ucsd to mts: you kind of suck

that was the general feeling from the folks who put on the public transportation meeting at ucsd on thursday. "badly managed", "desperate to reduce service", and "the only company that want less people to use their services" were some of the quotes. clearly, there's a high level of frustration with the san diego metropolitan transit system on the part of ucsd transportation.

considering that mts couldn't be bothered to send a representative when asked, cuts routes/lines wherever ucsd adds them, and has to be begged to keep other lines that serve campus, the impatience was understandable. and it's really beyond the control of mts - they're losing money on each rider and suffering under big budget cuts and soaring fuel prices. while half of the questions at the forum involved improving mts service, there's not much to do except appeal directly to our elected representatives - the ones who allegedly said that "bus riders don't vote" before they transferred millions from mts to freeway construction. that's looking pretty stupid now with drivers switching en masse to public transportation, or what's left of it in san diego.

ok, enough mts bashing. ucsd is moving forward with innovative transportation solutions. here's a summary of the rest of the meeting, probably only of interest to the ucsd readers of this blog, all 1 of them:


- MTS is facing a major budget shortfall and can not provide any
service improvements. They are "combining" the 48/49/30 routes in
late August - not sure what that means in terms of service. If you
want improvements, write to MTS and/or your local representatives.

- UCSD is building a new transit center at Myers/Gilman which will include a bus pullout area and shaded seating.

- UCSD may offer a $20 monthly pass that will allow unlimited use
of all MTS services (including Coaster). SANDAG is rolling out the
new Compass Card for all SD County transit. No more fumbling for bills when you get on the bus!

- Main UCSD campus shuttle routes that did not run this summer will run
next summer. Additional evening lines will be added soon to the
Hillcrest shuttle route, which currently only has a 7 and 9 pm run. Not too convenient after those post-work gym visits.

- Larger bike racks (3 instead of 2) are being installed on UCSD
buses. Rear-mounting of racks was tried and caused problems. They
are looking into bike racks for vans, like the SIO shuttle.

- The SIO shuttle will be better coordinated with the Mesa shuttle
so that no waiting will be required when transferring at
Revelle/Scholars intersection.

- I may have misunderstood this, but after the meeting I was told
there may be UCSD Coaster shuttle service that runs closer to
SIO.

- Peak hour passenger load can not be accommodated on the current
express MTS bus from Downtown/Old Town to UCSD; Brian (head of
Transportation) felt that rail is the only solution, and this is
still scheduled for 2014. more details...

- The next meeting will concern bike issues. Brian was
non-committal about bike lockers (expensive).

- Brian reminded us that UCSD Transportation is self-funded via
permits and tickets. I suggested consistent enforcement of the SIO
beach lot every summer weekend, lots of infraction money there.