San Diego Spring Break: Urbanist Gone Wild
Author:Steve Patterson March 14th, 2007
This week I am vacationing in sunny San Diego for Spring break from graduate courses at Saint Louis University. But I am never fully on break, yesterday I checked out a number of areas of the region and thought I’d share a few with you.
Above is an on-street motorcycle/scooter parking area in downtown San Diego. So while those on cars must pay $6 to park in the lot behind, those with more reasonable modes of transit were able to park for free. Really small and light scooters, such as my Honda Metropolitan, would still be vulnerable to theft if left in the above area not locked up. Still, this is a highly effective use of space.
Adjacent to a major trolley line is a small parking lot with a Flexcar, allowing members easy access to a car for those times they need one.
San Diego’s trolley system has some interesting differences with say Portland’s streetcar. In reality, technology these days is developing and blending so quickly the differences between streetcar, trolley, tram and light rail and getting muddied. In the downtown area the trolley acted pretty much like a streetcar, stopping every 4 blocks or so. However, as I took a suburban line toward Mexico the distance between stations could be measured in miles and the trolley acted more like a regional light rail system.
Above is a trolley with 3-4 cars at their 5th Avenue station. The first thing you will notice is no raised platform. The very front door includes a ramp for those needing wheelchair access. In the extreme left of the image you will see a regular door open with a couple of steps and a final step slides out when the door opens. Given how the wheelchair requirement is handled as a special case, the remainder of the system is pretty simple. I did notice people boarding with bicycles or child strollers having difficulty. Someone with physical disabilities but not in a wheelchair would also have issues with this set up.
Like St. Louis’ lightrail system, this operates on a honor system basis so their are no gates. Just buy your ticket and board. Unlike St. Louis, however, you must pay more for the greater distance you are traveling on the system.
When you approach a stopped trolley the doors do not open. You press a button on the side of the vehicle to activate the door. Similarly, from the inside when you reach a stop you press a button to open the door you wish to exit.
I took the above picture while riding their trolley, showing a large area of downtown that has been rebuilt at a high-density residential neighborhood. Being adjacent to their CBD with easy transit access to other areas makes this a desirable place to live. However, I understand developers in other parts of downtown have gone too far and they have a glut of condos, more so in high rises.
This is just around the corner from the prior picture. In the foreground you can see the track and the yellow “stand behind” line. Here the street width was divided up to allow a single flow of one-way traffic with on-street parking on one side.
A few blocks away two new buildings surround the existing trolley line. The building on the left is a good 20+ floors while the one on the right is more like 8 floors. Again, cars and rail transit don’t mix here but by creating a narrow space it works well.
I took San Diego’s Blue Line trolley all the way to the Mexican border. The building in the background on the right is the customs office for those crossing the border on foot or bicycle.
To get to dowtown I took a city bus while runs along a major street just a block from my friend’s house. I noticed they have several brands/models of bus but most are what we will have eventually, a “low-floor” bus pretty much like those used in our region by Madison County Transit. In these buses the floor is very low and when the bus stops it lets out some air on the suspension system and the floor is pretty well even with the curb height. This makes boarding & unboard much easier and faster. At the rear of the bus you get an area that steps up a bit above the rear axel. Like the trolley system, you pay more depending upon where you are going.
I’ve got lots more to see while in San Diego including a couple of grocery stores with underground or rooftop parking.
