Lessons From San Diego: Transit Retail

Not long after Los Angeles’ newest light rail line opened up, I had a chance to visit San Diego and ride all three of their “Trolley” lines. (Personally, I’ve always considered a trolley the same as a streetcar, like the one being planned in Downtown LA, but San Diego uses it as the name for the regional light rail system.)

First, a few observations..

Low Floor Vehicles: San Diego MTS has some nice new, low floor, vehicles (that do seem to me more like a streetcar or a trolley). These vehicles are a vast improvement over the old ones, where you would have to climb two stairs to the higher floor. The new vehicles offer ample space for bikes and people, but there was definitely less space to sit. The center aisles near the doors are large and spacious, but very onorganized. It may seem strange, but because there was so much open space, the aisles became a mess of legs, bikes, shopping bags, and riders all mixed together, and it was actually hard for people to get on and off at stations. If there was a designated “bike, stroller, luggage” section, like on LA’s Metro vehicles, it may work better.

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