San Antonio could soon see the number of electric vehicles for hire grow significantly in the downtown corridor.
Though current rules allow 10 e-vehicles for hire, or e-cars that offer microtransit, to operate locally, San Antonio’s Transportation Advisory Board recommended tripling that number during a special called meeting on April 4.
Companies that seek permits can apply when permits are available, according to the San Antonio Police Department. They’re issued on a first-come, first-serve basis by SAPD’s Ground Transportation Unit, which manages permits for carriage, limousine, taxicab and tour companies.
The split board, which includes local taxicab, limousine and trolley business owners, could not agree on adding 40, then 30 more permits, but ultimately agreed on 20 more permits, bringing the total possible number to 30 such e-vehicle operators allowed.
The TAB’s recommendation will now be discussed with the city manager’s office, SAPD spokeswoman Camelia Juarez said.
SAPD Chief William McManus will make the final decision whether to change the rules to tweak the number of permits, but there is “no time period specified” for a decision, according to SAPD.
“The Transportation Advisory Board only makes recommendations to city council or city staff, these recommendations are not binding, however all recommendations are reviewed,” Juarez said.
The TAB said it would reconvene in six months to review Centro San Antonio’s UTSA shuttle pilot data to determine if 20 more permits is enough, although 6-month-old SaGO offered their data for review.
It is unclear if McManus will wait until the board’s update to make a decision.
Operators in downtown
The move would increase microtransit options in construction-burdened downtown, affecting walkability and traffic, several speakers said. New sky-rise apartments, hotels and sports entertainment coming to downtown are expected to pull even more people into the center city, creating the need for short-distance travel.
Increasing the number of available e-vehicle permits in San Antonio would allow current operators to apply for more permits, like Centro SA, which plans to expand its pilot shuttle service with the University of Texas at San Antonio, The Little Runner, for downtown residents, employees and tourists and not just UTSA students.
For now, the shuttles have been able to operate without e-vehicle permits because of the partnership with UTSA, a government body, and it is not charging its customers, said Centro SA CEO Trish DeBerry during public comment.
Currently, e-vehicles that do not have permits can operate as long as they’re not charging riders a fare. Some companies operate completely free or are funded by voluntary tips and partnerships, like DEST Ride SA, a microtransit company with a niche for transporting people to downtown bars and the permitted SaGO.
The $150,000 Little Runner pilot is funded by Centro SA, UTSA and VIA. City Council was slated to consider a proposal to contribute $100,000, but it never made it to the agenda. Assistant City Manager Lori Houston explained at the meeting that Centro SA would need to apply for permits if it wanted to operate without UTSA.
Though SaGO and two other companies were invited to submit proposals for the Little Runner pilot program through an informal bid process, Centro SA announced that it selected Austin-based microtransit company e-Cab of North America in December, which provided a mobile app, data, and background checked their drivers.
SaGO operates intermittently from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and until 11 p.m. on weekends, but recently, due to the growth of other options and growing demand, the owners of SaGO Kevin and Liz Mancha have had to cut hours, and aren’t able to get to all the ride requests.
Representatives for Centro SA told the board that The Little Runner does not operate in evenings or on the weekends, and therefore doesn’t compete with current operators, but SaGO’ owners say the shuttles look similar, and that hours of operation and routes coincide.
“It looks like we’re failing, and that’s because of what’s happening,” Liz Mancha said, referring to the CentroSA pilot project. “They say it’s free, it’s OK, competition is great, but is it? That doesn’t make sense for us.”
A presentation to the TAB showed The Little Runner operates four e-vehicles Monday to Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., and on Fridays until 7 p.m. and that it has three more on standby.
Its circulator operates on a fixed route for UTSA campuses, intermittently, but the Little Runner sometimes takes detours to get through town safely due to construction, according to Centro SA.
“From what I understand, their option is free, too, so the space is on a level playing field. I’m not concerned about that, and I also think we’ve been very diligent in the hours of operation that we’re moving through the PID,” DeBerry told the San Antonio Report.
Flooding the market?
SaGO’s plan has always been to provide free short-distance rides across downtown, sustained through bigger partnerships. The Manchas hoped to get boost funding from municipal departments or federal grant opportunities, but they haven’t secured funds to keep operations free.
Kevin Mancha told the TAB that SaGO started without any funding, and that it wants to stay free because their years of experience operating motorbike sidecar company San Antonio Sidecars has shown them that locals, tourists and employees downtown need fare-free transportation. As locals, the opportunity to provide a free service is personal, told the San Antonio Report, but they’re limited.
Expanding permits now could mean “bringing in a non-local entity to operate in the community,” Mancha said, while locally-owned e-shuttles could have the capacity to meet the need for free fares for the public if they had funding.
“It’s a free enterprise, it’s a free market, that’s how business operates, but at the same time, at what cost?” he said. “We don’t want that lost opportunity to be able to support local.”
Centro SA will apply for seven more permits if SAPD expands the number of e-vehicles-for-hire permits allowed to operate, but the permits would be for e-Cab of North America, which currently operates in Austin, Bastrop, San Marcos.
Board members listened, and some worried aloud that too many more e-vehicle permits would put current operators out of business and flood the market, contributing to traffic in downtown.
District 6 board member Erica LaHood said the committee’s duty was to make a recommendation, and based on public comments, the need for microtransit in downtown is significant.
District 8 board member Javier Tristan said this was a chance for San Antonio to regulate microtransit and not repeat history.
“We should be concerned as a board how it’s going to affect current operators,” District 5 transportation advisory board member Robert Gonzales added. “Otherwise, it’s going to become another Uber-taxi cab situation. The rideshares came here and pretty much put the taxi cab industry out of business.”
