered
*There was no explanation given for the identification of traffic “corridors” in the city and, in particular, how they chose the four corridors that are the subject of the studies
*They acknowledged that, if congestion reduction were a goal, there would be east-west corridors across the north side. In fact, there are none and the only east-west corridor runs to Lackland and the other 3 are all north-south
*Without federal funding, the LRT option is not possible because, under the Trump budget, there are no monies available for new rail projects.