Are you regularly stuck in traffic, wishing that San Diego had better alternatives? In fact, the region has a robust rail transit network – the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) – which could serve as a vital community asset to help drive the development of transit-oriented, thriving neighborhoods and districts. But when it comes to providing opportunities for more people to take advantage of the existing system, our station areas barely make the grade.
Next 10’s Grading California’s Rail Transit Station Areas, prepared by the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) at the UC Berkeley School of Law, is a new analysis of six California transit systems and their 489 station areas to determine which serve as hubs of thriving, walkable areas that encourage residents and workers alike to ride the train, and which station areas need improvement.
Unfortunately, MTS station areas, defined as a one-half mile walkable distance from the station, averaged a C–. As a result, the system’s neighborhoods rank at the bottom statewide. Unlike every other transit system in the state, not a single station neighborhood in the MTS received an A, and eight MTS stations received failing marks.
Our scorecard is based on a set of factors such as neighborhood walkability, nearby amenities, local ridership, safety and existing land use and permitting policies. The analysis provides an important snapshot of what is working and what isn’t, so that transit planners and local officials can weigh how to improve these neighborhoods to take better advantage of the existing system.
In an ideal setting, proximity to convenient, safe, affordable train service encourages people to leave their cars at home and helps those who can’t afford to own a vehicle. When people choose transit, they can save money on gas and vehicle maintenance, reduce emissions of harmful air pollution and perhaps even lower stress levels associated with driving.
What makes a good station area? For starters, train stations should be easily accessible to home, convenient to work and located in walkable neighborhoods.
While its B average is lower than the best-performing stations in the five other transit systems graded, the 12th & Imperial Transit Center performed best in the MTS. This station benefitted from its downtown location and walkable environment with access to significant destinations and job centers, but it still scored lower on ridership, safety and the level of auto dependency in the neighborhood.
Overall, top-performing transit stations tend to be situated in the center of downtown-like environments and thriving, rail-oriented neighborhoods, whereas most low-performing stations – Gillespie Field Station ranked at the bottom not only in the MTS but overall in the state – idle on the outer edges of town, often in low-density, industrial or auto-oriented neighborhoods. But we can’t all live, work and play downtown, so we need our state, local and transit leaders to make outlying station areas more vibrant and appealing.
Transit is expensive to build, operate and maintain. It’s not a given that if you build it, they will come. If we want a good return on the investment:
- Local leaders should consider updating their land use policies to allow thriving and walkable communities to develop around rail;
- State leaders can help by easing permitting for projects consistent with those plans and by developing incentives for private investment in underperforming areas; and
- Transit leaders should consider the consequences of creating new stations in areas inhospitable to transit-oriented development and condition new spending on local plans to develop the station areas.
San Diegans have invested a lot of time and money in building and operating their rail system, which has seen increased ridership in recent years. While not everyone wants or needs to live and work near rail, plenty of people would like to do so. The region should give them that opportunity and help pull itself out of the bottom of statewide rail systems, building rail-oriented communities for a 21st century San Diego.