San Diego's new transit plans are taking shape
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Passengers wait to board the San Diego Trolley downtown. Photo: Sam Hodgson/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Regional planners are fine-tuning the future of San Diego's transit network, but big projects that would change the face of the system are all decades away at best.
Why it matters: City leaders for years have debated how to expand the region's transportation system to accommodate new housing and manage emissions.
- Planners have settled on a strategy of increasing bus service in the short term, while they work on major transit-infrastructure projects that could take decades.
Driving the news: The San Diego Association of Governments in June finalized its multi-decade plan for the I-8 corridor — a list of nearly 500 projects across the central swath of the region.
- That's the sixth of 10 state-required blueprints — only projects listed in the corridor plans are eligible for partial state funding from SB 1, the state's 2017 gas tax.
- Separately, SANDAG's board in September will review the outline of its long-term, countywide transportation plan, which it's required to update every four years to show how the county will meet state greenhouse gas-reduction targets.
Zoom in: Some of the most attention-grabbing projects in the I-8 plan aren't expected to become reality anytime soon, such as:
- A trolley extension — from a still-in-planning airport connection out to Ocean Beach — for an estimated $1.7 billion, delivered between 2035 and 2050.
- A streetcar loop from downtown around neighborhoods ringing Balboa Park — Logan Heights, Golden Hill, South Park, North Park, University Heights and Hillcrest — for about $1.6 billion, on the same timeline.
- A "skyway" — or aerial gondola — from the Fashion Valley Transit Station out of Mission Valley to the UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest, for roughly $227 million.
Between the lines: Those projects are each treated as very much up in the air, with uncertain funding and a delivery timeline between 2035 and 2050, so planners are currently focused on short-term alternatives.
- The OB Trolley spur, for instance, would be preceded by a rapid bus route for $48 million, built by 2035.
- The new rapid bus network, planners say, will rely on preferential treatment at stoplights and dedicated roadways more than existing rapid bus routes have.
- Many of the short-term plans also call for simply increasing bus frequency and extending service hours for speed and convenience.
The bottom line: The full regional plan the agency is scheduled to adopt in 2025 is primarily focused on building out a robust rapid bus network, said Antoinette Meier, senior director of regional planning.
- "There's a lot of unmet need out there today," she said. "Our biggest priority right now is transit we can implement quickly."