Your Chamber organized and hosted a meeting yesterday with Judge Nelson Wolff, Commissioner Kevin Wolff, Councilman Ray Lopez, and representatives from the city, the county, TxDOT, San Antonio Mobility Coalition, and the South San Antonio and San Antonio Hispanic Chambers of Commerce to discuss an enhanced traffic incident management program for the San Antonio region to increase safety and reduce congestion. This follows a recent trip to Houston where area leaders, including Chamber President and CEO Richard Perez, learned about Houston’s SafeClear program, where tow trucks remove, as quickly as possible, any vehicle broken down on freeway shoulders or travel lanes. This has led to enhanced mobility and is something we hope to replicate in San Antonio.
In 2011, the Texas Legislature allocated $33.74 million to the San Antonio-Bexar County region to address congestion and improve safety on the highways. A multi-agency workgroup identified the need to conduct aggressive incident clearance as a top priority for all five of San Antonio’s most congested corridors. TxDOT applied a portion of the funds allocated to a study addressing incident clearance, resulting in several recommendations that were discussed during the meeting at the Chamber. The next step is to do a comprehensive analysis of city ordinances and policies that relate to stalled vehicles on our highways in order to begin creating an implementation plan. Your Chamber will stay on top of this budding congestion minimization effort
