Community Innovation & Advocacy Leads to Faster Transit!
MTS’s Bus on Shoulder intro. See the full post here.
When traveling by bus across the I-805 and the SR-94 this year, commuters noticed their trip looked a bit different—and faster. During peak hours, the Rapid Route 225 are now using the shoulder lanes to breeze through traffic!
This is thanks to the new Bus on Shoulder (BOS) Pilot program that will run from November 2022 to November 2025. This pilot program uses innovative technology to use shoulder freeway lanes on the SR-94 and I-805 during peak hours, which enables transit riders to bypass traffic congestion and enjoy more reliable and efficient transit.
The BOS pilot program brought together many groups, including Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) , San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), California Highway Patrol (CHP), CALTRANS, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) , and the U.S Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to ensure efficiency and safety.
This project is the first in the nation to use transit vehicle-to-infrastructure technology that will allow buses to connect to freeway ramp meters to provide priority service. The BOS pilot program seems innovative and impressive- but the fact that it was a project that was identified and developed by the City Heights Community makes this project even more impressive.
In the early-mid 2010's there was a transportation plan to widen the SR-94 in City Heights, Sherman Heights, Golden Hill, and Southeast San Diego without any transit benefits for the impacted community. The proposed freeway expansion for High Occupancy Vehicle/Express Lanes would have increased Vehicle Miles Traveled, pollution, and harmful public health effects in our already overburdened communities. This plan would add further congestion and pollution that would add to the negative environmental impacts that the City Heights Community already faced being surrounded by multiple freeways.
A woman smiles while boarding a city bus headed downtown.
Residents from City Heights, including those from the City Heights Built Environment Team, knew they could not let decades of historical exclusion continue and decided to band together to fight this expansion. With City Heights CDC and other partnering organizations, the residents knew that it would take more than just a simple “no” to fight this freeway expansion.
The residents held meetings, workshops, and brainstorming sessions, and this eventually led to residents advocating and pushing for what would now be the Bus on Shoulder Pilot Program.
Want to see more quality of life improvements like this? Help fund the work! Your contribution enables!
Your support enables our team and a network of allies to work for Environmental Justice, reverse decades of historical exclusion, and allow for safe place for community members to identify solutions such as the Bus On Shoulder Pilot program that will benefit City Heights and the San Diego region as a whole!
City Heights CDC, Environmental Health Coalition and community leaders in the SR-94 worked together on an innovative vision that prioritize transit by building a Centerline Transit Station on the SR-94, Bus On Shoulder Pilot, a General Purpose to HOV land conversion, bike paths and pedestrian bridges, and a freeway cover.
As a result of effective vision building, community planning, organizing and advocacy Caltrans and SANDAG agreed to change course on their original project to move forward with a plan for the SR-94 that will create a Complete Corridor that makes significant improvements to transit, active transportation, and community cohesion. The Bus On Shoulder Pilot which launched this year is just the first community-supported, innovative solution to be implemented. More to come!
City Heights CDC continues to lead the work with partners and agencies to ensure that the community's vision is implemented throughout the SR-94.
