Transportation Plan Must Be The Heart Of Any Growth Plan

by Councilman Scott Peters
for the La Jolla Village News
March 2002

To grow or not to grow. That is the question that continues to be asked throughout San Diego by the media, academic and political leaders, and everyday citizens over a cup of coffee. Despite years of unproductive and divisive debate over whether growth is good or not, we have grown, and according to the San Diego Association of Governments, we will continue to grow, like it or not. The projected growth of a million new San Diegans in the next 30 years will come largely from births in San Diego, not from people moving here. We can accommodate our children and grandchildren by implementing new and creative solutions that will address the impacts of this certain and inevitable growth or, in the alternative, we can do nothing, and experience worsening traffic congestion and decreased mobility, housing shortages, skyrocketing rents, and a significant decrease in environmental quality. We cannot, however, simply decide not to grow.

As I stated in this column in November of last year we will need to develop a transportation system that moves people efficiently to work and to the places where they recreate. If current usage patterns continue we would need six new Interstate 805s to move people only an average of 30 miles per hour. It has become clear that we must look to mass transit alternatives to drastically improve our rapidly worsening mobility crisis.

Unfortunately, public transportation and transit planning continues to be an afterthought in San Diego. Currently, the only transit project planned north from Old Town is the "Mid-Coast Line," a 10.7-mile trolley line that will serve the same corridor as the Coaster and avoid key residential, employment and education facilities that would likely use transit. It is clear that the Mid-Coast Line will only provide a continuation of the same system that a transportation expert recently described to City Council as "slow, infrequent, under-funded, indirect, and offers mostly a basic level of service.".

In my November article I explored the problem. After working on these issues now for the past year I offer a few solutions:

First, we must abandon the current Mid-Coast Trolley Line in favor of the "Transit First,"alternative that I wrote about in November. This new strategy utilizes trolley-like vehicles or "flex-trolleys" that travel on tires on lanes and bridges dedicated to transit use and costs a fraction of the cost of a fixed-rail trolley. The goal of Transit First is to get commuters to their destination in a manner that is faster, more cost-effective and more pleasant than taking their automobiles. The technology and know-how are available, and there has been significant political movement to accept this new mode of transport. If we can form a lasting consensus around the Transit First strategy we can begin to make transit a reality in the Mid-Coast, the heart of employment and education in San Diego County.

I have begun the process of forming this consensus by working with members of the high technology and biotechnology community, and UCSD. In the near-term we may have an opportunity to form a unique public-private partnership with the Westfield Corporation, who has proposed plans to expand their UTC shopping center. I have made it clear to Westfield that any expansion plan must include a substantial investment in transit infrastructure. UTC's expansion also holds out the promise of creating a hub for our new regional transportation system. Working together, we can pay for and construct a real transit system in the heart of our Mid-Coast that can provide real traffic relief to an area in desperate need of improved mobility.

Second, we must rebuild our ineffective system of transportation planning. Specifically, we must merge the Metropolitan Transit Development Board, which is responsible for transit planning in the southern part of our county, and the North County Transit District, which is responsible for transit planning in the northern part. The Mid-Coast is located on the boundaries of these two agencies, which results in a virtual black hole of transportation planning as the agencies squabble over who is responsible for service in this area. We are one region and we need one surface transportation agency to address our common transportation needs.

Finally, we have to be serious about adopting smart growth policies that will link future development to this transportation system. The City of Villages is one smart growth concept that could work since, in theory, it makes sense to densify around a transportation system that links the "villages" of our region. But the City of Villages will remain just a theory without real solutions to traffic congestion, and the only way to retain our quality of life is to grow around a transportation system that works. Ultimately, the heart of any growth plan must be a transportation plan.