DEPARTMENT: Transportation & Capital Improvements Department
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Art Reinhardt, PE, CFM, Assistant Director
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT: SA Tomorrow Multimodal Transportation Plan Briefing
SUMMARY:
The Transportation & Capital Improvements Department (TCI) will provide a briefing to the City Council Comprehensive Plan Committee on the SA Tomorrow Multimodal Transportation Plan (Plan) policy related actions necessary for future Plan implementation.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The City of San Antonio is projected to grow significantly over the next two decades and developing a plan to accommodate that growth was the driving objective in developing the SA Tomorrow Plans (Comprehensive Plan, Multimodal Transportation Plan, and Sustainability Plan). All three SA Tomorrow plans were adopted by City Council in August 2016.
The Comprehensive Plan provides policy guidance on where and how to grow. The Multimodal Transportation Plan provides a vision for the future that utilizes technology and innovation to transform our existing transportation system into a dynamic, balanced, and forward thinking system. The Sustainability Plan articulates the City’s sustainability strategy, serving as a roadmap to make our community and municipal operations more sustainable, improving quality of life for all residents, and building overall community resilience.
ISSUE:
The Multimodal Transportation Plan (Plan) developed a set of goals to provide the framework for developing transportation policies. There is an intentional connection of these goals back to the City’s Comprehensive Plan. These policy areas include:
• Planning & Investment
• Multimodal Transportation
• Safety & Comfort
• General Policies
• Land Use & Transit Supportive Development
• Regional Transportation
• Technology & Innovation
Within the policy areas above, the SA Tomorrow process identified many existing policies that serve as barriers to implementing the Plan. However, the purpose of this briefing is to focus on existing policy barriers within the City’s Unified Development Code (UDC). The top three existing policies that should be reviewed with future UDC amendments include the following:
• Cross Sections for Roadway Classifications
• Access Management (Median and Driveway Spacing)
• Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) Exemptions
Cross Sections for Roadway Classifications:
Cross sections can dictate how all modes of transportation and design elements are handled within the right-of-way. There is a need to right-size the right-of-way and pavement widths to facilitate a variety of cross sections based upon roadway classification and adjacent land use. More roadway classification options are needed with context sensitivity design based upon the adjacent land use. Adjustments are also needed to the values included in the UDC (i.e. right-of-way widths, buffers widths for sidewalks and bicycle facilities, design speed review, pavement widths, wider sidewalks based on land use context, etc.) associated with each street classification (i.e. arterial, collector, local, etc.).
A well-designed facility integrates all modes of travel in a safe and cost efficient manner within the context of the community. This allows a design approach that requires streets to be designed be planned, operated and maintained to enable safe, convenient and comfortable travel and access for users of all ages and abilities regardless of their mode of transportation.
• Conventional thoroughfare design processes emphasize vehicular mobility and the provision of automobile access to adjoining land uses, primarily using functional classification, traffic volume, and design speed as the determinants for design parameters.
• Context sensitivity design provides more integration of thoroughfares with their surroundings. This results in a new emphasis on urban thoroughfares with features that emphasize multimodal safety and mobility, as well as support for the activities of the adjacent land uses.
Access Management:
Access management includes several techniques that are designed to increase the capacity of the roads, manage congestion, and reduce crashes. Raised medians also provide extra protection for pedestrians.
• Excessive median openings lead to increased roadway conflict points and crashes. Currently the UDC allows for different spacing based on functional roadway classification ranging from 660-ft to 400-ft spacing of openings. Median treatments for roadways represent one of the most effective means to regulate access and improve safety, but also can be very controversial since access to adjacent land uses may be reduced.
• Current driveway spacing requirements cause conflicts and congestion along roadways that lead to traffic crashes. Large numbers of driveways increase the potential conflicts on the road as well as the rate of crashes. With higher numbers of access points, congestion will increase significantly. Currently, the UDC allows spacing of driveways at a minimum of 50-ft from another driveway on same side of the road, and a minimum offset of 175-ft from a driveway across the road. Additionally, a driveway may be granted for every 200-ft of frontage. Fewer driveways spaced further apart allow for more orderly merging of traffic and present fewer challenges to drivers. Reduced driveways will help to maintain free flow speeds. Fewer driveways also reduces the number of conflicts points with pedestrians and bicyclists. Access to collector roadways should be promoted and access to arterial roadways should be limited.
Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) Exemptions:
The UDC allows for exemptions of Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) studies for Infill Development Zone (IDZ), Downtown Zoning (D), Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND), and Transit Oriented Development (TOD). These exemptions relieve the need to provide transportation mitigation infrastructure needed related to the proposed development and the impact it will have on the transportation network system. Future transportation improvements are being placed on the City to provide for new developments with limited budgets. Some level of traffic analysis study should be required for all developments. Study thresholds can be adjusted to fit different situations. Providing some type of traffic analysis will identify impacts on the existing transportation system improvements due to the development and will allow the city to include such projects in future city programs (i.e. Infrastructure Management Program, Bond Program, etc.)
ALTERNATIVES:
This briefing is for informational purposes only.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This briefing is for informational purposes only.
RECOMMENDATION:
This briefing is for informational purposes only.