By Christy Scannell | SDUN Reporter

Move San Diego and the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) have joined forces to make public transit a higher priority in SANDAG’s 2050 Regional Transportation Plan—and they are seeking help from Uptown residents and businesses.

Move San Diego and CALPIRG linked as the San Diego Regional Coalition for Transit Solutions in June. As SANDAG’s transportation plan is finalized over the next nine months—strategizing allocations of more than $100 billion for transit and freeway improvements over the next 40 years—the coalition wants to secure increased funding and consideration for public transit, said Elyse Lowe, Move San Diego’s executive director.

“We are targeting a group of stakeholders and working toward a specific goal for investment, planning and implementation for transit,” she said. “We want them to sign on to a specific platform and commit to meeting with SANDAG’s board of directors to influence the 2050 plan.”

Lowe said public transit has been woefully underserved in the draft plan, which continues to be revised.

“They didn’t have goals for frequency in transit service,” she said. “So [the coalition] said let’s get transit at 10-minute frequencies. Now it’s in there because we advocated for it. Shorter waits provide a more attractive transit option and get people out of their cars.”

SANDAG’s lack of attention to public transit, Lowe said, is especially concerning because the organization’s last transportation plan was called “Transit First.” Plus the new plan will be subject to state greenhouse gas emissions performance measures, which weren’t required in the previous transportation plan.

Lowe anticipates the final 2050 plan to reflect the need for reduced emissions.

“We expect that some of those freeway projects (in the draft) will be reduced,” she said.

The coalition also has been successful in securing additional dollars for public transit in the plan. Previously, SANDAG recommended $700 million for options, such as biking and walking improvements, but the coalition’s lobbying efforts ultimately led to a $2.58 billion allotment.

“It was a substantial increase,” Lowe said. “Some people thought that was too much money for bikes. But we had many people speaking out for it. It was our voice that let those elected officials be comfortable
with that decision.”

Now the coalition is working to reverse the 2050 plan’s priorities from freeways as a primary push to public transit as the initial advancement. In December, the SANDAG board voted to include a $4.5 billion expansion of the I-5 freeway in the 2050 plan. Meanwhile, the $43 million Mid-City Rapid Bus project—which would traverse Uptown on its way from San Diego State University to downtown—is floundering due to public disagreement.

“They’re going to spend billions of dollars expanding the I-5 but it won’t save any time (for drivers),” Lowe said. “People should be making a way bigger deal about that than a bus route that will provide resources for Mid-City people.”

While some say the Rapid Bus would not lead to a reduction in parking and street congestion, particularly
along the Park Boulevard corridor, Lowe said the benefits far outweigh the inconvenience.

“It’s been a real battle. Years ago when this project was first proposed it included dedicated lanes and would have been a lot faster. But people couldn’t get over the loss of some parking spaces for the bus to have its own lane,” she said. “In the community process the project has been reduced so much that now people say they don’t want it all. But if we want to become more transit-friendly and get out of cars, we have to say yes, it’s worth it. It’s absolutely worth it.”

Lowe said a successful Rapid Bus line will garner support for light rail—hailed as a better transportation
solution by some community leaders—in the future.

“The eventual plan is for light rail to be where the Mid-City RapidBus is,” she said. “But you’re never
going to get light rail unless you demonstrate that the transit corridor can support it. [Light rail] takes
20 years to design and plan.”

A project within the 2050 plan that Lowe said the coalition supports is the so-called Kearny Mesa
Guideway—previously the Uptown Spine—that would create a fast transit system from downtown through
Hillcrest into Mission Valley and ending at Kearny Mesa. While the details are still sketchy, she said
this is the kind of idea that will improve quality of lifefor a wide swath of people, but it will require removing
some of those parking spaces community members cherish.

“We would have transit priority lanes for buses only and there will be impacts,” she said, predicting that
project will face the same public outcry the Rapid Bus has undergone. “In San Diego we want transit
but we don’t want to give up anything that deprioritizes the car. It’s not a win-win situation.”

Lowe said she is aware of the community interest in bringing back Uptown’s iconic streetcars but that
while they are in the 2050 plan, they are not slated for implementation.

“I think streetcars are fun. They are an attractive choice for people taking really short trips, although
there is nothing really fast about them,” she said. “But there has been no money set aside for them at
all. SANDAG is depending on local businesses and communities to pick up the tab. They have zero (SANDAG)
funding attached to them.” The bottom line, Lowe said, is that the coalition agrees with a number of SANDAG’s initiatives in the 2050 plan—the organization conducted its own comprehensive look at the region called the “Fast Plan”—but there are still too many discrepancies yet for comfort. She said the coalition will continue to advocate for more dollars and time devoted to public transit, and they welcome those who want to join their effort.

“We will be working with all of the 18 jurisdictions in San Diego to advocate for smart growth and smart
transit. If people want to come out and help us we’d like to bring our partners to our meetings,” she said. “People who don’t want to take their cars should really speak up about having walkable, livable communities. They should be speaking out and writing letters to the editor that say we want money to go to more than freeway expansions. San Diego needs to be a safer place for biking, walking and connecting
to transit.”

To find out more about the San Diego Regional Coalition for Transit Solutions, go to sdrcts.wikispaces.com.