San Diego Association of Governments has partnered with Caltrans to improve the way people travel regionwide by studying the potential impacts of a Central Mobility Hub and a connecting transit facility to the airport from Downtown or Port of San Diego headquarters.

SANDAG is the metropolitan planning agency for the County comprised of mayors, council members, and county supervisors.

The California Department of Transportation, headquartered in Sacramento, manages the state’s highway system, which includes the California Freeway and Express System. It also supports public transportation systems.

After analyzing data, collecting surveys, and asking for public input, a Draft Central Mobility Hub and Connections Comprehensive Multi-modal Corridor Plan has been released for public review.

SANDAG and Caltrans have also launched a public survey to assist in the development of the Central Mobility Hub and Connections Comprehensive Multimodal Corridor Plan. The survey will remain open through June 5.
The Central Mobility Hub and Connections Comprehensive Multimodal Corridor Plan is one of five priority corridor plans being developed by SANDAG and Caltrans. The study area for this plan includes the Midway District, Old Town, Downtown, and parts of Point Loma.
The Central Mobility Hub is envisioned to be a multimodal transportation center that would connect current and future public transportation options and provide a much-needed direct transit connection to San Diego International Airport. The Central Mobility Hub also could enhance the surrounding community and travel experience by providing an array of amenities, public gathering areas, and mobility services.

Following is a Q&A with Ryan Kohut, SANDAG director of strategic projects, about planning for the proposed Central Mobility Hub.

Faro: What is a Central Mobility Hub, what is its purpose, and why do we need it?

Kohut: It’s a place where all your transportation modes – buses, cars, pedestrians, bicycles – all come together to provide an opportunity for people to use one mode of travel coming in, and to transfer to something else to get where they need to go. Examples include Union Station in Los Angeles and Grand Central Station in New York.

We feel a CMH is something that has been lacking here in the San Diego region. We need lots of individual “investments” in our bus and trolley routes, our highways and roadways, and our pedestrian and bicycle facilities. We don’t have one place where the whole (transportation) network comes together, and works together, to provide choices for people on how they move around.

Faro: Our understanding is Old Town was being considered as a CMH until last year. Why was that plan dropped?

Kohut: SANDAG originally started off with a subcommittee studying how we would create this long-needed transportation linkage between the regional transit system and the airport. San Diego International Airport is one of the largest airports in the country that does not have a fixed transit connection to the airport.

In Old Town, we started out working with the Navy, which was looking to redevelop its Old Town campus that currently houses NAVWAR. The Navy was looking to redevelop that site, with the goal of using that redevelopment to fund a new Navy NAVWAR. SANDAG saw that as an opportunity to work together with the Navy and possibly include our CMH as part of that project.

We worked together for more than a year. But because of what the Navy was trying to do, we just couldn’t find a way to make that work. So, on April 22, 2022, the Navy and SANDAG agreed to go their own ways.

Faro: One of the new possible sites for the CMH is the Port of San Diego. Why is that site desirable?

Kohut: In working with the Navy, one of the big public comments we got was, ‘Why don’t you create this transit linkage using Port of San Diego headquarters?’ We said that was very interesting. The headquarters sits adjacent to Interstate 5 and near an existing trolley stop not too far from the airport. We decided to take a look at it. Right now, SANDAG is undertaking an airport transit connection concept study to look at the various opportunities to develop some kind of transit connection from the Port site to the airport terminals.

The other major public comment we received asked us why we were not looking at connecting the downtown urban core, which is a large employment center and important to our tourist economy, to the airport.

Right now, we’re also looking into having an Automated People Mover transit connection in Downtown somewhere, like the Santa Fe Depot or the City Civic Center. We’re looking at the opportunity to have some kind of enhanced bus service, or some other kind of transit connection, to the airport. We intend to complete that study and bring it back to our SANDAG board after this summer.

Faro: How would a new airport transit connection link to a future Central Mobility Hub in Downtown?

Kohut: Through enhanced buses or an extension of our existing trolley system, or an Automated People Mover between Downtown and the airport. APMs are very common for airport applications. They are driverless roll-on, walk-off vehicles people can use to travel to an airport with luggage. They can operate really quickly, every 2 to 4 minutes, unlike other types of vehicles that take 15 or 30 minutes between rides. They are very reliable for people making them feel comfortable trusting them to get to their plane flight.

Faro: What kind of a timeline are talking about here for a Central Mobility Hub?

Kohut: We’re concentrating on the airport transit connection first. We intend to complete that concept study and bring it back to the SANDAG board late this summer. After that, we’re going to solicit input from the public and stakeholders. Then we intend to come back later in the year and ask our board for their direction as to which concept(s) (Downtown or Port connections) to advance into the environmental process.

Until we do that, we are unable to establish a clear timeline for when and how we’re going to get a draft environmental document that we can then bring to our board for review and potential approval. The environmental document is what we need to be considered shovel-ready so that we can get the project into the pipeline and start looking for state and federal funding for construction. The environmental process usually takes a couple of years. If we can get funding for construction, I think you could expect a CMH project to come online sometime this decade.