Growth, gasoline prices, traffic congestion, inadequate transit, traffic fatalities, mobility, accessibility to jobs and health care, transportation funding, air quality, sprawl, peak oil, potholes, speed bumps, climate change, globalization, carbon emissions – the issues surrounding transportation today are numerous.  How are we in San Antonio dealing with these issues?  If you read the local newspaper, you would think that the only tool in the transportation planner's toolbox is a toll road!

The purpose of this half-day workshop is to address the importance of achieving a more livable and sustainable San Antonio through the development of a range of transportation choices and to identify the range of options that are available.  The interaction between transportation and land development will be specifically addressed because the solution to some problems perceived as transportation issues actually lay in the diversity of land uses, urban and neighborhood design, and the density of development.

The targeted audience is:

• Professionals involved in, or interested in, the planning and design of transportation facilities and systems;
• Decision makers, including elected officials, who are involved with transportation policy decisions; and
• Activist citizens and other members of the general public with an interest in regional transportation policies and their impact on the community.

Because of the recent local intense focus on toll roads and freeways, the workshop will not directly focus on these transport modes.  Further, the goal is to provide an informal, open forum for the exchange of information and views on sustainable transportation alternatives that support a livable community.  There will be no attempt to select the best modes for San Antonio during this conference.

Three underlying principles in organizing this workshop are that:

• there is value in having a mix of travel options;
• a transportation program is needed that is sustainable and contributes to the livability of the region, and
• land development patterns and transportation systems interact so intimately that it is impossible to address one without including the other.

Bus rapid transit (BRT) will also not be directly addressed in this workshop because workshops were just held (Feb 12-13 and 14-15) on this specific topic in San Antonio.  There will, however, be an update on the surprising status of passenger rail transit around the state with examples of the associated transit oriented development.

There will be six speakers to address these topics:

• overview of the need for travel choices
• the interaction between travel and urban design, density and diversity put into practice through scenario planning;
• the "heart" of the assessments required under the National Environmental Policy Act is the examination of alternatives, including such options in a corridor as:
• High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes
• reversible lanes
• contraflow lanes
• access management
• innovative intersection and traffic signal system designs
• Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)
• Transportation System Management (TSM)
• rail transit (light rail, historic rail and commuter rail) existing and currently being planned in Texas with examples of resulting transit oriented development
• the "third mode" (after highways and transit) to include:
• flexible work hours
• parking programs
• carpooling
• carsharing (short term urban car rental)
• telecommuting
• walking and biking
• the luncheon speaker will summarize the transportation energy situation and discuss near term and long term options to reduce dependence on expensive fossil fuels and emissions of carbon.  Of particular interest locally is the potential use of solar energy to power transportation.

Participants will leave the workshop with:

• a better understanding of the need for transportation options in urban areas,
• how travel and land development interact,
• information on the variety of travel modes and travel substitutes now in place in cities, and
• an appreciation of the important opportunity the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) provides for the exploration of alternatives in transportation corridors.

Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson has agreed to allow Bexar County to be the anchor host of the conference, but partners are being sought to help with the funding, staffing, promotion and organization of the conference.  At this writing, the City of San Antonio is providing the venue and the MPO is sponsoring the luncheon.  The San Antonio chapter of the American Institute of Architects is sponsoring speaker Dr. Reid Ewing; Environmental Defense is sponsoring speaker Michael Replogle; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is sponsoring speaker Dr. Marc Melaina; and the Houston Advanced Research Center is sponsoring speaker David Hitchcock.