My plan for transportation in San Diego

The other day I was driving somewhere with Marshall; I don’t remember where; it’s not important. We were on the freeway, cruising along, and about five minutes into our drive we hit traffic. I really hate traffic. I absolutely lose control the moment I’m in traffic. It’s very unhealthy. He tells me to “Calm down. Breathe. You’re stress hormones are skyrocketing.” I proceeded to yell and scream back to him about how much I hate traffic. But then the traffic lifted, and we were at least moving again. I finally took a breath.

Then, to pass the rest of the time traveling to the unrecalled destination, I began to imagine a San Diego with public transportation that actually worked. A San Diego where not only I could take public transportation, but a San Diego where *everyone* WANTED to take public transportation. So, with out all the real-life limitations that a public transportation must deal with, I let my mind wander.

First of all, it would have to be nearly door to door service. I mean, we ARE talking about a culture in which people drive in circles around the parking lot trying to find a parking spot closest to… the GYM!!! Since it would be unrealistic to put trolley tracks in on every street, the first part would have to be some kind of massive carpool or vanpool.

This part of the system would be controlled by computer programs similar to the technology used in online mapping websites. The major difference is that the city’s program would also incorporate who was going where and when, so that everytime a carpool was possible, it would be scheduled. This would have to be very sophisticated software because people would want to not only plan ahead, but also be able to call on demand.

There would have to be protocol worked out for waiting. Would the vanpools wait at all? Would they wait up to 2 minutes? Anything more would be too much time for any other potential riders. Perhaps the van pool would wait up to 2 minutes if other riders were to be picked up by that van, but if no one else was on that scheduled route, then the van could wait indefinitely.

However, massive carpooling still isn’t realistic for riding across and around the entire city. So, there would also have to be lines of transit, for moving quickly to different neighborhoods. This would be basically what the current idea of public transportation offers, in San Diego or any city. You ride along a “line” and possibly transfer. This part of the system is independent of the citypooling. One could pay a line pass, or a pool pass, or both. The lines of transit would include all the existing trolley lines, and more that could be built as the funds are available. It would also include San Diego county train lines.

However, trolley, light rail, monorail, train, and other “rail” systems are actually very expensive. They are pretty unrealistic modes of public transportation for this reason. Buses are much more cost effective, and when done right, can be efficient means of transportation as well. It’s just that most cities don’t do buses right; they do them entirely wrong. In my plan for San Diego the buses run almost like a “rail” system – they don’t go into every single neighborhood, but rather act as connectors across the city. The buses would run on all major cross streets in Bus-only lanes, and they would also run on all the freeways, also in buss only lanes. There would be local buses and also speed buses. The local buses would stop at every currently existing exit on the freeway, but each local bus would have a short range. The speed buses would stop only at major freeway exits, where riders could transfer to a local freeway line, or a major street line.

Riders of the line system (including the rail system) would buy a pass for an area, the smallest being downtown, and moving in concentric circles outward. (Well, three-quarters of those outward moving concentric circles, as no rail lines would go straight west in to the ocean.) So, someone traveling just in the city center would pay less than someone traveling to the edges of the county.

The final portion of my plan for effective public transportation would be people power. The city would join forces with the Yellow Bike Project to distribute yellow bikes, free human-powered taxis, across the city. If you aren’t familiar with the Yellow Bike Project it is a group that takes donated used bikes, fixes them up, paints them entirely yellow, and releases them into the city. The populace is free to ride them from point A to point B on any given journey, and when the rider is finished they simply put up the kickstand and leave the bike in a conspicuous place for the next rider to use it. This would allow people going short distances, or those traveling along the line system, but not going very far from their line stop, to just hop on a Yellow Bike and get quickly to their destinations, without any wait for the citypool system. And of course it adds zero pollution and also improves public healthy.

In addition to the release of Yellow Bikes, the city would improve the bike lane system, making bike lanes that are separated with small medians from the rest of the road (for safety), and also connecting the existing bike paths in various neighborhoods to bike paths in other neighborhoods. This would transform the San Diego bike path system from it’s current state, which is primarily used for pleasure riding, into a comprehensive system that could also be used for commuting. Think about what a pleasant commute that would be!