A 35-year, $204 billion plan lays out how local governments will improve transportation across the county, but some leaders say it does not do enough to alleviate traffic in the often-congested South Bay.
For those traveling south of downtown, the SANDAG program, unanimously approved Friday, aims to install a rapid bus transit system to keep people off clogged freeways during peak hours.
The South Bay Rapid will span a 21-mile route from the Otay Port of Entry, through eastern Chula Vista and into downtown San Diego.
An allocation of the funds will add lanes to Interstate 5 leaving the South Bay, as well as an additional trolley line.
“The plan calls for the creation of a purple line which will take people from the South Bay all the way to Kearny Mesa,” said Chula Vista Mayor Mary Salas. “They're anticipating funding for that in this plan.”
But San Diego City Councilman David Alvarez, who represents residents in the city’s southern area, believes the program unfairly prioritizes other neighborhoods.
He said most of the public transportation improvements are pushed decades into the future.
“Well, it's a horrible commute, whether you're in the morning coming up to the places of employment in the center of the city; it's very very bad,” he said. “If you're going home at the end of the work day, it's really bad, and this is a quality of life issue because that means you're away from home, you're away from your kids.”
He also objects that leaders plan to raise taxes with no benefit in the near future.
Salas argued that mass transit works for some, but not all, so freeway fixes are a necessary part of the SANDAG plan.
Construction on the South Bay Rapid transit corridor is scheduled to begin in early 2016. It is expected to be in service by 2018.
As for funding the $204 billion in improvements, half will come from federal and state transportation grants, local property taxes will cover about 35 percent and gas taxes will make up the difference.
