There are all kinds of whiz-bang ideas out there to improve how residents get from one place to another that could be of keen interest to folks in the Midway area. For instance, by year’s end, Japan Airlines plans to offer nonstop fares from Lindbergh Field to Asia — for the first time ever. By 2018, it may well be possible to take the trolley all the way to UC San Diego. One day, bullet trains, trolleys, buses, a consolidated rental-car facility, moving sidewalks and all kinds of things related to improving one’s arrival and departure at the airport could all be available at a much-hyped 23-acre Intermodal Transit Center along Pacific Highway, south of Washington Street. A proposed study of the Interstate 8 corridor could identify ways to improve access to that freeway. Those were a few of the nuggets that members of the North Bay Community Planning Group (NBCPG) and other planning junkies learned about Feb. 15 during a progress report of the Midway-Pacific Highway Corridor Community Plan Update, a comprehensive effort that began in 2010. The event served as a unique opportunity for members of the public to find out about the progress of transportation projects and studies galore involving a who’s who of city, regional and state agencies including the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), Metropolitan Transit System, California High Speed Rail Authority, Caltrans and San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. But when the two-hour meeting was over, reaction from NBCPG members, who make recommendations to the San Diego City Council on land-use and quality-of-life issues in the Midway-Pacific Highway Corridor, was largely blase. SANDAG’s much-ballyhooed 2050 Regional Transportation Plan, a document that seeks to meet the region’s transportation needs over the next four decades with $196 billion in improvements, doesn’t adequately address everyday local traffic woes, said NBCPG Chairwoman Melanie Nickel. “There’s nothing in that plan that helps us,” Nickel said. “Our traffic problems are severe and are going to stay severe.” She said the two missing connections in the Interstate 8/Interstate 5 interchange, which prevent southbound traffic on I-5 from going west on I-8, and eastbound traffic on I-8 from going north on I-5, were the source of much of the traffic problems in the Midway area. “Everybody who wants to go north on 5 has to go through our community,” Nickel said. “We have two of the worst intersections in the city because of the fact that people are going through Midway who don’t want to be in Midway.” A mobility study by Fehr & Peers, a consultant working with the city, seemed to underscore that point. Traffic in the Midway area is a mixture of local and regional traffic using the area to access highways 5 and 8, said Steve Cook of Fehr & Peers, a transportation planning and engineering firm that studied existing conditions having to do with traffic, parking, transit, pedestrians and bicycles in the area. “With those missing connectors, it channelizes lots of traffic down Rosecrans and Nimitz to go through Midway Drive and Camino del Rio West,” said Cook. He listed high traffic volumes, limited regional access, the mixture of regional and local traffic, problematic intersections and confusing signage as the major problems in the area. Nickel had high praise for the Fehr & Peers report, but not for SANDAG and Caltrans. “They (Fehr & Peers) have a very good and thorough analysis; they really do understand what we’ve been telling them about our traffic situation. [Unfortunately], Caltrans and SANDAG both told us, ‘We have no help for you. You’re on your own.’ ” Chris Schmidt of Caltrans said the I-5/I-8 connectors don’t rate as high a priority compared to other needs in limited budgetary times. “We acknowledge it’s needed and desired,” Schmidt said. He said the corridor study could identify improvements to better access I-8 and relieve congestion. An economic market assessment report, a draft historic study and an archeological study will be presented at the next plan update session, said Tait Galloway, senior planner and staff member for the effort. That meeting will take place March 21 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the West City Campus, San Diego Community College, 3249 Fordham St.