lane reduction

New Texas GOP platform condemns ‘road diets,’ complicating path for Broadway

Proponents of San Antonio’s Broadway renovation hope Gov. Greg Abbott will back down on his opposition to lane reductions — a key feature of the project’s multimodal corridor — after the November election. 

But transportation activists who’ve supported the governor are seeking to tie his hands on the issue as Abbott heads into a tightening reelection race this fall. 

Plank 63 in the 2022 Texas GOP platform, released Wednesday, calls for the party to oppose “anti-car measures,” including ‘road diet’ mandates designed to shrink auto capacity and/or intentionally clog vehicle lanes to force deference to pedestrian, bike, and mass transit options.”

Kerrville conservative activist Terri Hall, whose group Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom (TURF) fights toll roads and lane reduction projects across the state, pushed for the plank’s inclusion.

Link to article here.

With its future uncertain, Broadway project moves to local transportation agency’s back burner

While the Texas Department of Transportation and the City of San Antonio continue to butt heads over how the Broadway corridor should be revamped, an agency that coordinates the area’s state, local and federal transportation plans is moving the project off of its short-range project list. 

The move is designed to give the City of San Antonio and TxDOT time to resolve their differences over potential lane reductions the city wants to implement and TxDOT says it won’t allow. 

“The funding is still there and committed to the project,” Alamo Area Metropolitan Metropolitan Planning Organization Director Sid Martinez said of the group’s decision to deprioritize Broadway. “If the city and Texas have decided they can move forward with something, [the project] can easily be moved back” into the short-range plan.

Link to article here.

TxDOT gives cold shoulder to San Antonio’s latest plan to remake Broadway

by Andrea Drusch August 2, 2022, San Antonio Report

The City of San Antonio’s latest plan to bring the Texas Department of Transportation back on board with its plans for the the Broadway corridor appears dead on arrival.

San Antonio submitted an updated proposal for the Broadway renovation that would make some changes to address TxDOT’s concerns with traffic congestion through synchronized traffic signals, consolidated driveways and raised medians to eliminate left turns. The new plan would still include reducing the number of lanes from six to four, something TxDOT has said it won’t consider.

City leaders presented the plan to TxDOT officials, including Texas Transportation Commission Chairman J. Bruce Bugg Jr., on June 14. City Manager Erik Walsh said Tuesday the city hadn’t received a response, but TxDOT later issued a statement reiterating the agency’s opposition to lane reductions.