city accepted<\/a> $5.4 million in federal funds last year to build a bike route and improve sidewalks along North Frio Street west of downtown, it committed to providing $1.4 million in local funds.<\/p>\nThe transportation department already has experience finding creative ways to make bike projects happen, Hernandez said.<\/p>\n
“In previous years, our capacity was bigger. Right now we need to assess, what is our capacity? Have we leveraged all resources to grow that capacity?” \u00a0Hernandez said. “In the meantime, what we’re doing is, assuming we do have a smaller capacity, we have our list of projects… We prioritize to say, OK, let’s submit these because this is one we have a lot of community input on.\u00a0McCullough is one of those.”<\/p>\n
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The city can point to bike infrastructure successes it has achieved in the year and a half since the City Council approved the Bike Network Plan. Last month, it celebrated the opening of a 0.4-mile stretch of protected bike lanes on Camden Street, near the Pearl. It has added bike lanes on Santa Rosa Street, Alamo Street and Avenue B downtown, and along the extension of\u00a0Sonterra Road in Stone Oak.<\/p>\n
Since the beginning of 2025, the city has installed more than 13 miles of bike infrastructure, including new lanes and shared-use paths \u2013 throughways that can be shared by cyclists and pedestrians, according to the transportation department.<\/p>\n
The new lanes and paths bring San Antonio to a total of 518 miles of bike infrastructure, the department said. That’s still a far cry from the 1,890-mile network of bike lanes envisioned in the Bike Network Plan.<\/p>\n
The city is aiming to complete another 19.3 miles of bike infrastructure next year, including shared-use paths spanning thoroughfares such as Zarzamora Street, Culebra Road and Huebner Road, according to the department.<\/p>\n
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The scope of the McCullough project would be determined through a public input process,\u00a0Hernandez said. It is expected to cost about $50 million.<\/p>\n
She emphasized that the department operates with only 15 employees, including five on its project delivery team, working to implement not only the Bike Network Plan but the city’s Vision Zero traffic safety initiative. It often “piggybacks” onto road projects overseen by other departments, such as Public Works. For example, bike infrastructure was added as part of the city’s recently-completed $58.9 million reconstruction of Alamo Street downtown.<\/p>\n
“I’m impressed with the work that they have done with the small amount that they have, pushing themselves and pushing the funds as far as they can,” she said. “We know that this last fiscal year and in the upcoming fiscal year, our resources are tight. We have to make lemonade, right? We’re doing everything we can to leverage everywhere we can.”<\/p>\n
The department is preparing to gather public input on the possibility of revising two ordinances to make it easier to cycle in San Antonio. One change would give neighborhoods more flexibility in removing street parking for bike lanes; the other would relax a law prohibiting riding a bike on a sidewalk.<\/p>\n
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In gathering input for the Bike Network Plan, the city heard from parents who would like for their children to be able to bike to school, she said. “But there’s no safe infrastructure, and they technically can’t ride on the sidewalk.”<\/p>\n
While San Antonio has sometimes been wary of new bike infrastructure \u2014 in 2013,\u00a0the city replaced one of four vehicle lanes on South Flores Street with a pair of bike lanes, only to remove the bike lanes a year later after complaints \u2014 Hernandez said she has seen support for residents, including at a recent community input meeting for the bond in District 4, on the Southwest Side.<\/p>\n
“There were people that were talking to me about adding bike infrastructure, wanting to see the connections to the parks, to the trails,” she said. “We recognize that there are people who do not have access to a car, cannot afford a car. Cycling or taking transit are their options. If they can’t ride on a sidewalk because it’s illegal, where are they going to go?”<\/p>\n
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