Measure G failure derails SANDAG transit plans

The big picture: SANDAG has known for years it doesn't have the money to cover the projects it has committed to, and now it knows a bailout isn't coming anytime soon.

• Elected leaders on the board are instead left to deal with the scandals and policy disputes that have driven the agency into dysfunction for years.

State of play: KPBS covered the extent to which the nearly 50-50 countywide results obscure a fundamental divide between San Diego's urban and regional areas on transportation.

• The measure received 54% support in the city of San Diego, and it won in densely populated areas like National City and west Chula Vista, while places that are more rural or farther from population centers opposed it by wide margins.
• For years, policy disagreements at SANDAG have broken down along the same lines, with urban areas pushing for transit spending while rural leaders argue for a focus on highways and cars.

Zoom in: The agency's quixotic pursuit of a rail connection to the airport appears to be shifting to focus on an interim, scaled-up bus route, in the aftermath of Measure G's failure, Union-Tribune columnist Michael Smolens reported this weekend.

• During the campaign, a former SANDAG executive said the airport rail connection was unlikely to be built anytime soon regardless, but the longer the region waits, the more it risks losing the $300 million airlines committed to the project as part of the Terminal 1 redevelopment.