I like that you point out buses are much cheaper to operate at the same frequency than rail transit because they use less specialized equipment. There is this persistent myth in the transit enthusiast community that buses are more expensive to run than trains because of their lower capacity, but that only becomes relevant if you are having to run them at unreasonably high frequency to meet ridership demand, which is only the case for a handful of bus lines in the US (the 38/38R in San Francisco, for example). My opinion is that cities should focus on getting the majority of their local bus routes up to at least 15 minute frequency and adding bus-only lanes to major corridors before they focus on big infrastructure projects, because rail transit lines aren't worth much if they don't have good intermodal connections. And I think rezoning to increase population density should be even higher priority than that, because a higher population density means more tax revenue relative to the area that needs to be serviced, making service improvements less reliant on the success of new tax measures.
Do you have sources on that? You have to include how much you spend on vehicle maintenance, fuel/electricity usage and driver pay per the number of passengers transported. You also have to include vehicle lifetime, busses usually last 8 to 10 years whereas light rail vehicles can last 30 years.
@ Buses typically last 12-20 years as a clarification, and unless something is seriously wrong with them are not allowed to be retired at less than 12 years old. A 4-car light rail train set costs around $15 million, while a bus costs around half a million. Rail lines need dedicated rights-of-way, rails, and require a lot more maintenance of infrastructure, while buses just need the vehicles maintained. And sure, rail lines are higher capacity, but we don’t have capacity issues here in San Diego, ridership is fairly low, and we should be focusing on growing that through providing as much convenient and widespread transit service as possible.
Are you just making the point that a oversized rail system with more capacity than the demand it is serving would be less operationally cost-effective as a bus system since buses can be scaled to lower capacity than a train normally can? Or are you saying at a given capacity buses are actually more operationally cost-effective than rail assuming both are optimized for that capacity? (or is the latter true below a given capacity/demand threshold after which rail becomes better?) Like if you had an automated light metro line running 1 or two car trains and a bus line of the same capacity, and they both had the same demand, wouldn't the automated light metro line always be cheaper to run? (Ignoring capital costs which would obviously be much much higher for the light metro line). Also wouldn't the light metro be much more attractive to riders since it'd be faster? I partly wonder this since he mentions Vancouver as an example, and that city benefits a lot from an automated light metro network that has very high frequencies which are enabled by the automation, whereas San Diego is using human operated trains that in some places run at grade, which requires the trains to be longer and lower frequency, and thus worse at catering to the transit demand that exists in san diego.
10 years ago Metro Vancouver Canada voted down a referendum to fund public transit. While undoubtably had it passed things would be even better, but we still have one of the best transit systems in Canada/US. (Although they are facing a big operational budget deficiency right now which hopefully gets resolved soon by senior government). The point being not all hope is lost even if a vote is.
You made a really good point about how we need to prioritize fixing local things sometimes. A lot of people have the mindset that building new rapid transit systems is #1, and while in some cases building a new rapid transit system would be nice, a lot of the time local stuff is overlooked and I love how you touched on that. Great video as always, Zaref!
@@thesoundoftransit For sure - modal preference for rapid transit is very real and biases this kind of thing, but it can result in a worse transit system if there’s no local service to supplement it!
This is by far the best San Diego transit video I've seen so far. Nice footage, good audio, rational thoughts and excellent editing! Keep up the great work!
I live in San Diego. The mood here is that we already live in one of the most expensive cities in the country. We also do NOT trust SANDAG. They are increasingly viewed as incapable of managing funds. While there is room for improvement in our transit system, people are wary of handing over more money for a service they may never use, especially if it’s being run by SANDAG. By the way I have been riding MTS for over a decade and voted in favor.
I feel like that reputation is unwarranted. In every city that proposes major investments in infrastructure, especially transit infrastructure, the agency in charge is always accused of mismanaging money, when in reality, costs go up on just about every project. I do think that SANDAG maybe needs to be a little more transparent with their plans and goals, but overall I don't feel like they're terrible with money. I'm glad you voted for G though, and maybe next time we'll do one that isn't by SANDAG itself!
Yes SANDAG is not good they had said to try to do things that the people do not want, we ask for one thing and they do the opposite. I live in San Marcos and there are so many plans that don't make any sense and some that do they need to be way more transparent.
Also a native San Diegan and you are correct. They are both corrupt and I competent. The money just gets stolen by special interests and the politically connected.
Fellow pro-Measure G voter here. Agree that we need to improve existing transit quality before expanding transit quantity. However, Measure G failed by only one percent in an exceptionally conservative election year. Plus there were tons of competing sales tax measures. In any other election year Measure G would have easily passed. Therefore we should try again with a half cents sales tax. We should increase the operations funding percentage from 12% to 36%, and use it to first maximize frequencies on the busiest existing lines. 15 min Trolley frequencies are terrible, considering how fast University City and Mission Valley are growing.
I remember hearing an announcement that MTS was working to achieve 7.5 minute frequency on the UTC portion of the blue line in 2025, but that may have been only for rush hour. They only just recently achieved reliable 15 minute freq across the entire green line thanks to the Copper Line opening. MTS is trying to improve things.
I agree I live in north County and if they said that I would have voted yes when need operations funding to 36% and make it easier to get from point a to point b
You're so right. As much as I love trains, i'd be more than happy to commute primarily by bus around San Diego if it were possible. We need more frequent and comprehensive bus service, but also dedicated bus lines. They just made one lane on university near my house "bus only" but with no functional prohibition to keep cars from driving in it so it functions as a regular traffic lane and I think most drivers never even noticed the signs that say bus only.
@@thetransitbandit Exactly! But even I've been guilty of driving in it on accident because the distinction of when it's a bus lane and when it's a turn lane for all traffic is so ambiguous. It feels like they wanted to create a bus lane for optics without actually committing to a plan that could impact single occupant vehicles.
I have been working on a project in which I improve San Diego's RT service, and I never considered some of the points in your video, but you are so right!
It’s no secret that public transport in too many US states, US territories and Canadian equivalents is limited and infrequent. The fight to improve such infrastructure likely will go on for decades to come is not one worth giving up. as much as I believe that drink- and drug-impaired driving are wrong, the lack of availability of public transport, in some parts of those jurisdictions, is why such incidents are so high.
This is funny because you did the opposite of what I did. ( I came from San Diego and moved up to Seattle.)... Unfortunately any transportation tax increase that doesn't involve a significant amount of funding towards roads would be a non-starter there. Hopefully that changes. But San Diego County is really spread out. And a lot of the wealthier people do not want buses in their area. Which I think is reprehensible.
@@rws91942 absolutely reprehensible. But I do think we could market a transportation measure that doesn’t involve more roads. It wouldn’t be as easy, but considering Measure G failed, maybe we’re ready for something new
Measure G voter for approval here. Even though I voted for it, I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about it. Meaning that if it didn’t pass I wouldn’t be disappointed. Many cities here have an 8.75% sales tax. Half a percent would increase that to 9.25%. It’s really hard to stomach that.
A big part of the problem is that our BRT network isn't integrated with the trolley. For example, the 235 crosses over the green line tracks in mission valley, but there's no interchange. The 280/290 do the same thing and the 225 does the same thing with the orange line. The fact that these interchanges don't exist makes the existing BRT lines pretty useless except for a few people. Also, before the purple line gets built we need a BRT route NOW that goes from south bay to sorrento via city heights, mission valley, and kearny mesa. The 805 is literally the busiest freeway in the city and it has no transit alternative whatsoever. Sandag has talked about building this BRT line (the 688) and along with it infrastructure to connect to the orange line and green line, which will benefit the existing rapid routes, but it wont be for 8 years.
Nice video. IMO, the next Measure G should focus on expanding public transit to the airport, the beaches from inland in the summer, and mostly to where the jobs are (Sorrento Valley, for example).
This has a TON of parallels to Portland rejecting our transit measure in 2020 and the transit systems seem pretty similar other than Portland has more every 15 minutes bus routes.
@@RipCityBassWorks For sure, that makes a lot of sense now that you bring it up! And y’all do have a fairly similar system it seems, maybe a step above ours but not too different
hello, fellow san diegan here, recommend you get involved with ride sd, super cool org im a part of. its disappointing that measure g failed but theres plans to try again soon.
@@duck9121 That’s so cool!! I enjoyed riding Link Transit when I lived in Washington! I included that clip because Link Transit had a small failed transit ballot measure, the city of Chelan wanted to tax itself to fund more bus service but the measure unfortunately failed.
Both Arlington and Fairfax Counties just outside DC approved bonds on the order $72M & $180M respectively and both were for WMATA with a pretty big emphasis on rail (i.e. funds for the 8000 Series Metrorail cars, station facilities, etc.). I don't necessarily think focusing on rail improvements is a bad thing, but you're entirely right that without a frequent bus service providing local connections, transit systems simply won't achieve their full potential.
Welcome to San Diego. Great video and, as a former daily rider of the Rapid 225 bus before retiring, I agree with the points you lay out for improving regional transit in San Diego County. But there are other key points that you are missing. First, by SDMTS's own calculations, they lost between $17 million and $23 million in fare revenue between May 2022 and July 2024, with an estimated 57,000 riders PER MONTH not paying their fare. As a result, they are going to step up fare enforcement beginning 1 February 2025. Even at that, they'll still be missing revenue unless they want to go the extra step and install fenced off trolley platforms with turnstiles that open when you pay your fare/swipe your Pronto card/app. Second, being new to SD, you may not be aware of the long history of fiscal mismanagement of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), which oversees our regional transportation networks. I believe voters didn't want to throw even more good money into a corrupt and mismanaged organization. So the very first steps on your "to do" list need to be: 1) get SANDAG's house in order with full transparency of where funds are going, and, 2) effectively deal with fare evasion to bring in the missing revenue.
I moved to San Diego about 1 yr ago and rely on the green line to get to work. I feel similarly about MTS having a mixed bag of good and bizarrely bad routes. I cant get a bus in east county after 8 pm on Sundays and just walk home, yet many people still use the trolley lines well after that...obviously. The suburbs deserve decent transit with 15 min frequency too. The funny thing is they conduct surveys on what they can improve and many suggestions are logical and easy to do, but hardly ever see any of them adopted. Also why is there no direct route between the beaches and downtown or the airport besides the WEEKDAY bus route to OB? That could be an amazing route to link downtown, the airport, sunset cliffs, and the beaches considering their close distances.
Yes! Suburban destinations need good transit too! And it's not for lack of ridership, I've seen decent ridership on hourly bus routes in El Cajon on Sundays, so I'm sure more frequency would be very welcome. As for the direct downtown route, I would definitely love to see the 923 run more frequently and on weekends as well! It's such an important link, and really makes traveling some places take significantly longer when it's not running.
@@thetransitbandit I rarely use the east county bus routes on weekends because of the terrible frequency. You can see the demand is there with the high ridership on the trolley to El Cajon and MTS even improved reliability with the Copper Line since it opened. But bus service doesn't hold its weight to bring riders to El Cajon Station. Meanwhile, Grantville station has the very frequent 13 bus and gets lots of riders. I would love any improvement to the downtown to beaches bus route. At least make the 923 bus run everyday. It's easier to access Coronado via the overpriced ferry and north county beaches via the Coaster than SD's own beaches requiring a transfer at Old Town. I just bring an ebike every time I want to hang out in San Diego.
@@magesalmanac6424 Tell me about it. Having only 1 bus route (115, maybe 854) in the suburban hell of San Carlos is crazy. It's weird because El Cajon-Santee area is seemingly "walled off" by Fletcher Hills and Mt Helix. La Mesa (south of the 8) gets decent bus routes, but the rest of us are left with the usual 30-60 min bus routes. The trolley lines are the saving grace for transit here...at least we are not Poway or Rancho San Diego.
Wow, can I just say I'm so impressed on your analysis on this measure. I don't live in San Diego but similarly I am frustrated by LA's disappointing transit. But I am hopeful that now there is a shift happening where people are encouraged by trains busses and other modes of transportation rather than just cars. As an avid car hater this video makes me happy. Southern California is car dependent and DESPERATELY needs a paradigm shift.
Definitely agree here. My recent experience visiting Honolulu gave me the impression that O’ahu probably would’ve benefitted from decent bus lanes and improvements to bus service across the island in advance of/addition to the existing rail line, more than just going all-in on rail as it seems to have done. Same with how California HSR’s image has been helped a bit by its statewide transit mobility projects preceding the opening of HSR itself. Smaller and less sexy projects that are practical and make using transit easier should be the priority to get people interested in the sexy rail projects that could eventually be more badly needed.
You're wrong. Honolulu has one of the largest all-bus transit systems in the U.S. As for more bus lanes, tearing down that much property would cost billions of dollars, just like a rail system. One great advantage of HART is that the columns fit in existing highway medians. Remember that most of Honolulu was designed for a city 5 times smaller, about 200,000 people. I lived there 10 years, and rode the buses everywhere. I know. You don't, Ha'ole.
SD is the perfect city for better public transit/infrastructure. We have some of the best weather in the world and it would be so incredible to be able to safely be able to walk and bike around the city
I think this video misses a big point that caused a lot of voters to vote against Measure G which is that SANDAG (The agency behind Measure G) is notoriously wasteful when it comes to spending taxpayer money. In fact- they are currently under federal investigation for lack of oversight and mismanagement of toll road revenue. I think most San Diegans would actually be willing to pay more in taxes IF we actually saw our money being used wisely. For example, back in 2004 SANDAG approached voters with a similar measure (though this one focused more on freeway upgrades). It gave a detailed list of what they would use the money for, voters approved it, and we still have yet to see most of the promised upgrades actually come. I voted for Measure G because I truly believe transit is our future, but I honestly feel that even if Measure G had passed, we wouldn’t see much actually happen.
8:14 also I can’t imagine the traffic in Chula Vista if the trolleys are every 5 mins. Traffic’s backs up so much from e st to l st due to the trolley. Main st is the only street with an underpass for the traffic to flow.
Are there any types of referendums that would allow san diego proper to vote on a city sales tax for local transit without having to involve conservative north county?
Yes! Measure E was an example of how this could be done, although that one also didn't pass (although by a much closer margin). The city of San Diego is able to tax itself more than the rest of the county in order to pay for expanded MTS services if it wants to, but I haven't heard anything about putting that on the ballot officially.
Hope you’re enjoying San Diego! Moved to Murrieta (~1hr outside San Diego) from St. Louis and never looked back, it’s so nice here. The only thing that bugs me is that the commuter rail line running through the IE diverts and ends in Perris instead of coming down through the more populated cities of Murrieta and Temecula.
@@thetransitbandit In fact, a BRT line connecting San Marcos and Temecula is in SANDAG's long-term plans (one of the main missing links in Southern California transit is transportation from San Diego to Riverside County). But part of the issue, both on I-15 and on I-5 (and there also needs to be a BRT line to connect Oceanside and San Clemente and the OCTA), is the fact that both I-5 and I-15 are already heavily congested north of San Diego, and there are no immediate plans to widen (or modernize) either freeway north of CA-76 or CA-78, only long-term plans. In fact, I-5 through Camp Pendleton is as it was when it was originally built in the 1960s and I-15 is the same as it was when it was built in stages (I actually saw the beginnings of the construction to build the freeway north of Escondido in around 1980 on a ride on Champagne Blvd.). Another thing that I never understood in the 3 decades I lived in San Diego is the lack of public transit to Sea World, which is effectively San Diego's Disneyland. Only one bus route, the #9, has served Sea World, and I've always thought there should be three or four bus lines serving Sea World, one from the north (best option there is the line that goes through Pacific Beach and La Jolla), one from the east, one from downtown, and the one that serves Ocean Beach, given how close Sea World is from Ocean Beach. In fact, public transportation to the area's major attractions has always been lacking. For many years, only one bus line, the #7, served Balboa Park, and no bus has ever served what's now Sesame Place, which was once a satellite park for, first Knott's and then Sea World, near Otay Mesa. And now there's a major resort hotel being built on the Chula Vista Marina, which will include a water park, and of course, there's no bus service to the Chula Vista Marina, either.
@ For sure, there are definitely gaps to attractions. I noticed the Sesame Place one is a pretty prominent hole in the system, which is a shame. A line along Heritage could connect to the Rapid 225, which would be useful!
@@thetransitbandit Or possibly even extend the 933/934 Imperial Beach circulator routes (which I rode for years) past where the 933 turns off (and the 934 turns on to) Palm Ave. just east of I-805 to get to that location by using Ocean View Hills Pkwy., Otay Mesa Road, and Heritage Road to get to Sesame Place and the nearby ampitheatre. That routing also goes by Brown Field, so that municipal airport near the border could also be served, in addition to Sesame Place and the nearby ampitheatre.
As someone who lived in Vancouver and enjoyed the transit system i was very disappointed when returning to San Diego. The Coaster is very unreliable and it should have more frequent trips. North County is so behind on transit although i did see the Sprinter almost full on a Sunday evening which gives me hope. I also think that with our great weather more people are biking, me included ( sometimes e bike). We need a better infrastructure and protectes lanes. Biking in Oceanside is quite scary.
Hey, really love this quality coverage as a San Diegan who uses primarily uses transit and bikes to get around in the mid city area. I wonder what you (or others here in comments) think about the “marketing” as a problem. I agree with everything you’re saying in the second half of the video about what /actually/ makes a good transit system. But I also grapple with the fact that for the vast majority of people who never use transit, they want to point to toward things they feel like they would actually use where they see a straight line logical connection to helping them. E.g. an airport connection that would let them get closer to home and result in a. Cheaper uber, the purple line for the countless commuters who sits in horrendous traffic on the 805 every day, fixing rail problems on the costal bluffs, or even the freeway/road improvements that we know won’t actually help, but maybe get the measure to pass. To many people, buses are not usable, but of course they’re not nice because they are associated with poor frequencies and delays and traffic. My naive thought. Part of the marketing seems like it maybe is a more long term cultural project: how to convince people that buses can actually be really really good if and ONLY if they get their necessary infrastructure to skip traffic and have good connection with a broader system. A problem is that I think the funding for good buses is still pretty steep to many people when there is minimal physical infrastructure to point to, so I just don’t know how you fund it when the culture isn’t there. I’ve thought for a while that the best “marketing” for this in San Diego would be a RAPID route that runs in the shoulder on the 805 to UCSD and drops people right on the off ramps. Or improve the 235 route (my commute!) where it always gets stuck with everyone else in traffic on the 15 south of Claremont Mesa. It would still be very expensive to move the alignments here and do targetted signaling/bridge/infrastructure projects to shave off minutes/transfers some of the more challenging exits. But it seems like the best marketing for buses network-wide would be targeted busses passing you in bumper to bumper traffic. Throw in some wrappers on the buses and billboards advertising MTS. Then as you mention, good bus service is a nice gateway to building consensus for actual rapid transit improvements that come with cascading ROI due to the improved adoption of buses as a “good” form of transit. Anyway, these are just some thoughts I’ve had sitting sardined with 50 other people on an articulated bus stuck in traffic with everyone else, which is the most frustrating thing in the world. 🙃
@@jadenbankhead Great thoughts, and very well put, thank you for sharing! I definitely agree with you, especially on the idea of a sort of culture shift around transit. When transit is just obviously better, people start to ride regardless of whether it’s a bus, train, ferry, and so on. A great example of this is Seattle, where I lived before moving down to SD. While Seattle also has a ways to go, there’s just a much stronger culture of taking the bus, and even suburban residents who own cars take transit to commute because it’s simply faster and cheaper than sitting in traffic and trying to find a parking spot. Building that mindset lets us build the momentum for successful transit measures in the future.
We are nearly unicorns in San Diego; affluent, two car owning, young boomers, that choose to rarely drive and will enthusiastically choose transit over driving for many of our outings. We are fortunate to live in the core of the city with clean, safe and convenient 12-15 minute busses a three minute walk from our house going uptown and downtown and a quick 12 minutes or so by bus for transfer to the Trolley. We rarely, if ever drive downtown or uptown and we go out and about often. Ball games at Petco, ballet at the Balboa theater or concerts at the Rady Shell or Open Air Amphitheater at SDSU? We are 100% taking the bus! We’ve gone to performances at UCSD via #2 Bus to the Blue line from Smart Corner or get down to Snapdragon for a sporting event. In most of the county transit is not nearly as convenient but in the core it is mostly the best choice if you’ve got a bit more time to get there and considering finding parking it is often just as quick.
Great job on the Canada-Mexico video series! Really think this should be getting more attention on transit UA-cam - I’m not sure anyone else has done a video series like it. I know it used to be possible to do something like this with all buses, but unfortunately NCTD 395 no longer going through Camp Pendleton to San Clemente means you have to take Metrolink. On a related topic, this latest video made me wonder - was part of the reason of this trip to move down to San Diego? I actually lived in San Diego from 2012 to 2016 - definitely miss the rail service and weather there now! A bit disappointing to hear that Measure E failed, though right after I moved back to Southeast Michigan in 2016 we had a regional transit measure fail by a similar slim margin under similar circumstances. There have been some more local improvements (particularly here in Ann Arbor), elimination of transit opt-out zones in Oakland County, and grant-funded services, though no new regional vote has taken place since then. I hope San Diego can put together something that will pass (honestly think it would have passed as-is in a more favorable year, just like our regional transit measure), though if you can’t do something countywide it may not hurt to try something focused on the MTS service area (I recall they passed a law allowing this). Focusing on buses may make sense in a doing more with less money perspective, though that is a double-edged sword - some voters may really want rail and don’t see buses as being a viable alternative to car travel. Anyway, keep the content coming - just joined as a paying member. Also really like the music you use on the videos…
@@hulltim2 Welcome to the channel, great to have you onboard as a member! I’m glad you like the Canada to Mexico series, I didn’t realize the 395 used to continue north, that would be a really useful connection, especially since Metrolink runs so infrequently! I actually didn’t realize I’d be moving to San Diego when we did the trip, I found out a week or two afterwards which was pretty funny, but it was a good preview for sure! As for your points about bus vs rail prioritization, that does make sense for sure, and transit does tend to be a bit of a harder sell here it seems. Fingers crossed that the next version passes though!
This is an amazing video. You have obviously done plenty of research and have thought out solutions. However, as an East Village resident, I often walk to where I need to go, and I often pay attention to the volume of passengers on buses and trolleys as they pass by. The trolleys are typically, in my observation, pretty well populated, except for when the Padres are playing, then the people are packed into trolleys. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the buses. In fact, in the last three years that I have lived in downtown, I cannot recall a single bus being full, and most of the time (well over 75%) there are less than a dozen individuals on any bus. I think the key to getting Measure G approved would be first to get the buses more populated. But I’m not sure how to do that.
@@bryanleimbach3939 One of the best ways to boost ridership is to make buses more convenient. As I said in my video, having higher frequency service that runs to more places for more hours of the day and days of the week would help to encourage riders to try transit. The more possible trips we’re able to cover using transit, the more people will ride
As another person said, this is the best video analyzing SD’s transit on UA-cam. For the 8th largest city in the US, this topic is under-discussed (online and in person). I agree with the points you raised (despite having a soft spot for rail). I think one project that could help a lot is dedicated bus only lanes both directions on the I15, at least active during rush hour (~3-6pm or, more generously, 2-7pm). This would actually make buses competitive to sitting in nearly stopped traffic. This could be expanded to other busy routes (I8, etc.). Some of these freeways have like 3-5 lanes, replacing one with a bus lane (especially temporary) shouldn’t upset drivers that much and could greatly improve transit times. Also, I think the part regarding repairing potholes on Measure G was to appeal to drivers. If it was only for transit, many people may have voted against it because it didn’t directly benefit them.
@@calvinlawn3457 For sure, that all makes sense. I’d love to see better transit priority on I-15, I like the 235 as a bus route but it really does get stuck!
My young son and I take the blue line sometimes from UTC to Little Italy- but only because he likes trains. It is slower and more expensive than driving my electric car there.
I love this video. Always been tellin people that transit’s the future, and in San Diego we have a lot of potential. Measure G seemed to ambitious yes, I always found it weird that bus connections weren’t as convenient as I have hoped it to be especially with its relationship to the trolley 😂
@@-i1007 You cannot, and will never be able to travel to and from everywhere in the county on rail alone. Having a spine of rail for the system is helpful, but you cannot have a successful rail system without a successful bus system to feed it
@@thetransitbandit You did bring up one approach that other metros have done successfully. That is: starting with BRT lines, and then convert them to light/heavy rail when the need becomes apparent on a per-item basis.
You excluded 3 pretty important facts in this video: How much $ would this sales tax raise? How close was the vote? What is the actual topographic distribution of the % yes/no? I.e. did some parts of the county vote differently than others? Idk how you forgot to include those facts in a 10 minute video
@@SeriesShower These are things that are discussed by every news source in the county talking about Measure G, and are pretty easy to research. I wanted to hone in on reasons that the measure failed and what we can do to ensure a more sustainable transit system going forward.
While I don’t disagree with your assessment, as San Diego resident we already live in the most expensive city in the state and get taxed like crazy. I voted no on it because I’m unwilling to pay higher taxes.
We didn’t vote against transit we voted against a tax. I would like a trolley system that isn’t downtown centric! The trolley doesn’t go where I would like it to, like the zoo or safari park or the beaches or near where I work. I really don’t like that the 52 is having more lanes added. It would have been great to have the Trolley run down that corridor to La Jolla…help get the east county people to the beach during the summer. I was born and raised here in San Diego, never been on a city bus. I might as well drive since the bus would get stuck in the same traffic as if I was driving my car. I very much like the Metro in DC. I also like Seattle trains.
@@jello4947 1. Everyone makes mistakes. 2. It is impossible to accurately estimate a project cost before you do the project. 3. Who else but the city is going to maintain your roads, run your buses, give you water, take your sewage, provide your power, fund your schools and so much more?
Boston is starting the better bus program starting 12/15 with services every 15 minutes on weekdays and Saturday but every 20 on Sunday but still pretty good
Fingers crossed that, by next spring or summer, Columbus will be on the road towards improved service. At most, the buses run through 11pm (Midnight before the pandemic). Only 5 or 6 of the 37 bus lines run four or more times an hour.
@@blanktitle198 Transit is safe, that’s really the baseline here. The likelihood of anything happening to you on transit is absolutely minuscule. The media has made it appear much more dangerous than it is, when in reality your chance of being injured or killed is exponentially higher in or around a car.
I rode the bus for many years at the moving to San Diego before I was financially able to buy a car I rode the trolley even after the car while I was in nursing school I even used to do my homework on the green line just to be able to focus however riding the bus was another story. Bus stops or transfer connections unlike in LA/NYC where I used to live where you got off the bus at one corner walked a few feet to the next stop to the cross- connection. Unlike here where cross-connections are spaced so far apart some seem like they were at least a 16th of a mile or more apart from one corner crossing one of our famous stroads to make a connecting bus and sometimes the other bus wouldn't even wait. I had a driver once tell me that the MTS control center was from a centralized location in Australia/NZ(?) I don't know how true that is or was but having to make bus connections on the MTS certainly left a sour taste in my mouth and I have no desire to write another MTS bus ever again unless I absolutely have to. All that may be different now because I've been driving consistently for the past 12 years so things could now be different. 🤷🏽♂️
The problem is that every time we raise taxes for transportation, they spend the money on other things. It didn't matter how well you think you write the measure. Do you not know that?
It's one thing when buses run less frequently on weekends, but to have them not run at all on the weekend is wild, like people still need to get places??
Our family voted NO because we don't know anyone who uses mass transit. I read up on it and less than 5% of Californians even use mass transit. I've NEVER seen a bus or train FULL of passengers and I make it a point to look at every bus and I train I drive past. Best case scenario is 5 to 7 people in a bus, which has capacity for 50 seated passengers and probably another 25 standing. Even in this video, you don't see a single bus full of passengers. I think we need a totally different model to address something that only impacts 5% of the population. I'm not an economist, but give these folks vouchers for ride share, Uber, etc.
You cannot measure demand for transit by the fact that people don't take as much transit, when there are clear issues with the transit system. Maybe ask yourself why you don't take transit. It's too slow? It stops running too early? It doesn't go where you're going? You have to wait too long? All of these factors are why we need to improve our transit system. People aren't going to simply use a bad transit system if they have a way around it, but if we had a better one, people would ride. That's simple supply and demand, and you can see it very clearly in other cities. A great example is Vancouver, BC. Over time, they've increased transit service, from having no rail or rapid buses in the 1970s to having a massive system today, and some of the highest per-capita ridership in the continent. Now, instead of low ridership, their main problem is overcrowding. Build it and they will come is a very true statement, and we can choose one of two things. We can build more car infrastructure by widening roads and building freeways, or we can build more transit. Either way, people will use more of what we build.
I seriously think the next ballot measure should be 100% transit. I voted for Measure G, but I wasn't sure because I don't want sales taxes funding more highways. We have enough of them in San Diego county.
I think increasing taxes is not the best decision given that Californians pay some of the highest in the nation, instead funds should be redirected from existing highway expansion/repair funds.
@@AtulKedia - Lately, a lot of money has gone into building HOV/HOT lanes on the 5 and 405. Also, eliminating the stop lights on the 76 would reduce pollution and increase capacity without road widening. The 76 principally serves to funnel commuters from Riverside County to San Diego, and that's not going to be a job for commuter rail until CA HSR Phase 2 is complete.
There should have been more emphasis in Bike infrastructure to get North County residents on board. I went to Solana Beach and I saw surprisingly high E-bike usage.
I'm always surprised how many ebike riders are on the PCH in north county whenever I get a chance myself, even on a random weekday. I really wished they improved the San Diego River "trail" in Mission Valley. That thing is laughably unusable
MTS has to do better on keeping homeless out. They have created a free ride for all homeless throughout san diego. Nobody wants to be around the scabies and desease left behind on the seats. The trolly is disgusting. People openly using drugs at every stop.. DO BETTER MTS!!!
It got my Nay for asking for a rate hike for things which are already supposed to be covered by existing taxes. Specific improvements are unimportant at this point.
@@the_didenko It wasn’t a rate hike to cover existing services. MTS and NCTD services will largely remain the same after the failure of Measure G. However, Measure G would’ve funded significant expansions to both transit systems, which are now on hold.
@thetransitbandit it was. Even the potholes you mention are supposed to be covered by existing taxes. We should not cover up past miscalculations (at best) or mis-spending (more likely) by increasing a tax burden under new shiny project excuses. Make it a clean time-limited enhancement proposition and I will consider it. Make it an unlimited rate hike like Measure G which will lose its current justification in a few years - it will get none of my support. The logic of Measure G is insane - does it mean every time a transit system needs enhancement there should be a rate hike? How often do you see the rates go down?
@ Also, this kind of slippery slope argument is ridiculous. Transit in San Diego is chronically underfunded. In order to reach the levels of service present in other cities, we do have to put money in. But that doesn’t mean it evaporates.
> @thetransitbandit Transit pays for itself 3-to-1 in economic development, not to mention regional mobility and equity. Money is not an issue here > > Also, this kind of slippery slope argument is ridiculous. Transit in San Diego is chronically underfunded. In order to reach the levels of service present in other cities, we do have to put money in. But that doesn’t mean it evaporates. Here is the ballot title that voters saw: > FUND SAN DIEGO COUNTY TRANSPORTATION, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND SAFETY PROJECTS THROUGH A HALF-CENT SALES TAX. To repair/upgrade roads, bridges, storm drains, rail lines, and prevent railway bluff collapse; reduce traffic congestion; improve pedestrian, bicyclist, and driver safety; improve public transit; protect wildlife habitat/air quality; and fill potholes; shall the measure authorizing a half-cent sales tax raising $350,000,000 annually until ended by voters, requiring citizen oversight, public spending disclosure, and independent annual audits be adopted? You can say it is not about money. But that is what the Measure asks for. I'll leave it to you to figure out. A transit RoI ratio is a nice sound bit, but it is 1) out of context and 2) irrelevant. It is out of context as it can only be considered for a specific project. An abstract transportation project, including the maintenance listed in the Measure, does not have such returns. It is irrelevant to this conversation because I do not argue against improved bus routes' general needs or benefits. I live in downtown and do not drive. Suburban connections are painful. Downtown transportation is very patchy. What I do not accept is a tax rate hike as a means of financing. If they come back with better (in scope and nature) financing, I am all for it. It will also help to not put two tax hikes addressing potholes next to each other (Measures E and G) if for PR considerations only, LOL. I have no idea where the slippery slope personal attack comes from. I sensed (apparently wrong) that the video author is interested in what may have been SPECIFICALLY a problem with this Measure from a voter perspective who helped to stop it. Why? Maybe to help improve the chances of bus route improvements passing in the future? I don't know. I answered with my perspective and got called ridiculous. If it is about the argument against using permanent rate hikes for temporary needs - is not a slippery slope argument. It is reductio ad absurdum if you care to name the technique. We are talking past each other. Good luck.
I think we need MORE TROLLEY LINES. Instead of all going North-South we need a lot more going both Nortn-South and East-West and have stops in the following. They need to be interconnected with convent change points without having to go downtown to change. * Suburban Neighborhoods (Including Close to Single Family Home Neighborhoods). This includes both low income areas like City Heights and Southeast San Diego and high end neighborhoods like Scripps Ranch, Tierrasanta, Fairbanks Ranch, Mira Mesa, La Jolla, etc. We have excluded too many high end neighborhoods for transit stops. Put a trolley station in each neighborhood people can walk to or bike to or a take a community shuttle to with free park and ride (some may want to use cars a short distance on rainy days). * Major Apartment Areas (Such as Mission Valley) and other places they are building apartments * Major Office Areas (Such as San Diego Tech Center, Miramar Office District, Scripps Ranch Business Park, Kearny Mesa Interior, Rancho Bernado, Sorrento Valley, Del Mar Inland, and Downtown) within walking distance. * Shopping Areas (i.e. Fashion Valley, UTC, Plaza Bonita, North County Fair, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Mission Valley, Viejas Outlets, etc) * College and University Campuses (SDSU, UCSD, USD, Alliant, CSUSM, Mesa, Miramar, City, Grossmont, Cuyamaca, Southwestern, Mira Costa, San Diego Christian, PLNU, Palomar, etc) * Airports (Lindbergh Field, Montgomery Field, Palomar, Brown Field, etc) * Stadiums and Arenas (Snapdragon, Petco, Sports Arena, etc) * Entertainment Districts (Gaslamp, Mission Valley, etc) * Hotel and Convention Areas (Downtown, Little Italy, Hotel Circle, Convention Center, etc) * High Schools * Attactions (Major Beaches, Balboa Park, Belmont Park, Cabrillo Mounument, Zoo, Sea World, Zoo Safari Park, Old Town, Hillcrest, Coronado Island, etc). * Military Bases (Like MCAS Miramar, North Island, Coronado, 28th Street, etc) If people can get to MOST MAJOR PLACES IN THE CITY on the trolley, with some bus connections, short term walking, or biking this would help. The reason we need lines that go both directions is that if we can reduce commute time by minimzing the number of times one has to change lines and not have to go across town an back to get places closer together, people might choose the trolley over driving. Personally I think Prop G failed because people are UPSET about bike lanes that were built that no one is using. Personally I think that the problem is not as simple as turning all the parking into bike lanes or denying people in multifamily units parking. If you look in them there are very few bicycles. Here are my reasons that I think the bike lanes failed: 1) Housing is Segregated by Income Level. This leads to long commutes for people who work in higher income neighborhoods who are lower paid making biking impractical. Until we do mixed income neighborhoods everywhere and put affordable places to live (including single family homes, not everyone wants overcrowded apartments) in both existing housing and new housing, and allow people to shorten the commute people are not going to give up cars willingly. 2) People are so used to their cars and a switch to bikes will not happen overnight. 3) San Diego is not laid out as a city like the centers of London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, or Stockholm. We are a lot more sprawled and spread out leading to longer commute times. 4) There is not enough trolley and bus infrastructure to get to all the places people need to go practically. I think until that happens, people are going to stick to cars. 5) Not everyone is supportive of ADUs and buildings with no parking. While this can seem counter intuitive, it reflects that the fact that people care about being able to get around town easily and speedily in an area where the transit sucks. P.S. Some people may still need their cars and be able to access parking either on-street or at their place that is non-metered and unlimited time. This is common if they have a disability and unable to use bikes, people with caregivers, people who transport heavier loads, etc. Cars may also be needed for longer distance road trips, access to rural, remote, or isolated areas, and things like that too.
Having lived in San Diego for over 35 years and in Pt Loma, Carmel Mountain, and now Ramona, I can tell you transit needs are incredibly complex. Some places need bike infrastructure while others don’t. But decisions aren’t made with local needs in mind, everyone gets the same solution. They literally painted a bicycle lane into the middle of the lane on the 67. A two lane highway with speeds exceeding 55 and the thinking here is all the traffic can wait behind bike riders? This is like painting bike lanes on a freeway lane. Nobody can ride a bike from Ramona to work down the hill. Decisions like this make planners seem out of touch and clueless. Why would we trust the same people with more money when they can’t address transit needs in a serious way? With the passage of ADU laws, Ramona and the back country are now growing in population without the needed investment in widening the 67 and improving the safety issues we have. If measure G would have guaranteed widening of the 67, I would have voted yes. But when we are back to talking about bicycles, trollies, SD City potholes, etc. while the back country gets new paint on the ground, no thanks.
I believe the 67 was one of the highways discussed in Measure G. Additionally, instead of widening it, adding usable all-day all-week bus service from Ramona would likely help solve a lot of the capacity issues you talk about.
FYI Overnight replacement “blue line” express bus service along the San Ysidro-Downtown San Diego trolley coordior started on 1/1/2025. Long overdue. Honestly if a couple of more overnight bus services ie Downtown-SDSU, UTC-12 & Imperial and 12th/Imperial to Mission Valley TC is more than enough for limited overnight service. To the Narrator of the video Transit Bandit, no major mass transit system in the US runs all routes of its entire bus or light rail/subway system 365 days a year. So please slow down.
@@americangiant1003 The 910 overnight route starts tomorrow, actually, but it is a good first step. As for your comment about running routes 365 days a year, I get that no agency does that for *all* routes, but there are several where every place that has service gets service every day. Vancouver is a good example, and places like Seattle are getting there quickly.
I keep hearing Americans complain about a lack of investment in public transport but here I see the truth. Americans truly view public transport as evil. The USA is unintelligent.
Maybe I don't know CA tax code, but why not fund transit improvements with property tax instead of sales tax? I find that sales tax is a more regressive system.
California passed a ballot initiative in 1978 (Proposition 13) that significantly capped property tax increases in California. While a lot of new homebuyers are paying a good amount of Property Tax, a lot of long time homeowners are paying property taxes increased by ~1-2% annually based on the value of the property from when they first bought it (which was likely peanuts compared to its present day value) While I do agree that California and the cities within it go a little heavy handed on Sales Taxes, a lot of the reason why is due to Prop 13
Walk up to any bus stop and find NO information about the route where it goes what days it runs etc. when I tried to use the north county busses it was necessary to go to the central transit station to get a map book. Just draw the route on the sign already. It’s like you are trying to discourage riders.
Trolley: They built the east county white person's escape, so all traffic doesn't have to go thru the Barrio Logan scary place, instead of building up the I15 corridor where people live. Of course it's too late now, they built car pool lanes in the right of way the trolley was supposed to use. Years later, for some insane reason they ended the north extension at an abandoned mall instead of over the hill where tens of thousands of Qualcomm and other workers need a better commute. These two failures have left a terrible taste in the mouths of San Diegans.
Yeah, I always thought it was very short sighted of them to not connect the blue line extension to Sorrento, especially with the coaster being right there to connect to.
San Diego didn’t vote against being taxed for transit. It still collects a lot of taxes for transit. San Diego just voted against *additional* taxes for some amount of new transit and road expenses. Every empty bus and train shown in your video justifies that vote.
@@ericbeteille2386 You can’t justify transit investment based on ridership, when ridership happens because of investment. Ridership increases massively when a service goes from running every 30 minutes to every 15, or every 15 to every 10, and so on. Our transit system has low ridership because it has low levels of service.
@@thetransitbanditif I remember correctly when I was riding public transits on the regular, University Ave had the number 7 and the number 10 bus. One of them actually ran every 10 minutes. I think it was the #10 but it was so regular and frequent that if you miss one you just barely had to blink in another one wouldn't be right behind it. They often would even stack up one behind another one Of course this was all before the pandemic. I also understand that many years ago before the trolley to TJ opened San Diego city buses used to run all night is there anybody on this thread that can verify that?
@@ddrhazy I don’t like the idea that any place is “doomed.” Sure, San Diego has a longer ways to go than other cities, but that doesn’t make it impossible for it to have a better, more walkable and livable future.
@ianhomerpura8937 that the people and politicians are car brained and will not change in your life time. That they are too drunk on easy money via muni bonds to change infrastructure policies.
@thetransitbandit the key words in measure G are "infrastructure improvements and safety projects." These are broad terms and you can argue that bike lanes are an infrastructure improvement and that it serves a safety purpose. The proposal was not just limited to public transportation.
One point you didn’t hit on at all- improving safety and cleanliness on these systems. As a San Diego local the MTS trolley system can be an anxiety inducing cesspool. The trolleys smell like urine half the time and have trash thrown everywhere. You want transit to become viable, make it appealing to ride.
As much a transit supporter as I am (on efficiency grounds), I'm forced to agree with your criticism. This wasn't a 'failed vote' (no vote is, unless turnout fails to reach any previously specified minimum). This was a proposal which failed to win over an electorate.
Number one San Diego is not NY city, unless you live or work in downtown, what most people don't. San Diego is very spread out.Number two, especially after Covid, public transportation is dead. Also the rise of the huge homeless and drug problem, people don't like to expose themselves to those situations. Rather sit in traffic in their own cars and privacy.
Almost nobody would benefit from more bicycle infrastructure. The real problem with San Diego transit isn’t just frequency, it is security. My wife took one ride on the trolley when we first got here and was repulsed. Some homeless woman got on, peed on the seat, and got off. This was pointed out to an officer but they didn’t do anything about it and someone then got on and sat there (for a few seconds!). The trolley has the potential to be great but to get ridership up it has to be nice.
If you think the trolley is weird, take a ride on LA metro. It pales in comparison, coming from a work commuter on the trolley. Most rides are pretty normal, but ofc weird people will get on when there is no fare gates.
@@GirtonOramsaywhen the K Line Subway opened up in LA I went up to experience the new system since that area's my old stomping ground back in the day. The K line trains and subway stations smelled fresh and were very clean. However the other lines some train cars were dirty and smelly. Some had trash in every seat, homeless with all their possessions taking up space sleeping in the trains. There were even some people smoking pot and the police came in did nothing about it! I was telling one of the ambassadors how clean the San Diego system is compared to theirs and how we even have vending machines and mini marts at some stations. The ambassador was shocked because there's nothing like that at any of the rail stations in Los Angeles. The trains/ stations are already filthy without them.
You're a cute kid. The planners know what they want and won't change for anyone. Everything here has been previously stated by the over-educated and under-employed of the county thousands of times. Keep at it, who knows...you may be the "yop" that breaks through. Good Luck.... It'll never happen.
Measure G did not fail because of marketing! It failed because SANDAG CANNOT BE TRUSTED and MTS has also proven itself bloated and unresponsive. And, you emphasis on bicycle infrastructure is nonsense. There's NO data indicating that bicycles are a commuting option, or that cycling as a commuting choice would ever be adopted in hilly, spread out San Diego. I've been an award winning city planner for 27 years in San Diego, and its not structured to suit whatever transit dreamscape you imagine it to be. It's multi nodal, with employment hubs scattered across the region and residential enclaves similarly dispersed. Add to that that San Diego is low density, and it becomes clear that fixed rail lines are not the answer and given the average commuting distance, bicycles are nothing more than a confection. Now, where you get it RIGHT is with the emphasis on rubber wheel transit. I think an army of much smaller busses and an "Uber For All" publicly funded on call service is where solutions reside. BUT THE REAL ANSWER is to end the commute altogether wherever possible by rethinking where, when, and how we work. We must take the lessons COVID taught us about working from home or otherwise remotely and adopt that wherever practical. If we can get just a 10-15% reduction in commuter traffic, we can end freeway expansions, stop wasting money on light rail vanity projects, toll roads, and SANDAG itself. SANDAG exists to save itself. That is why its regional transit plan includes 800 miles of "managed lanes" which are toll lanes that would generate $30 million a year for their budget, and help them retain their "phony baloney jobs." The voting public saw how inept and out of touch SANDAG is when they saw them hand out millions of dollars of contracts to their favorite engineering and planning firms for pointless studies and endless plans after more plans with more plans. Millions wasted on the 125 toll road fiasco. The truly stupid GRAND CENTRAL ego project, and even nonsense like burying a subway beneath C Street, or claiming the ONLY WAY to reach the airport RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM AN ELEVATED TROLLEY LINE WAS TO BUILD A billion dollar "PEOPLE MOVER" instead to just building an elevated spur line over the street to the terminals and then loop it back. Plus, you're right... BUSSES to the airport along some dedicated lane could EASILY serve all those needs.
Sorry, I only see a bunch of big, expensive empty buses. Let's try cost efficiency first, then safety, and then we can throw more tax money into the conversation.
Most of the time the busses and trolleys are full. However, many routes begin and end in Downtown, where a lot of this footage appears to be from. That’s probably why the bus appears empty. I’ve been riding MTS over a decade and there is robust ridership here in SD.
0 seconds ago Why don’t you get a job as a bus driver for one of the agencies ? Putting up with rude people bad drivers and maneuvering on road not made for a 40 footer . Yes driving hours a day putting your license and freedom on the line , in case you ever hit someone , every day ! No , busses are awful, no one wants more of them if it can be avoided . So who would vote for this measure without something for them ? Most people drive, no road improvements why vote to tax yourself more if you never use public transit ? Also the government waste on transit projects this terrible ! Look up the cost per mile of the original light rail in SD , adjust for inflation and see how bloated these light rails have become when compared to the number of miles to add to get to the airport . I am a supporter Of public transit but every idea is not a good one . As far as Free service is concerned, No . The fares don’t even partially cover the costs . Walk or bike if you think they are too high . YOU can set up a private foundation and get other soft headed people to donate to give passes you Buy from the system to give to the needy . I don’t want to pay .
I like that you point out buses are much cheaper to operate at the same frequency than rail transit because they use less specialized equipment. There is this persistent myth in the transit enthusiast community that buses are more expensive to run than trains because of their lower capacity, but that only becomes relevant if you are having to run them at unreasonably high frequency to meet ridership demand, which is only the case for a handful of bus lines in the US (the 38/38R in San Francisco, for example). My opinion is that cities should focus on getting the majority of their local bus routes up to at least 15 minute frequency and adding bus-only lanes to major corridors before they focus on big infrastructure projects, because rail transit lines aren't worth much if they don't have good intermodal connections. And I think rezoning to increase population density should be even higher priority than that, because a higher population density means more tax revenue relative to the area that needs to be serviced, making service improvements less reliant on the success of new tax measures.
@@topsnek4603 100% agreed, yes!! All excellent points
Do you have sources on that? You have to include how much you spend on vehicle maintenance, fuel/electricity usage and driver pay per the number of passengers transported. You also have to include vehicle lifetime, busses usually last 8 to 10 years whereas light rail vehicles can last 30 years.
@ Buses typically last 12-20 years as a clarification, and unless something is seriously wrong with them are not allowed to be retired at less than 12 years old. A 4-car light rail train set costs around $15 million, while a bus costs around half a million. Rail lines need dedicated rights-of-way, rails, and require a lot more maintenance of infrastructure, while buses just need the vehicles maintained. And sure, rail lines are higher capacity, but we don’t have capacity issues here in San Diego, ridership is fairly low, and we should be focusing on growing that through providing as much convenient and widespread transit service as possible.
Are you just making the point that a oversized rail system with more capacity than the demand it is serving would be less operationally cost-effective as a bus system since buses can be scaled to lower capacity than a train normally can? Or are you saying at a given capacity buses are actually more operationally cost-effective than rail assuming both are optimized for that capacity? (or is the latter true below a given capacity/demand threshold after which rail becomes better?)
Like if you had an automated light metro line running 1 or two car trains and a bus line of the same capacity, and they both had the same demand, wouldn't the automated light metro line always be cheaper to run? (Ignoring capital costs which would obviously be much much higher for the light metro line). Also wouldn't the light metro be much more attractive to riders since it'd be faster?
I partly wonder this since he mentions Vancouver as an example, and that city benefits a lot from an automated light metro network that has very high frequencies which are enabled by the automation, whereas San Diego is using human operated trains that in some places run at grade, which requires the trains to be longer and lower frequency, and thus worse at catering to the transit demand that exists in san diego.
Totally agree! ☀😎👍
10 years ago Metro Vancouver Canada voted down a referendum to fund public transit. While undoubtably had it passed things would be even better, but we still have one of the best transit systems in Canada/US. (Although they are facing a big operational budget deficiency right now which hopefully gets resolved soon by senior government). The point being not all hope is lost even if a vote is.
@@Skip6235 Absolutely, there’s always a way to keep moving forward
TransLink is totally screwed. they need a monster bailout or they will cut services. they simply build a system they can't afford to run
Loved this message. Thanks for sharing!
You made a really good point about how we need to prioritize fixing local things sometimes.
A lot of people have the mindset that building new rapid transit systems is #1, and while in some cases building a new rapid transit system would be nice, a lot of the time local stuff is overlooked and I love how you touched on that.
Great video as always, Zaref!
@@thesoundoftransit For sure - modal preference for rapid transit is very real and biases this kind of thing, but it can result in a worse transit system if there’s no local service to supplement it!
This is by far the best San Diego transit video I've seen so far. Nice footage, good audio, rational thoughts and excellent editing! Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much!
I concur!!! 💯👍🏼
I live in San Diego. The mood here is that we already live in one of the most expensive cities in the country. We also do NOT trust SANDAG. They are increasingly viewed as incapable of managing funds. While there is room for improvement in our transit system, people are wary of handing over more money for a service they may never use, especially if it’s being run by SANDAG. By the way I have been riding MTS for over a decade and voted in favor.
I feel like that reputation is unwarranted. In every city that proposes major investments in infrastructure, especially transit infrastructure, the agency in charge is always accused of mismanaging money, when in reality, costs go up on just about every project. I do think that SANDAG maybe needs to be a little more transparent with their plans and goals, but overall I don't feel like they're terrible with money. I'm glad you voted for G though, and maybe next time we'll do one that isn't by SANDAG itself!
@@thetransitbandit They're terrible with money. That's why we voted against transit.
Yes SANDAG is not good they had said to try to do things that the people do not want, we ask for one thing and they do the opposite. I live in San Marcos and there are so many plans that don't make any sense and some that do they need to be way more transparent.
Also a native San Diegan and you are correct. They are both corrupt and I competent. The money just gets stolen by special interests and the politically connected.
@@JohnJackson-e9z They literally just built the blue line.
Fellow pro-Measure G voter here. Agree that we need to improve existing transit quality before expanding transit quantity.
However, Measure G failed by only one percent in an exceptionally conservative election year. Plus there were tons of competing sales tax measures. In any other election year Measure G would have easily passed.
Therefore we should try again with a half cents sales tax. We should increase the operations funding percentage from 12% to 36%, and use it to first maximize frequencies on the busiest existing lines. 15 min Trolley frequencies are terrible, considering how fast University City and Mission Valley are growing.
had nothing to do with the election environment, you had plenty of cities in red states voting in favor of transit
San Diegans feel squeezed by taxes already, and like the other person said there were already proposed tax increases on the ballot.
I remember hearing an announcement that MTS was working to achieve 7.5 minute frequency on the UTC portion of the blue line in 2025, but that may have been only for rush hour. They only just recently achieved reliable 15 minute freq across the entire green line thanks to the Copper Line opening. MTS is trying to improve things.
I agree I live in north County and if they said that I would have voted yes when need operations funding to 36% and make it easier to get from point a to point b
We need a direct trolley stop in the airport that should be the priority
agreed
You're so right. As much as I love trains, i'd be more than happy to commute primarily by bus around San Diego if it were possible. We need more frequent and comprehensive bus service, but also dedicated bus lines. They just made one lane on university near my house "bus only" but with no functional prohibition to keep cars from driving in it so it functions as a regular traffic lane and I think most drivers never even noticed the signs that say bus only.
That's so frustrating when car drivers use the bus lanes as just another car lane!
@@thetransitbandit Exactly! But even I've been guilty of driving in it on accident because the distinction of when it's a bus lane and when it's a turn lane for all traffic is so ambiguous. It feels like they wanted to create a bus lane for optics without actually committing to a plan that could impact single occupant vehicles.
@ Yeah absolutely, that’s always frustrating!
@@rachelraspberry1761those types of bus only lanes in your city needs some kind of private car detection technology like in Seoul South Korea
I have been working on a project in which I improve San Diego's RT service, and I never considered some of the points in your video, but you are so right!
It’s no secret that public transport in too many US states, US territories and Canadian equivalents is limited and infrequent. The fight to improve such infrastructure likely will go on for decades to come is not one worth giving up. as much as I believe that drink- and drug-impaired driving are wrong, the lack of availability of public transport, in some parts of those jurisdictions, is why such incidents are so high.
This is funny because you did the opposite of what I did. ( I came from San Diego and moved up to Seattle.)...
Unfortunately any transportation tax increase that doesn't involve a significant amount of funding towards roads would be a non-starter there. Hopefully that changes. But San Diego County is really spread out. And a lot of the wealthier people do not want buses in their area. Which I think is reprehensible.
@@rws91942 absolutely reprehensible. But I do think we could market a transportation measure that doesn’t involve more roads. It wouldn’t be as easy, but considering Measure G failed, maybe we’re ready for something new
Measure G voter for approval here. Even though I voted for it, I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about it. Meaning that if it didn’t pass I wouldn’t be disappointed. Many cities here have an 8.75% sales tax. Half a percent would increase that to 9.25%. It’s really hard to stomach that.
A big part of the problem is that our BRT network isn't integrated with the trolley. For example, the 235 crosses over the green line tracks in mission valley, but there's no interchange. The 280/290 do the same thing and the 225 does the same thing with the orange line. The fact that these interchanges don't exist makes the existing BRT lines pretty useless except for a few people. Also, before the purple line gets built we need a BRT route NOW that goes from south bay to sorrento via city heights, mission valley, and kearny mesa. The 805 is literally the busiest freeway in the city and it has no transit alternative whatsoever. Sandag has talked about building this BRT line (the 688) and along with it infrastructure to connect to the orange line and green line, which will benefit the existing rapid routes, but it wont be for 8 years.
@@willmorris8198 Agreed!
Nice video. IMO, the next Measure G should focus on expanding public transit to the airport, the beaches from inland in the summer, and mostly to where the jobs are (Sorrento Valley, for example).
In my experience, the roads in North County are better maintained than in the City of San Diego.
I find the roads in East County to be better maintained than the ones in the city of SD.
Different cities. Much smaller cities. Better maintenance. San Diego is too big for its britches. And ditches.
@ericbeteille2386
Truth😂👍🏽
This has a TON of parallels to Portland rejecting our transit measure in 2020 and the transit systems seem pretty similar other than Portland has more every 15 minutes bus routes.
@@RipCityBassWorks For sure, that makes a lot of sense now that you bring it up! And y’all do have a fairly similar system it seems, maybe a step above ours but not too different
hello, fellow san diegan here, recommend you get involved with ride sd, super cool org im a part of. its disappointing that measure g failed but theres plans to try again soon.
Please post how to get involved with rise San Diego 👍🏽
Lol at 0:18 thats the transit agency i drive for! No idea we would make it into a video about san diego's transit
@@duck9121 That’s so cool!! I enjoyed riding Link Transit when I lived in Washington! I included that clip because Link Transit had a small failed transit ballot measure, the city of Chelan wanted to tax itself to fund more bus service but the measure unfortunately failed.
Both Arlington and Fairfax Counties just outside DC approved bonds on the order $72M & $180M respectively and both were for WMATA with a pretty big emphasis on rail (i.e. funds for the 8000 Series Metrorail cars, station facilities, etc.). I don't necessarily think focusing on rail improvements is a bad thing, but you're entirely right that without a frequent bus service providing local connections, transit systems simply won't achieve their full potential.
@@OneOneTwo112 in calif the measures failed even in san francisco
Welcome to San Diego.
Great video and, as a former daily rider of the Rapid 225 bus before retiring, I agree with the points you lay out for improving regional transit in San Diego County. But there are other key points that you are missing.
First, by SDMTS's own calculations, they lost between $17 million and $23 million in fare revenue between May 2022 and July 2024, with an estimated 57,000 riders PER MONTH not paying their fare. As a result, they are going to step up fare enforcement beginning 1 February 2025. Even at that, they'll still be missing revenue unless they want to go the extra step and install fenced off trolley platforms with turnstiles that open when you pay your fare/swipe your Pronto card/app.
Second, being new to SD, you may not be aware of the long history of fiscal mismanagement of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), which oversees our regional transportation networks. I believe voters didn't want to throw even more good money into a corrupt and mismanaged organization. So the very first steps on your "to do" list need to be: 1) get SANDAG's house in order with full transparency of where funds are going, and, 2) effectively deal with fare evasion to bring in the missing revenue.
I moved to San Diego about 1 yr ago and rely on the green line to get to work. I feel similarly about MTS having a mixed bag of good and bizarrely bad routes. I cant get a bus in east county after 8 pm on Sundays and just walk home, yet many people still use the trolley lines well after that...obviously. The suburbs deserve decent transit with 15 min frequency too. The funny thing is they conduct surveys on what they can improve and many suggestions are logical and easy to do, but hardly ever see any of them adopted.
Also why is there no direct route between the beaches and downtown or the airport besides the WEEKDAY bus route to OB? That could be an amazing route to link downtown, the airport, sunset cliffs, and the beaches considering their close distances.
Yes! Suburban destinations need good transit too! And it's not for lack of ridership, I've seen decent ridership on hourly bus routes in El Cajon on Sundays, so I'm sure more frequency would be very welcome. As for the direct downtown route, I would definitely love to see the 923 run more frequently and on weekends as well! It's such an important link, and really makes traveling some places take significantly longer when it's not running.
It’s insane the lack of transit going to and from East County!
@@thetransitbandit I rarely use the east county bus routes on weekends because of the terrible frequency. You can see the demand is there with the high ridership on the trolley to El Cajon and MTS even improved reliability with the Copper Line since it opened. But bus service doesn't hold its weight to bring riders to El Cajon Station. Meanwhile, Grantville station has the very frequent 13 bus and gets lots of riders.
I would love any improvement to the downtown to beaches bus route. At least make the 923 bus run everyday. It's easier to access Coronado via the overpriced ferry and north county beaches via the Coaster than SD's own beaches requiring a transfer at Old Town. I just bring an ebike every time I want to hang out in San Diego.
@@magesalmanac6424 Tell me about it. Having only 1 bus route (115, maybe 854) in the suburban hell of San Carlos is crazy. It's weird because El Cajon-Santee area is seemingly "walled off" by Fletcher Hills and Mt Helix. La Mesa (south of the 8) gets decent bus routes, but the rest of us are left with the usual 30-60 min bus routes. The trolley lines are the saving grace for transit here...at least we are not Poway or Rancho San Diego.
There was a complete lack of marketing to north county. I was in favor but dont remember seeing an ad or receiving a mailer on it.
Keep it up man!
Thank you so much!
Wow, can I just say I'm so impressed on your analysis on this measure. I don't live in San Diego but similarly I am frustrated by LA's disappointing transit. But I am hopeful that now there is a shift happening where people are encouraged by trains busses and other modes of transportation rather than just cars. As an avid car hater this video makes me happy. Southern California is car dependent and DESPERATELY needs a paradigm shift.
@@daquitos I’m so glad you like my video! And yes, very much a need for a paradigm shift!!
Definitely agree here. My recent experience visiting Honolulu gave me the impression that O’ahu probably would’ve benefitted from decent bus lanes and improvements to bus service across the island in advance of/addition to the existing rail line, more than just going all-in on rail as it seems to have done. Same with how California HSR’s image has been helped a bit by its statewide transit mobility projects preceding the opening of HSR itself. Smaller and less sexy projects that are practical and make using transit easier should be the priority to get people interested in the sexy rail projects that could eventually be more badly needed.
@@IntaminFanboy 100% agreed!
You're wrong. Honolulu has one of the largest all-bus transit systems in the U.S. As for more bus lanes, tearing down that much property would cost billions of dollars, just like a rail system. One great advantage of HART is that the columns fit in existing highway medians. Remember that most of Honolulu was designed for a city 5 times smaller, about 200,000 people. I lived there 10 years, and rode the buses everywhere. I know. You don't, Ha'ole.
SD is the perfect city for better public transit/infrastructure. We have some of the best weather in the world and it would be so incredible to be able to safely be able to walk and bike around the city
@@Jordaninspace Agreed!
I think this video misses a big point that caused a lot of voters to vote against Measure G which is that SANDAG (The agency behind Measure G) is notoriously wasteful when it comes to spending taxpayer money. In fact- they are currently under federal investigation for lack of oversight and mismanagement of toll road revenue.
I think most San Diegans would actually be willing to pay more in taxes IF we actually saw our money being used wisely. For example, back in 2004 SANDAG approached voters with a similar measure (though this one focused more on freeway upgrades). It gave a detailed list of what they would use the money for, voters approved it, and we still have yet to see most of the promised upgrades actually come.
I voted for Measure G because I truly believe transit is our future, but I honestly feel that even if Measure G had passed, we wouldn’t see much actually happen.
8:14 also I can’t imagine the traffic in Chula Vista if the trolleys are every 5 mins. Traffic’s backs up so much from e st to l st due to the trolley. Main st is the only street with an underpass for the traffic to flow.
Are there any types of referendums that would allow san diego proper to vote on a city sales tax for local transit without having to involve conservative north county?
Yes! Measure E was an example of how this could be done, although that one also didn't pass (although by a much closer margin). The city of San Diego is able to tax itself more than the rest of the county in order to pay for expanded MTS services if it wants to, but I haven't heard anything about putting that on the ballot officially.
*Send this video to SANDAG, MTS and the mayor's office! He has good ideas! *
Hope you’re enjoying San Diego! Moved to Murrieta (~1hr outside San Diego) from St. Louis and never looked back, it’s so nice here. The only thing that bugs me is that the commuter rail line running through the IE diverts and ends in Perris instead of coming down through the more populated cities of Murrieta and Temecula.
@@Vaporwave_kdh Good point, that would be cool! (Also I’d love to have the Temecula - Escondido bus back)
@@thetransitbandit In fact, a BRT line connecting San Marcos and Temecula is in SANDAG's long-term plans (one of the main missing links in Southern California transit is transportation from San Diego to Riverside County). But part of the issue, both on I-15 and on I-5 (and there also needs to be a BRT line to connect Oceanside and San Clemente and the OCTA), is the fact that both I-5 and I-15 are already heavily congested north of San Diego, and there are no immediate plans to widen (or modernize) either freeway north of CA-76 or CA-78, only long-term plans. In fact, I-5 through Camp Pendleton is as it was when it was originally built in the 1960s and I-15 is the same as it was when it was built in stages (I actually saw the beginnings of the construction to build the freeway north of Escondido in around 1980 on a ride on Champagne Blvd.).
Another thing that I never understood in the 3 decades I lived in San Diego is the lack of public transit to Sea World, which is effectively San Diego's Disneyland. Only one bus route, the #9, has served Sea World, and I've always thought there should be three or four bus lines serving Sea World, one from the north (best option there is the line that goes through Pacific Beach and La Jolla), one from the east, one from downtown, and the one that serves Ocean Beach, given how close Sea World is from Ocean Beach. In fact, public transportation to the area's major attractions has always been lacking. For many years, only one bus line, the #7, served Balboa Park, and no bus has ever served what's now Sesame Place, which was once a satellite park for, first Knott's and then Sea World, near Otay Mesa. And now there's a major resort hotel being built on the Chula Vista Marina, which will include a water park, and of course, there's no bus service to the Chula Vista Marina, either.
@ For sure, there are definitely gaps to attractions. I noticed the Sesame Place one is a pretty prominent hole in the system, which is a shame. A line along Heritage could connect to the Rapid 225, which would be useful!
@@thetransitbandit Or possibly even extend the 933/934 Imperial Beach circulator routes (which I rode for years) past where the 933 turns off (and the 934 turns on to) Palm Ave. just east of I-805 to get to that location by using Ocean View Hills Pkwy., Otay Mesa Road, and Heritage Road to get to Sesame Place and the nearby ampitheatre. That routing also goes by Brown Field, so that municipal airport near the border could also be served, in addition to Sesame Place and the nearby ampitheatre.
As someone who lived in Vancouver and enjoyed the transit system i was very disappointed when returning to San Diego. The Coaster is very unreliable and it should have more frequent trips. North County is so behind on transit although i did see the Sprinter almost full on a Sunday evening which gives me hope. I also think that with our great weather more people are biking, me included ( sometimes e bike). We need a better infrastructure and protectes lanes. Biking in Oceanside is quite scary.
@@ignalizarralde Agreed for sure! Biking even in San Diego can be terrifying at times
with inflation out of control and about to get worse, taxes means defeat at the ballot
4:32 I hate when I’m driving on the 15 and the dam rapid bus in on the fast lane
Hey, really love this quality coverage as a San Diegan who uses primarily uses transit and bikes to get around in the mid city area.
I wonder what you (or others here in comments) think about the “marketing” as a problem. I agree with everything you’re saying in the second half of the video about what /actually/ makes a good transit system. But I also grapple with the fact that for the vast majority of people who never use transit, they want to point to toward things they feel like they would actually use where they see a straight line logical connection to helping them. E.g. an airport connection that would let them get closer to home and result in a. Cheaper uber, the purple line for the countless commuters who sits in horrendous traffic on the 805 every day, fixing rail problems on the costal bluffs, or even the freeway/road improvements that we know won’t actually help, but maybe get the measure to pass.
To many people, buses are not usable, but of course they’re not nice because they are associated with poor frequencies and delays and traffic.
My naive thought. Part of the marketing seems like it maybe is a more long term cultural project: how to convince people that buses can actually be really really good if and ONLY if they get their necessary infrastructure to skip traffic and have good connection with a broader system. A problem is that I think the funding for good buses is still pretty steep to many people when there is minimal physical infrastructure to point to, so I just don’t know how you fund it when the culture isn’t there.
I’ve thought for a while that the best “marketing” for this in San Diego would be a RAPID route that runs in the shoulder on the 805 to UCSD and drops people right on the off ramps. Or improve the 235 route (my commute!) where it always gets stuck with everyone else in traffic on the 15 south of Claremont Mesa.
It would still be very expensive to move the alignments here and do targetted signaling/bridge/infrastructure projects to shave off minutes/transfers some of the more challenging exits. But it seems like the best marketing for buses network-wide would be targeted busses passing you in bumper to bumper traffic. Throw in some wrappers on the buses and billboards advertising MTS. Then as you mention, good bus service is a nice gateway to building consensus for actual rapid transit improvements that come with cascading ROI due to the improved adoption of buses as a “good” form of transit.
Anyway, these are just some thoughts I’ve had sitting sardined with 50 other people on an articulated bus stuck in traffic with everyone else, which is the most frustrating thing in the world. 🙃
@@jadenbankhead Great thoughts, and very well put, thank you for sharing! I definitely agree with you, especially on the idea of a sort of culture shift around transit. When transit is just obviously better, people start to ride regardless of whether it’s a bus, train, ferry, and so on.
A great example of this is Seattle, where I lived before moving down to SD. While Seattle also has a ways to go, there’s just a much stronger culture of taking the bus, and even suburban residents who own cars take transit to commute because it’s simply faster and cheaper than sitting in traffic and trying to find a parking spot. Building that mindset lets us build the momentum for successful transit measures in the future.
I lived in San Diego County since 3-2005 Transit system sucks on Security services
I moved here from Scranton Pennsylvania where Transit sucks more
We are nearly unicorns in San Diego; affluent, two car owning, young boomers, that choose to rarely drive and will enthusiastically choose transit over driving for many of our outings. We are fortunate to live in the core of the city with clean, safe and convenient 12-15 minute busses a three minute walk from our house going uptown and downtown and a quick 12 minutes or so by bus for transfer to the Trolley. We rarely, if ever drive downtown or uptown and we go out and about often. Ball games at Petco, ballet at the Balboa theater or concerts at the Rady Shell or Open Air Amphitheater at SDSU? We are 100% taking the bus! We’ve gone to performances at UCSD via #2 Bus to the Blue line from Smart Corner or get down to Snapdragon for a sporting event.
In most of the county transit is not nearly as convenient but in the core it is mostly the best choice if you’ve got a bit more time to get there and considering finding parking it is often just as quick.
@@tpolerex7282 Absolutely! I live downtown and would never dream of driving here
Great job on the Canada-Mexico video series! Really think this should be getting more attention on transit UA-cam - I’m not sure anyone else has done a video series like it. I know it used to be possible to do something like this with all buses, but unfortunately NCTD 395 no longer going through Camp Pendleton to San Clemente means you have to take Metrolink. On a related topic, this latest video made me wonder - was part of the reason of this trip to move down to San Diego?
I actually lived in San Diego from 2012 to 2016 - definitely miss the rail service and weather there now! A bit disappointing to hear that Measure E failed, though right after I moved back to Southeast Michigan in 2016 we had a regional transit measure fail by a similar slim margin under similar circumstances. There have been some more local improvements (particularly here in Ann Arbor), elimination of transit opt-out zones in Oakland County, and grant-funded services, though no new regional vote has taken place since then.
I hope San Diego can put together something that will pass (honestly think it would have passed as-is in a more favorable year, just like our regional transit measure), though if you can’t do something countywide it may not hurt to try something focused on the MTS service area (I recall they passed a law allowing this). Focusing on buses may make sense in a doing more with less money perspective, though that is a double-edged sword - some voters may really want rail and don’t see buses as being a viable alternative to car travel.
Anyway, keep the content coming - just joined as a paying member. Also really like the music you use on the videos…
@@hulltim2 Welcome to the channel, great to have you onboard as a member! I’m glad you like the Canada to Mexico series, I didn’t realize the 395 used to continue north, that would be a really useful connection, especially since Metrolink runs so infrequently!
I actually didn’t realize I’d be moving to San Diego when we did the trip, I found out a week or two afterwards which was pretty funny, but it was a good preview for sure!
As for your points about bus vs rail prioritization, that does make sense for sure, and transit does tend to be a bit of a harder sell here it seems. Fingers crossed that the next version passes though!
San Diego definitely needs better transit, i spent many years using the Blue line from Pacific Fleet when i was in the Navy.
This is an amazing video. You have obviously done plenty of research and have thought out solutions.
However, as an East Village resident, I often walk to where I need to go, and I often pay attention to the volume of passengers on buses and trolleys as they pass by.
The trolleys are typically, in my observation, pretty well populated, except for when the Padres are playing, then the people are packed into trolleys. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the buses. In fact, in the last three years that I have lived in downtown, I cannot recall a single bus being full, and most of the time (well over 75%) there are less than a dozen individuals on any bus.
I think the key to getting Measure G approved would be first to get the buses more populated. But I’m not sure how to do that.
@@bryanleimbach3939 One of the best ways to boost ridership is to make buses more convenient. As I said in my video, having higher frequency service that runs to more places for more hours of the day and days of the week would help to encourage riders to try transit. The more possible trips we’re able to cover using transit, the more people will ride
As another person said, this is the best video analyzing SD’s transit on UA-cam. For the 8th largest city in the US, this topic is under-discussed (online and in person).
I agree with the points you raised (despite having a soft spot for rail).
I think one project that could help a lot is dedicated bus only lanes both directions on the I15, at least active during rush hour (~3-6pm or, more generously, 2-7pm). This would actually make buses competitive to sitting in nearly stopped traffic.
This could be expanded to other busy routes (I8, etc.). Some of these freeways have like 3-5 lanes, replacing one with a bus lane (especially temporary) shouldn’t upset drivers that much and could greatly improve transit times.
Also, I think the part regarding repairing potholes on Measure G was to appeal to drivers. If it was only for transit, many people may have voted against it because it didn’t directly benefit them.
@@calvinlawn3457 For sure, that all makes sense. I’d love to see better transit priority on I-15, I like the 235 as a bus route but it really does get stuck!
My young son and I take the blue line sometimes from UTC to Little Italy- but only because he likes trains. It is slower and more expensive than driving my electric car there.
I love this video. Always been tellin people that transit’s the future, and in San Diego we have a lot of potential. Measure G seemed to ambitious yes, I always found it weird that bus connections weren’t as convenient as I have hoped it to be especially with its relationship to the trolley 😂
as a long time san diego resident im unsure improving the bus network is worth it given the rail is more profitable and easier to navigate
@@-i1007 You cannot, and will never be able to travel to and from everywhere in the county on rail alone. Having a spine of rail for the system is helpful, but you cannot have a successful rail system without a successful bus system to feed it
Thank you for sharing this local transit story! I think it can enlighten a lot of other metro systems as well.
@@AncTreat5358 Absolutely! It’s so important to consider the priorities when working towards expansion!
@@thetransitbandit You did bring up one approach that other metros have done successfully. That is: starting with BRT lines, and then convert them to light/heavy rail when the need becomes apparent on a per-item basis.
@ Absolutely, that has worked well in many cases!
You excluded 3 pretty important facts in this video:
How much $ would this sales tax raise?
How close was the vote?
What is the actual topographic distribution of the % yes/no? I.e. did some parts of the county vote differently than others?
Idk how you forgot to include those facts in a 10 minute video
@@SeriesShower These are things that are discussed by every news source in the county talking about Measure G, and are pretty easy to research. I wanted to hone in on reasons that the measure failed and what we can do to ensure a more sustainable transit system going forward.
Congrats on the move! Moved for work? No more Seattle based transit content?
@@reysustaita There may be some Seattle videos in the future… but yeah, I moved down for a job!
While I don’t disagree with your assessment, as San Diego resident we already live in the most expensive city in the state and get taxed like crazy. I voted no on it because I’m unwilling to pay higher taxes.
1:07 thats why it didn't get voted in people don't like to get taxed
We didn’t vote against transit we voted against a tax.
I would like a trolley system that isn’t downtown centric! The trolley doesn’t go where I would like it to, like the zoo or safari park or the beaches or near where I work.
I really don’t like that the 52 is having more lanes added. It would have been great to have the Trolley run down that corridor to La Jolla…help get the east county people to the beach during the summer.
I was born and raised here in San Diego, never been on a city bus. I might as well drive since the bus would get stuck in the same traffic as if I was driving my car.
I very much like the Metro in DC. I also like Seattle trains.
Seems like SDMTS announced expanded frequency and operating time
@@alechannula Yes, and it’s generally a step in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go
san diego spent 3 million dollars on a concrete staircase in sunset cliffs…they can figure it out with what they have
@@jello4947 A concrete staircase at sunset cliffs would come out of the parks budget and cannot be used for transportation.
@ yes but i’m saying that san diego wastes money and doesn’t allocate correctly so why give them more money
@@jello4947 1. Everyone makes mistakes. 2. It is impossible to accurately estimate a project cost before you do the project. 3. Who else but the city is going to maintain your roads, run your buses, give you water, take your sewage, provide your power, fund your schools and so much more?
@ it’s a mistake to trust san diego with your tax money..they literally turned off power for people in ramona and east county for days lol
No way a local channel? Amazing.
All public transit is usually empty. Chula vista south SD use it most of the time. Charge chula vista and national cities
Boston is starting the better bus program starting 12/15 with services every 15 minutes on weekdays and Saturday but every 20 on Sunday but still pretty good
@@damiancooper3063 Nice, any improvement is always good to hear!
there were other tax increases on the ballot and that felt like it was all too much
Fingers crossed that, by next spring or summer, Columbus will be on the road towards improved service. At most, the buses run through 11pm (Midnight before the pandemic). Only 5 or 6 of the 37 bus lines run four or more times an hour.
I'm hoping LinkUS changes that, it's very exciting that it passed!
Public transportation would be more popular if it was safer with more officers and more frequency.
@@blanktitle198 Transit is safe, that’s really the baseline here. The likelihood of anything happening to you on transit is absolutely minuscule. The media has made it appear much more dangerous than it is, when in reality your chance of being injured or killed is exponentially higher in or around a car.
I rode the bus for many years at the moving to San Diego before I was financially able to buy a car I rode the trolley even after the car while I was in nursing school I even used to do my homework on the green line just to be able to focus however riding the bus was another story. Bus stops or transfer connections unlike in LA/NYC where I used to live where you got off the bus at one corner walked a few feet to the next stop to the cross- connection. Unlike here where cross-connections are spaced so far apart some seem like they were at least a 16th of a mile or more apart from one corner crossing one of our famous stroads to make a connecting bus and sometimes the other bus wouldn't even wait. I had a driver once tell me that the MTS control center was from a centralized location in Australia/NZ(?) I don't know how true that is or was but having to make bus connections on the MTS certainly left a sour taste in my mouth and I have no desire to write another MTS bus ever again unless I absolutely have to. All that may be different now because I've been driving consistently for the past 12 years so things could now be different. 🤷🏽♂️
@ Yeah, some transfers are quite poorly designed. I know of some examples in north county that are pretty terrible!
The problem is that every time we raise taxes for transportation, they spend the money on other things. It didn't matter how well you think you write the measure. Do you not know that?
@@kimberlycarrigan8824 It’s illegal to spend funding raised for one purpose for another unless it’s some kind of emergency.
@thetransitbandit yet they do it all the time. I don't know why you ate trying to convince me they shouldn't do it. I'm not in charge of them.
It's one thing when buses run less frequently on weekends, but to have them not run at all on the weekend is wild, like people still need to get places??
@@alexanderlaycock789 Exactly! It’s very frustrating!
Our family voted NO because we don't know anyone who uses mass transit. I read up on it and less than 5% of Californians even use mass transit. I've NEVER seen a bus or train FULL of passengers and I make it a point to look at every bus and I train I drive past. Best case scenario is 5 to 7 people in a bus, which has capacity for 50 seated passengers and probably another 25 standing. Even in this video, you don't see a single bus full of passengers.
I think we need a totally different model to address something that only impacts 5% of the population. I'm not an economist, but give these folks vouchers for ride share, Uber, etc.
You cannot measure demand for transit by the fact that people don't take as much transit, when there are clear issues with the transit system. Maybe ask yourself why you don't take transit. It's too slow? It stops running too early? It doesn't go where you're going? You have to wait too long? All of these factors are why we need to improve our transit system. People aren't going to simply use a bad transit system if they have a way around it, but if we had a better one, people would ride. That's simple supply and demand, and you can see it very clearly in other cities. A great example is Vancouver, BC. Over time, they've increased transit service, from having no rail or rapid buses in the 1970s to having a massive system today, and some of the highest per-capita ridership in the continent. Now, instead of low ridership, their main problem is overcrowding. Build it and they will come is a very true statement, and we can choose one of two things. We can build more car infrastructure by widening roads and building freeways, or we can build more transit. Either way, people will use more of what we build.
I seriously think the next ballot measure should be 100% transit. I voted for Measure G, but I wasn't sure because I don't want sales taxes funding more highways. We have enough of them in San Diego county.
Absolutely! That was one of my main reservations with voting for Measure G, we already have so many super wide highways, we really don't need more.
Politicians should be spending tax money on any transportation project with or without voter approval in all cities
Measure G was too car-centric?! As a car driving tax payer I couldn't disagree more.
@@vault1310 Spending 1/3 of the mesure on our already-bloated roads is too car-centric, yes
Most San Diegans want more funding for transit. However, the law requires a 60% majority.
I think increasing taxes is not the best decision given that Californians pay some of the highest in the nation, instead funds should be redirected from existing highway expansion/repair funds.
@@AtulKedia - Lately, a lot of money has gone into building HOV/HOT lanes on the 5 and 405. Also, eliminating the stop lights on the 76 would reduce pollution and increase capacity without road widening. The 76 principally serves to funnel commuters from Riverside County to San Diego, and that's not going to be a job for commuter rail until CA HSR Phase 2 is complete.
measure g was 50% because it was petitioned by the public and not the government
There should have been more emphasis in Bike infrastructure to get North County residents on board. I went to Solana Beach and I saw surprisingly high E-bike usage.
@@kennyalvarado7578 Absolutely - the coastal cities have pretty decent bike usage!
I'm always surprised how many ebike riders are on the PCH in north county whenever I get a chance myself, even on a random weekday. I really wished they improved the San Diego River "trail" in Mission Valley. That thing is laughably unusable
MTS has to do better on keeping homeless out. They have created a free ride for all homeless throughout san diego. Nobody wants to be around the scabies and desease left behind on the seats. The trolly is disgusting. People openly using drugs at every stop.. DO BETTER MTS!!!
It got my Nay for asking for a rate hike for things which are already supposed to be covered by existing taxes. Specific improvements are unimportant at this point.
@@the_didenko It wasn’t a rate hike to cover existing services. MTS and NCTD services will largely remain the same after the failure of Measure G. However, Measure G would’ve funded significant expansions to both transit systems, which are now on hold.
@thetransitbandit it was. Even the potholes you mention are supposed to be covered by existing taxes. We should not cover up past miscalculations (at best) or mis-spending (more likely) by increasing a tax burden under new shiny project excuses. Make it a clean time-limited enhancement proposition and I will consider it. Make it an unlimited rate hike like Measure G which will lose its current justification in a few years - it will get none of my support.
The logic of Measure G is insane - does it mean every time a transit system needs enhancement there should be a rate hike? How often do you see the rates go down?
@ Transit pays for itself 3-to-1 in economic development, not to mention regional mobility and equity. Money is not an issue here
@ Also, this kind of slippery slope argument is ridiculous. Transit in San Diego is chronically underfunded. In order to reach the levels of service present in other cities, we do have to put money in. But that doesn’t mean it evaporates.
> @thetransitbandit Transit pays for itself 3-to-1 in economic development, not to mention regional mobility and equity. Money is not an issue here
>
> Also, this kind of slippery slope argument is ridiculous. Transit in San Diego is chronically underfunded. In order to reach the levels of service present in other cities, we do have to put money in. But that doesn’t mean it evaporates.
Here is the ballot title that voters saw:
> FUND SAN DIEGO COUNTY TRANSPORTATION, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND SAFETY PROJECTS THROUGH A HALF-CENT SALES TAX. To repair/upgrade roads, bridges, storm drains, rail lines, and prevent railway bluff collapse; reduce traffic congestion; improve pedestrian, bicyclist, and driver safety; improve public transit; protect wildlife habitat/air quality; and fill potholes; shall the measure authorizing a half-cent sales tax raising $350,000,000 annually until ended by voters, requiring citizen oversight, public spending disclosure, and independent annual audits be adopted?
You can say it is not about money. But that is what the Measure asks for. I'll leave it to you to figure out.
A transit RoI ratio is a nice sound bit, but it is 1) out of context and 2) irrelevant.
It is out of context as it can only be considered for a specific project. An abstract transportation project, including the maintenance listed in the Measure, does not have such returns.
It is irrelevant to this conversation because I do not argue against improved bus routes' general needs or benefits. I live in downtown and do not drive. Suburban connections are painful. Downtown transportation is very patchy. What I do not accept is a tax rate hike as a means of financing. If they come back with better (in scope and nature) financing, I am all for it. It will also help to not put two tax hikes addressing potholes next to each other (Measures E and G) if for PR considerations only, LOL.
I have no idea where the slippery slope personal attack comes from. I sensed (apparently wrong) that the video author is interested in what may have been SPECIFICALLY a problem with this Measure from a voter perspective who helped to stop it. Why? Maybe to help improve the chances of bus route improvements passing in the future? I don't know. I answered with my perspective and got called ridiculous.
If it is about the argument against using permanent rate hikes for temporary needs - is not a slippery slope argument. It is reductio ad absurdum if you care to name the technique.
We are talking past each other. Good luck.
While I dont live in San Diego personally, I have a lot of family there. Nimbyism runs pretty strong there.
@@kNo1bdy Yeah, unfortunately very true!
I think we need MORE TROLLEY LINES. Instead of all going North-South we need a lot more going both Nortn-South and East-West and have stops in the following. They need to be interconnected with convent change points without having to go downtown to change.
* Suburban Neighborhoods (Including Close to Single Family Home Neighborhoods). This includes both low income areas like City Heights and Southeast San Diego and high end neighborhoods like Scripps Ranch, Tierrasanta, Fairbanks Ranch, Mira Mesa, La Jolla, etc. We have excluded too many high end neighborhoods for transit stops. Put a trolley station in each neighborhood people can walk to or bike to or a take a community shuttle to with free park and ride (some may want to use cars a short distance on rainy days).
* Major Apartment Areas (Such as Mission Valley) and other places they are building apartments
* Major Office Areas (Such as San Diego Tech Center, Miramar Office District, Scripps Ranch Business Park, Kearny Mesa Interior, Rancho Bernado, Sorrento Valley, Del Mar Inland, and Downtown) within walking distance.
* Shopping Areas (i.e. Fashion Valley, UTC, Plaza Bonita, North County Fair, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Mission Valley, Viejas Outlets, etc)
* College and University Campuses (SDSU, UCSD, USD, Alliant, CSUSM, Mesa, Miramar, City, Grossmont, Cuyamaca, Southwestern, Mira Costa, San Diego Christian, PLNU, Palomar, etc)
* Airports (Lindbergh Field, Montgomery Field, Palomar, Brown Field, etc)
* Stadiums and Arenas (Snapdragon, Petco, Sports Arena, etc)
* Entertainment Districts (Gaslamp, Mission Valley, etc)
* Hotel and Convention Areas (Downtown, Little Italy, Hotel Circle, Convention Center, etc)
* High Schools
* Attactions (Major Beaches, Balboa Park, Belmont Park, Cabrillo Mounument, Zoo, Sea World, Zoo Safari Park, Old Town, Hillcrest, Coronado Island, etc).
* Military Bases (Like MCAS Miramar, North Island, Coronado, 28th Street, etc)
If people can get to MOST MAJOR PLACES IN THE CITY on the trolley, with some bus connections, short term walking, or biking this would help. The reason we need lines that go both directions is that if we can reduce commute time by minimzing the number of times one has to change lines and not have to go across town an back to get places closer together, people might choose the trolley over driving.
Personally I think Prop G failed because people are UPSET about bike lanes that were built that no one is using. Personally I think that the problem is not as simple as turning all the parking into bike lanes or denying people in multifamily units parking. If you look in them there are very few bicycles. Here are my reasons that I think the bike lanes failed:
1) Housing is Segregated by Income Level. This leads to long commutes for people who work in higher income neighborhoods who are lower paid making biking impractical. Until we do mixed income neighborhoods everywhere and put affordable places to live (including single family homes, not everyone wants overcrowded apartments) in both existing housing and new housing, and allow people to shorten the commute people are not going to give up cars willingly.
2) People are so used to their cars and a switch to bikes will not happen overnight.
3) San Diego is not laid out as a city like the centers of London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, or Stockholm. We are a lot more sprawled and spread out leading to longer commute times.
4) There is not enough trolley and bus infrastructure to get to all the places people need to go practically. I think until that happens, people are going to stick to cars.
5) Not everyone is supportive of ADUs and buildings with no parking. While this can seem counter intuitive, it reflects that the fact that people care about being able to get around town easily and speedily in an area where the transit sucks.
P.S. Some people may still need their cars and be able to access parking either on-street or at their place that is non-metered and unlimited time. This is common if they have a disability and unable to use bikes, people with caregivers, people who transport heavier loads, etc. Cars may also be needed for longer distance road trips, access to rural, remote, or isolated areas, and things like that too.
Having lived in San Diego for over 35 years and in Pt Loma, Carmel Mountain, and now Ramona, I can tell you transit needs are incredibly complex. Some places need bike infrastructure while others don’t. But decisions aren’t made with local needs in mind, everyone gets the same solution. They literally painted a bicycle lane into the middle of the lane on the 67. A two lane highway with speeds exceeding 55 and the thinking here is all the traffic can wait behind bike riders? This is like painting bike lanes on a freeway lane. Nobody can ride a bike from Ramona to work down the hill. Decisions like this make planners seem out of touch and clueless. Why would we trust the same people with more money when they can’t address transit needs in a serious way?
With the passage of ADU laws, Ramona and the back country are now growing in population without the needed investment in widening the 67 and improving the safety issues we have. If measure G would have guaranteed widening of the 67, I would have voted yes. But when we are back to talking about bicycles, trollies, SD City potholes, etc. while the back country gets new paint on the ground, no thanks.
I believe the 67 was one of the highways discussed in Measure G. Additionally, instead of widening it, adding usable all-day all-week bus service from Ramona would likely help solve a lot of the capacity issues you talk about.
FYI Overnight replacement “blue line” express bus service along the San Ysidro-Downtown San Diego trolley coordior started on 1/1/2025. Long overdue. Honestly if a couple of more overnight bus services ie Downtown-SDSU, UTC-12 & Imperial and 12th/Imperial to Mission Valley TC is more than enough for limited overnight service.
To the Narrator of the video Transit Bandit, no major mass transit system in the US runs all routes of its entire bus or light rail/subway system 365 days a year. So please slow down.
@@americangiant1003 The 910 overnight route starts tomorrow, actually, but it is a good first step. As for your comment about running routes 365 days a year, I get that no agency does that for *all* routes, but there are several where every place that has service gets service every day. Vancouver is a good example, and places like Seattle are getting there quickly.
there should not have to be a vote. Why is there no vote on highway widening? Check out T4A's new report showing how much CalTrans is spending.
I keep hearing Americans complain about a lack of investment in public transport but here I see the truth. Americans truly view public transport as evil. The USA is unintelligent.
There is a local reason why this failed. It’s not just “Americans dumb.”
Maybe I don't know CA tax code, but why not fund transit improvements with property tax instead of sales tax? I find that sales tax is a more regressive system.
California passed a ballot initiative in 1978 (Proposition 13) that significantly capped property tax increases in California. While a lot of new homebuyers are paying a good amount of Property Tax, a lot of long time homeowners are paying property taxes increased by ~1-2% annually based on the value of the property from when they first bought it (which was likely peanuts compared to its present day value)
While I do agree that California and the cities within it go a little heavy handed on Sales Taxes, a lot of the reason why is due to Prop 13
Good vid
Thank you!!
Walk up to any bus stop and find NO information about the route where it goes what days it runs etc. when I tried to use the north county busses it was necessary to go to the central transit station to get a map book. Just draw the route on the sign already. It’s like you are trying to discourage riders.
Why not release this video before the election?
@@sdactivist I wanted to, but didn’t get to it, unfortunately!
@@thetransitbanditthen I guess it wasn't meant to be😢
Trolley: They built the east county white person's escape, so all traffic doesn't have to go thru the Barrio Logan scary place, instead of building up the I15 corridor where people live. Of course it's too late now, they built car pool lanes in the right of way the trolley was supposed to use. Years later, for some insane reason they ended the north extension at an abandoned mall instead of over the hill where tens of thousands of Qualcomm and other workers need a better commute. These two failures have left a terrible taste in the mouths of San Diegans.
@@tonyburzio4107 Understandable how that’s frustrating for sure.
Yeah, I always thought it was very short sighted of them to not connect the blue line extension to Sorrento, especially with the coaster being right there to connect to.
OMG You moved to San Diego!!?! Can I hit the subscribe button again?
@@djpetesake Yes I did! More about my reasons for moving and all that in a future video!
As transit tends to boost the economy, wouldn't issuing bonds to fund it be a better idea than raising taxes?
@@warmike It’s not a bad idea to issue bonds, I do worry though that if a project somehow goes over budget or over time, it would cause issues
San Diego didn’t vote against being taxed for transit. It still collects a lot of taxes for transit.
San Diego just voted against *additional* taxes for some amount of new transit and road expenses.
Every empty bus and train shown in your video justifies that vote.
@@ericbeteille2386 You can’t justify transit investment based on ridership, when ridership happens because of investment. Ridership increases massively when a service goes from running every 30 minutes to every 15, or every 15 to every 10, and so on. Our transit system has low ridership because it has low levels of service.
@@thetransitbandit if ridership properly funded transit, then why would they need to raise sales taxes?
@ Fare revenue never fully funds transit. 99.9% of transit agencies worldwide require tax revenue of some type to pay for their operations.
@@thetransitbanditif I remember correctly when I was riding public transits on the regular, University Ave had the number 7 and the number 10 bus. One of them actually ran every 10 minutes. I think it was the #10 but it was so regular and frequent that if you miss one you just barely had to blink in another one wouldn't be right behind it. They often would even stack up one behind another one Of course this was all before the pandemic. I also understand that many years ago before the trolley to TJ opened San Diego city buses used to run all night is there anybody on this thread that can verify that?
@ Ooh that’s very cool! I’ll have to see if I can find any historical schedules!
Better then not moving forward at all
Please fix Surfliner and coaster, and electricity any new tunnels
Have you considered that San Diego is doomed?
Can you elaborate on that?
Not really, because it isn't. (I live in San Diego, so I know what it's like)
@@ddrhazy I don’t like the idea that any place is “doomed.” Sure, San Diego has a longer ways to go than other cities, but that doesn’t make it impossible for it to have a better, more walkable and livable future.
@ianhomerpura8937 that the people and politicians are car brained and will not change in your life time. That they are too drunk on easy money via muni bonds to change infrastructure policies.
Have you considered the idea that you’re wrong and ignorant?
We voted against it because it was bundled with the useless bike lanes that are only used for recreational purposes.
There were no bike lane projects included in Measure G. Measure E included bike lanes, not Measure G.
@thetransitbandit the key words in measure G are "infrastructure improvements and safety projects." These are broad terms and you can argue that bike lanes are an infrastructure improvement and that it serves a safety purpose. The proposal was not just limited to public transportation.
One point you didn’t hit on at all- improving safety and cleanliness on these systems.
As a San Diego local the MTS trolley system can be an anxiety inducing cesspool. The trolleys smell like urine half the time and have trash thrown everywhere.
You want transit to become viable, make it appealing to ride.
"failed vote"? If you don't like the result, it's "failed"? Never call yourself pro-democracy.
As much a transit supporter as I am (on efficiency grounds), I'm forced to agree with your criticism. This wasn't a 'failed vote' (no vote is, unless turnout fails to reach any previously specified minimum). This was a proposal which failed to win over an electorate.
Right, more accurate to say the measure is what failed, not the vote.
I think San Diego transit doesn’t need further expansion it’s good the way it is but airport extension is kinda good
Number one San Diego is not NY city, unless you live or work in downtown, what most people don't. San Diego is very spread out.Number two, especially after Covid, public transportation is dead. Also the rise of the huge homeless and drug problem, people don't like to expose themselves to those situations. Rather sit in traffic in their own cars and privacy.
@@stefanrabenschlag2892 the only thing I’ll say to all of this is you picked the wrong UA-cam channel 🤷♂️
Almost nobody would benefit from more bicycle infrastructure. The real problem with San Diego transit isn’t just frequency, it is security. My wife took one ride on the trolley when we first got here and was repulsed. Some homeless woman got on, peed on the seat, and got off. This was pointed out to an officer but they didn’t do anything about it and someone then got on and sat there (for a few seconds!). The trolley has the potential to be great but to get ridership up it has to be nice.
If you think the trolley is weird, take a ride on LA metro. It pales in comparison, coming from a work commuter on the trolley. Most rides are pretty normal, but ofc weird people will get on when there is no fare gates.
@@GirtonOramsaywhen the K Line Subway opened up in LA I went up to experience the new system since that area's my old stomping ground back in the day. The K line trains and subway stations smelled fresh and were very clean. However the other lines some train cars were dirty and smelly. Some had trash in every seat, homeless with all their possessions taking up space sleeping in the trains. There were even some people smoking pot and the police came in did nothing about it! I was telling one of the ambassadors how clean the San Diego system is compared to theirs and how we even have vending machines and mini marts at some stations. The ambassador was shocked because there's nothing like that at any of the rail stations in Los Angeles. The trains/ stations are already filthy without them.
You're a cute kid. The planners know what they want and won't change for anyone. Everything here has been previously stated by the over-educated and under-employed of the county thousands of times. Keep at it, who knows...you may be the "yop" that breaks through. Good Luck.... It'll never happen.
Measure G did not fail because of marketing! It failed because SANDAG CANNOT BE TRUSTED and MTS has also proven itself bloated and unresponsive. And, you emphasis on bicycle infrastructure is nonsense. There's NO data indicating that bicycles are a commuting option, or that cycling as a commuting choice would ever be adopted in hilly, spread out San Diego. I've been an award winning city planner for 27 years in San Diego, and its not structured to suit whatever transit dreamscape you imagine it to be. It's multi nodal, with employment hubs scattered across the region and residential enclaves similarly dispersed. Add to that that San Diego is low density, and it becomes clear that fixed rail lines are not the answer and given the average commuting distance, bicycles are nothing more than a confection.
Now, where you get it RIGHT is with the emphasis on rubber wheel transit. I think an army of much smaller busses and an "Uber For All" publicly funded on call service is where solutions reside. BUT THE REAL ANSWER is to end the commute altogether wherever possible by rethinking where, when, and how we work. We must take the lessons COVID taught us about working from home or otherwise remotely and adopt that wherever practical. If we can get just a 10-15% reduction in commuter traffic, we can end freeway expansions, stop wasting money on light rail vanity projects, toll roads, and SANDAG itself. SANDAG exists to save itself. That is why its regional transit plan includes 800 miles of "managed lanes" which are toll lanes that would generate $30 million a year for their budget, and help them retain their "phony baloney jobs."
The voting public saw how inept and out of touch SANDAG is when they saw them hand out millions of dollars of contracts to their favorite engineering and planning firms for pointless studies and endless plans after more plans with more plans. Millions wasted on the 125 toll road fiasco. The truly stupid GRAND CENTRAL ego project, and even nonsense like burying a subway beneath C Street, or claiming the ONLY WAY to reach the airport RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM AN ELEVATED TROLLEY LINE WAS TO BUILD A billion dollar "PEOPLE MOVER" instead to just building an elevated spur line over the street to the terminals and then loop it back.
Plus, you're right... BUSSES to the airport along some dedicated lane could EASILY serve all those needs.
Sorry, I only see a bunch of big, expensive empty buses. Let's try cost efficiency first, then safety, and then we can throw more tax money into the conversation.
Most of the time the busses and trolleys are full. However, many routes begin and end in Downtown, where a lot of this footage appears to be from. That’s probably why the bus appears empty. I’ve been riding MTS over a decade and there is robust ridership here in SD.
0 seconds ago
Why don’t you get a job as a bus driver for one of the agencies ?
Putting up with rude people bad drivers and maneuvering on road not made for a 40 footer .
Yes driving hours a day putting your license and freedom on the line , in case you ever hit someone , every day !
No , busses are awful, no one wants more of them if it can be avoided .
So who would vote for this measure without something for them ?
Most people drive, no road improvements why vote to tax yourself more if you never use public transit ?
Also the government waste on transit projects this terrible !
Look up the cost per mile of the original light rail in SD , adjust for inflation and see how bloated these light rails have become when compared to the number of miles to add to get to the airport .
I am a supporter
Of public transit but every idea is not a good one .
As far as Free service is concerned, No .
The fares don’t even partially cover the costs .
Walk or bike if you think they are too high .
YOU can set up a private foundation and get other soft headed people to donate to give passes you Buy from the system to give to the needy .
I don’t want to pay .
You do not know Generational San Diego County politics. You're barking in the wind, m'dear.