Travel: Christmas holiday New Year
by Patrick
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Holiday travelers feeling the spirit
Though millions of people still look for work, Americans are starting to spend and travel more as a hobbled economy appears to limp toward a long recovery.
Over the Christmas and New Year’s break, 87.7 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home, up 3.8 percent from last year’s bleak season and the largest jump in six years, according to AAA.
That means one in four U.S. residents will soon be on the roads, riding rails or in the air to see friends and family this season. Travelers budgeted an average of $1,009 per household for the holidays, with two-thirds expecting to spend at least as much as they did at this time last year, an AAA survey indicates.
Thanksgiving travel shows glimmer of hope
AAA Thanksgiving 2009 Travel Forecast
Americans shaken by last year’s economic crash may be regaining enough confidence to hit the roads in higher numbers this Thanksgiving, according to AAA.
When a wobbly economy finally nose-dived last fall, Thanksgiving trips also plunged, by 25 percent from the year before, the travel association reports.
This year, with unemployment higher than it’s been since 1983 despite economic growth last quarter, 38.4 million Americans — one in eight — will travel at least 50 miles from home, up a slight 1.4 percent.
But the numbers, like the economy, could be rickety.
Commuting History Oil and gas prices Passenger rail Railroads Roads Transit Travel
by Hugh
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SA – Austin passenger rail still dead
Like the old Saturday Night sketch about Generalissimo Franco, passenger rail between San Antonio and Austin is still dead. Oh a mortician applied a new coat of make-up, but the poor old stiff ain’t going nowhere. After twelve years of failure, a new name and an application for $5 million of tax payer money was enough to create a blip of interest but even that has not lasted long. Oh well.
Last Ford Model T cruise of 2009
Model Ts at Guadalupe River State Park
I was able, among other pressing projects, to squeeze in one last Model T drive yesterday, Saturday November 14. Accompanied by three other Ts, we drove from the Texas Transportation Museum on Wetmore Road twenty seven miles to the Guadalupe River State Park. Our small convoy represented the gamut of Ts well. There was an open tourer, a closed sedan, a light duty pick-up and the “Diva,” the museum’s heavy duty truck. I began calling it the Diva due to its unfortunate habit of running perfectly well at the museum and local roads but acting up horribly at any public event while, often, being the center of attention, for reasons that both bemuse and confuse me.
Oil and gas prices Roads Travel: economy
by Patrick
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Rising gas prices for a growing economy
Rising gas prices, along with a renewed American appetite to drive, offer yet more signs that the recession has lifted.
The U.S. economy, much of it fed by federal stimulus injections, grew 3-1/2 percent last quarter despite unemployment climbing to a two-and-a-half-decade high.Â
Growing also are gas prices, according to Energy Information Administration data. Regular unleaded swelled 26 cents a gallon since last month, and today settled at a yearly high of $2.69 a gallon.
San Antonio prices average $2.53, up nearly 20 cents from a month ago, AAA reports.
Commuting History Passenger rail Railroads Safety Transit Travel
by Hugh
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No news = good news for railroads
I’m guessing you haven’t heard much about the railroads recently. The more they fly under the radar the better they like it because these days, when it comes to railroads, only bad news is good news. The Union Pacific is probably happy. Sure beats 2004 and the torrent of bad news way back then. These days they are regarded as just one step up from the water and sewage systems. These only make the headlines when something goes wrong. Certainly there are still far too many accidents at grade level road crossings but few blame the railroad for this anymore. If drivers are willing to risk absolutely everything to beat the train, just to save a minute or two and not miss the beginning of “Jeopardy” or something equally banal, well, you cannot legislate away stupidity.
History Roads Travel: classic cars driving old cars restoration
by Hugh
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1929 REO at the Alamo
Some old car restorations take longer than others. In the case of the 1929 REO Flying Cloud coupe belonging to the Texas Transportation Museum, it took a number of volunteers over ten years. But today, just in time for its 80th anniversary, it made its public San Antonio debut at the San Antonio Founder’s Day event held at the Alamo today, Saturday October 24, 2009.
Bicycles History Oil and gas prices Roads Travel: classic cars Travel Welcome
by Hugh
Comments Off on Hello from Hugh Hemphill
Hello from Hugh Hemphill
Right off the bat, I’m not from these parts. I hail, let’s get this out of the way right now so we can forget about it, from Scotland. And yet I sound like an Englishman. Go figure. I’ve been here since 1991, eighteen years, almost two-thirds of my adult life. I came here at thirty and as I stare fifty right in the face let me tell you that coming to Texas remains one of my better decisions. I like it here. A lot.
Aviation Travel: San Antonio International Airport TransGuide website
by Brian
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Transportation website makeovers
New airport website
Two local transportation-related websites have gotten or are about to get long-overdue overhauls. First, sometime last month, San Antonio International Airport launched their vastly improved website. Besides being much more professional-looking, the new website is substantially easier to navigate, is less cluttered than the old one, and just works better overall. Along with the new airport site is a companion site called “SAOnTheFly“, which is dedicated solely to the award-winning concessions program at the airport. It’s here that I found the feature I like best– the very slick interactive terminal maps. Congratulations to those involved in these new sites!
Another site getting a much-needed makeover soon is the TransGuide website. Visiting their website, you’ll see a big “TransGuide website upgrade coming end of October 2009” banner with a “beta” preview of the site already online alongside the soon-to-be “legacy” site. I’ll have more details of the new TransGuide site on a future posting.