San Diego Trolley (Chula Vista, Orange, Vista: 2014, Home Depot, neighborhood)

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Originally Posted by malcorub16

This is a good point Shmoov, it makes me wonder how the residents of La Jolla and Universty City feel about The Trolley coming into their back yard in the next few years. Do they see it as a benefit or do they see it as something that will bring down their quality of life by giving it more connectivity to the urban core which include the "undesirables" that come with it?

From Wikipedia

"SANDAG is planning an extension of the Blue Line[31] from the Old Town Transit Center 11 miles (17.7 km) to the University City community, which will serve major activity and employment centers such as the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus and University Towne Centre (UTC) shopping center.[29][32] This is part of the "Mid-Coast Corridor Transit Project".[33] Construction is currently scheduled to begin in 2015, and the Mid-Coast extension is slated to be completed and in operation by 2018."

Yup. I saw this a while back on KPBS.
Concerns Remain Over La Jolla Trolley Extension Project | KPBS.org

I dont think there are many stops planned between Old Town and UTC. Plus the stops would be 'down the hill' a bit from residential areas on Clairemont Mesa Bl and Balboa Ave.
After that the stops are mostly in denser parts of UTC according to the map.

So I dont think it will be too bad.

http://www.sandag.org/uploads/projec..._250_15921.jpg

[Pedro2000]

Originally Posted by Jehjeh

The trolley isn't dependent on traffic conditions or stoplight timing. With buses, you lurch from stop to stop, or even stoplight to stop to stoplight to stop. Hit bad timing on those lights, and you have a long ride. The trolley, OTOH, just moves from one stop to another, no worries about traffic or lights slowing it down.

That's not exactly true. There are quite a few areas where the Trolley stops at traffic lights. Yeah if you are going from old town out to Fashion Valley or Mission Valley, its probably worth it. Going from Old Town to downtown or beyond, you'll wind up making quite a few stops along the way and sometimes you sit at traffic lights for a bit.

[Pedro2000]

The problem with quicker routes and less tops is it becomes a transportation hub only good if you live close enough to those particular stops. If it takes you 10-15 minutes to drive to the trolley and another bus or taxi to get to your office or so on, it becomes more annoying.

I used to ride the trolley often when I lived downtown and in mission hills. But it was a pain to get to the trolley station from mission hills, especially if you lived Goldfinch. There is no easy way to walk down Washington ave. It's a hazard. I did it once and it was the last time I ever did. Walk down the ramp and almost get hit by a car, walk along the area where cars go 75, and finally get down to the trolley area. Or you could walk all the way around colombia and head to the station before Washington. It used to take like 30 minutes to walk from where I was to that stop. And when you are pushing a stroller, it was just not worth it. But I was on that "don't want to spend money on a car after spending 40K on cars for years."

And folding a stroller up on a trolley and finding a seat is a pain in the azz. Walking up stairs holding a baby and a stroller and being among many rude people was a pain the azz. And the trolley wasn't exactly clean. And some stops they don't stop for long at all. I couldn't imagine doing that with two kids.

The Coaster is a lot nicer, Amtrak is far nicer, but they are rather useless for most people. The Coaster is a nice ride for fun, but with limited stops, it's only useful if you live down the street from a station and work downtown.
CalTrain and Bart were far nicer than anything San diego has to offer. Septa in Philly was great, especially coming from the airport to downtown and all around. The only problem there was at like 12 midnight, most stops didn't run anymore to the suburbs. NYC has the best system to me as you could go from Trenton to NYC and not worry about a ton of stops or crowded stations. Then again, compared to Medellin or India, wow. Those places are like packing you in as sardines, so we can't really complain.

The trolley is useful, but if you depend on it for your everyday commuting needs, it becomes worse than being stuck in traffic 40 minutes a day.

[moved]

The Blue doesn't go through Old Town anymore. That changed when the Green Line started operating.

[malcorub16]

Pedro brought up the Coaster, so here is my attempt to be more inclusive. I wish I could change the name of the thread to San Diego Rail Transit.

For you folks in the North County, does anyone here use the San Diego Sprinter or the Coaster? I personally never have, but was quite close to riding the Coaster once up to the Del Mar Fair one year and then taking a shuttle to the fairgrounds. We parked at Old Town and saw The Coaster as it was pulling away, we had just missed it. We drove up to the fair instead and actually cruised right passed it on the freeway. :-)


Coaster Trains in San Diego - YouTube


San Diego Sprinter Action In North County - YouTube

[malcorub16]

Originally Posted by Pedro2000

"
And folding a stroller up on a trolley and finding a seat is a pain in the azz. Walking up stairs holding a baby and a stroller and being among many rude people was a pain the azz. And the trolley wasn't exactly clean. And some stops they don't stop for long at all. I couldn't imagine doing that with two kids.

This is true. Luckily, out where I live only the new low riding trolleys come out here, so boarding with a stroller or a bicycle is really easy these days. The ones that go to the border (Blue Line) I believe are still the old ones that have steps, the South Bayers got the shaft .

[skeke]

Before I retired my office was in Mission Valley, right on the trolley line and right on the San Diego River Walk. Per staff who worked there before the trolley came through, the River Walk was a popular place to go during lunch break but they quit walking there after the trolley came through because they said scary people started to come there via the trolley and hang around by the river.

[malcorub16]

Originally Posted by skeke

Before I retired my office was in Mission Valley, right on the trolley line and right on the San Diego River Walk. Per staff who worked there before the trolley came through, the River Walk was a popular place to go during lunch break but they quit walking there after the trolley came through because they said scary people started to come there via the trolley and hang around by the river.

At my office, which is also on the SD River near the trolley line in MV, we've performed a few river clean ups with the SD River Park Foundation. You'd be surprised how many homeless encampments there are in the woods along the river. I wonder if the trolley is the main culprit for attracting the homeless into the wooded area. I don't feel they are dangerous, I don't feel threatened at all, but I could see where women would feel uncomfortable walking/jogging through there alone in the evenings. I also wish they wouldn't trash the river.

I wonder if The Trolley is the main culprit for bringing vagrants to Mission Valley...? In which case I might understand the nimbys concerns.

[benshaton]

It's too bad that Old Town's parking lot is full by 7:30 or 8 AM. Bus 105, the bus I'd take to get there from home and back has a stop nearby but only runs twice an hour, and only goes to Old Town instead of downtown. I could then make my connection to go downtown to work. I'd love to leave my car at home but whether I take the Trolley, Bus 30, or Bus 150 going home, they almost always arrive in Old Town just after the time I can run to where I can catch the 105 before it leaves. I'm hoping that once the trolley is extended, that it'll stop within a short walking distance from me, but that's at least a couple years off.

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by shmoov_groovzsd

Yup. I saw this a while back on KPBS.
Concerns Remain Over La Jolla Trolley Extension Project | KPBS.org

I dont think there are many stops planned between Old Town and UTC. Plus the stops would be 'down the hill' a bit from residential areas on Clairemont Mesa Bl and Balboa Ave.
After that the stops are mostly in denser parts of UTC according to the map.

So I dont think it will be too bad.

http://www.sandag.org/uploads/projec..._250_15921.jpg

My problem with the extension is that it goes along the freeway and avoids the areas where people actually live. I'd much rather see it go from Old Town to the Sports Arena (Assuming a new state of the art facility will be built one day), then on to Mission and Pacific Beach and over Mt. Soledad (If they can get a tram to the top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, why can't they do it here?). From there it can drop down to Gilman up to UCSD and head east to UTC. Is that asking too much?