Austin Hwy used to be pretty smooth, but it's been pretty jacked up lately. I have no idea what's going on.

Kashchei said:

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Is it just me or just SA have some of the worst timed lights in the state? B/CS held the crown IMO, but lately lights have just become unbearable. The worst offender is Military Highway and Wurzbach.

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Yep. That's why I avoid it and I live there. Just down military at George there is a 3 second light. It's freakin awesome.

Could be wind messed up the cameras used to trip. We had a problem at an intersection close to us and they had to come out and adjust them.

Call 311 and complain. There is also an online form.

What good are traffic lights if they're not stopping traffic?



It would not surprise me if that actually is the attitude of the powers that be.
I can't believe how much time is spent with a green light where there's no traffic, while the almighty red holds up actual cars.

Moved to the area from the Houston area a little over two years ago. Absolutely love everything about living here...EXCEPT the timing of the traffic lights. The lights seem much longer than in Houston. I don't mind this during busy traffic times because it clears a lot of traffic through the intersection. For the life of me, I don't understand why the cycle isn't shortened during light traffic times. For example, I've had several instances of sitting at the light on 46 in Bulverde at 0530 wanting to turn South toward SA. Three of us waiting and waiting and waiting with no other opposite or cross traffic in sight. I don't mind those longer lights at 1730.

BUT if that's the only complaint about living here, I'm more than fine....

F4GIB71 said:

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The lights seem much longer than in Houston.

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This, and it really doesn't help that most San Antonians are too busy looking at their phones to notice that the light has gone green. There's always a 5 second pause before the first person takes off.

That's another issue entirely.

No one is in a hurry in this town. It's about the only thing I miss about Dallas. The speed of which traffic moves. ( when not stuck in stop and go traffic )

Kashchei said:

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Is it just me or just SA have some of the worst timed lights in the state? B/CS held the crown IMO, but lately lights have just become unbearable. The worst offender is Military Highway and Wurzbach.

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Good news! NW Military & Wurzbach construction will start in... 2019... and take two and a half years to complete so at best it will be done in 2022. If the result is anything like the other SA road construction by the time it is complete it will already be behind the current need at that time. #PUROSA

I'm sure the proposed land bridge will delay the project.

It's the circle of life...

Yes, it's awful. No one is ever in a hurry here either, especially when they're in the left-hand lane.

Producers_96 said:

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F4GIB71 said:

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The lights seem much longer than in Houston.

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This, and it really doesn't help that most San Antonians are too busy looking at their phones to notice that the light has gone green. There's always a 5 second pause before the first person takes off.

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This is offset by the 5-second delay that allows people to travel through the intersection after the lights had turned red.

p_bubel said:

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That's another issue entirely.

No one is in a hurry in this town. It's about the only thing I miss about Dallas. The speed of which traffic moves. ( when not stuck in stop and go traffic )

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Glad someone else feels this way. I've always said in Houston people go 80 in a 65... in San Antonio they go 50 in a 65.

Producers_96 said:

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Most San Antonians don't have a future, so they're never in any hurry to get there.

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Puro

You will be pleased to know that the guy in charge of all of this is an Aggie.

"Traffic Management Marc Jacobson, Senior Engineer

Traffic Management is responsible for the development and monitoring of the City's traffic signal system, which is comprised of over 1,350 signalized intersections. This includes responding to community concerns for various signal maintenance needs"

https://www.sanantonio.gov/TCI/Projects/Traffic-Signal-Management

Producers_96 said:

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Most San Antonians don't have a future, so they're never in any hurry to get there.

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jjmanzano said:

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Bandera between 410 and 1604....no!

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I think most of it is an elaborate ruse by Leon Valley. I liken it to a subliminal "If you lived here, you'd be home by now".

Thankfully I discovered a way around most of it and spit out at Bandera and Eckert.

My two "fave's":

1) Thousand Oaks at Rowe: no on waiting at Rowe but the TO right-of-way shuts down every 2 minutes for traffic that doesn't exist. Methinks this a cop trap for drunks.

2) Brookhollow/281 feeder: always a daytime need to run long light cycles to account for the once-in-20-minute occasion that a pedestrian needs to cross the street. There are few if any pedestrians that use this area. At night the light works great, but in rush hour, log-jams galore. For Christ sakes, it's only a 3-way intersection, but lasts as long as a turkey foot!

Redland and Jones Maltsberger is bad at night, too. There have been times that I had to just run it because after several minutes with no cars it never turned green for Redland.

Army.....The more things change the more they stay the same. I've been driving the streets of SA for 50 years. Coming home from the DPS office after I passed my drivers test, my dad, class of '50, told me.....Son if your going to drive in San Antonio, just assume everybody on the road is drunk.

My pet current peeve is the 410/151 interchange. Why wasn't that built as a cloverleaf to begin with? (King's English). Was nothing learned from the costs of retro-fitting the interchanges at 410/281 and 1604/281.

Question.....I haven't been out there lately, how far west of Culebra is 1604 completed without stopping for a light?

I don't know if it's a money issue or a competence issue, but the current changes still are not designed to future-proof.

I am not a transportation engineer. My understanding is that you probably won't see many cloverleaf interchanges in the future because the cost efficiency is not there. My understanding is that it is a better use of money to have a signalized interchange until the traffic load calls for a flyover interchange. It is also my understanding 410-281 was forever delayed because they didn't acquire enough real estate 50 years ago in anticipation of a massive flyover interchange. So when they finally had money to build the interchange they still had to buy more right of way.

No question about the history you quote. I was in the 5th grade when the bonds for what at the time was called the North Expressway, you don't hear that term anymore, were passed. I was 30 when it was opened to 410. Environmentalists fought it to the Supreme Court at least twice. None of their concerns over the last 35ish years have come true. Turned out they were being financed by the widow of a prominent San Antonian that owned the scrub land through Olmos Basin and wanted the route through her property. Once this was exposed opposition dropped and construction began. During all that time the area around 410 changed from being out in the country to the population center of SA. And God and the Legislature only know how much more it cost..

As far as 281/1604 is concerned, 1604 back in the day was two lane blacktop used mainly for dump trucks hauling various materials from the quarries. Though the 70's it was known as the "Death Loop". When I was at Ft. Sill and driving back to SA, 281 and 1604 was a blinking red light.

So much for the wind-up, here's the pitch. I used the word "cloverleaf" as a generic or layman's term, interchange would probably been a better word. Fact is the 410/151 exits were built with the lights you described and now are being retro-fitted as an interchange. Seems like that it could have been built that way from the beginning. .