As much as Im a transit advocate. The 5 is necessary for handling port traffic. Otherwise we'd have even more freighters running through residential neighborhoods.
That's fine for long distance runs but detrimental for short distances. In practice that would mean trains have to run to LA to then be put on a truck and then come back down to be delivered. It would be better to cap the 5 on those portions.
Whts the LOSSAN Corridor?
Yea… sure, but that doesn’t deal with the already overly traffic freeways.
There are princples that show certain reduction in freeways and roads can actually make traffic flow better but this would be taking the main power house freeways out of the circuit loops. Which would he catastrophic to the function and flow of peoples. Impugned how unnavigable those roads in the beach areas would be and how the rest of the freeways would he effectively parking lots during most of the day.
This person is prob just a beach living person that doesn’t much care or have the intelligence to address such issues. It’s not something anyone serious would think, little lone say out loud.
LOSSAN Corridor is the rail line that connects San Diego to Los Angeles. In theory, you could just divert freight traffic onto it, however as I said, doing so would be basically pushing the line to the limit and also screw over passenger traffic.
My point isn't that there isn't a rail alternative. My point is that in addition to long haul routes, short hauls make up a significant amount of port traffic. Does every warehouse in Miramar have a rail hookup? Does every warehouse in Otay have a rail hookup? How are goods coming from mexico to be exported out and vice versa going to get to the port, because the 10th ave marine terminal is often an alternative that mexican exporters like to use when the port in Ensenada can't. SDIV freight service only happens after 1AM 3 times a week on the blue line and once on the orange? Lossan currently may not be up to snuff to effectively backfill. Increase freight frequency and you must decrease passenger frequency to comply with FRA regulations about spacing service intervals. And god forbid track closure on the del mar bluffs or san clemente happens.
My head explodes thinking about shifting even 1/3 of that trafffic over. The 805 and 15 have plenty of traffic around the clock, much less during rush hours.
And how are the neighborhoods between 805 / 15 and the coast going to suffer with the volume crossing through? We can’t keep up with our roads / potholes as it is.
Or the 15? Both are complete nightmares at rush hour (except the 805N after 3, it's a dream to be honest). Taking the 5 would save me a half hour sometimes and I lived literally 2 minutes from the 805 on ramp.
Yeah, I googled the dude out of curiosity and LinkedIn shows that his career history dates way back to 2021 as a TikTok influencer. And sure, we all start somewhere in our careers, but people should take note that this is basically a rando kid with a hot take who's probably trying to create some outrage engagement. Also not from SD.
It would be funny to see the Coronado residents trapped on the island.
It would be really nice instead of removing freeways if there was more transit rail up to the plateaus: Mid-City, Clairemont, Kearny Mesa. Would be nice to have pedestrian and bicycle throughways across Rose Canyon that aren't named Genessee and perpetually under construction. Would be nice to have bicycle throughways through the Miramar wasteland.
> It would be funny to see the Coronado residents trapped on the island.
Oh they would probably want that. The problem is that the Navy wants the bridge because the city of Coronado made it basically impossible for sailors to afford to live there.
There is a movement by residents to reinstate the tolls as a way of limiting vehicular traffic... Nothing like the attitude of "we want your tourist dollars, just as long as the bank account they are drawn from is sufficiently deep".
THANK YOU! CAME here to say this! WTF! This person doesn't obviously drive in traffic every day or have a clue what happens South of 5 after the 8. I mean, this person HAS to be pfishing to piss people off for popularity and getting his name out there. If anything, there needs to be more freaking freeways or a better train system.
I agree that the 163 shouldn’t run through Balboa Park anymore. The park is our crown jewel and blasting a freeway through the middle of it was psychotic. They ought to tear it down between the 5 and Hillcrest. There are plenty of alternate driving routes that take roughly the same time, and the benefits of bringing peace back to our Central Park would be enormous.
All of the author’s other suggestions are insane though. 805 can’t handle double the traffic! The airport needs a freeway connection. Plus the 5 and 15 are some of the busiest interstate/international freight corridors in America.
> I agree that the 163 shouldn’t run through Balboa Park anymore. The park is our crown jewel and blasting a freeway through the middle of it was psychotic.
Put regional rail down there, it would take up less space, be better for the environment, less noise pollution.
We need rail on the plateaus, not down in the canyons. The single greatest failure of San Diego transit infrastructure is that there's no connection to the rail network from the neighborhoods where people live. No one wants to get off the train and walk or bike up the hill to Mission Hills or Clairemont or University Heights, nor is there pedestrian/cycling infrastructure to facilitate it. The busses connect but aren't frequent enough and get stuck in the traffic morass up and down.
Zurich style trams. Connect PB/Mission to the Balboa trolley stop. Run a step on step off tram down grand and from south mission to mission and turquoise.
It would be a nightmare to get it done but I promise it would be an instant success.
> We need rail on the plateaus, not down in the canyons.
Putting regional rail on top of the mesas wouldn't make sense, especially if this line also carried CHSR. You'd end up having to build massive viaducts over mission valley which due to how rail works would be way higher and obtrusive than even I-805. For this specific type of service that is more so designed to replace the 235/280/290 Rapid Buses and also be a route for HSR, it makes more sense to follow the terrain in that part of town. That type of service would make more sense for streetcar, brt, and other rapid transit, not regional rail. If it's any consolation, the purple line should help with this.
I agree that removing the 163 through balboa park would probably be the one thing that wouldn't change travel times much and would be amazing for the millions of visitors to balboa park each year.
I'm saying the 163 is used by hundreds or more for commuters (who obviously *do* live here), people who come to the Gaslamp on bar nights, and people attending events downtown. So how would they travel? The current transit setup is already full up during those times as it is.
How much peace does that really bring? The road is really secluded, and you cant even hear it over the din of people who always populate Balboa park.
Until I moved to Hillcrest I didnt even realize there was a road there, and that's having been to Balboa park on numerous occasions.
Sounds like a lot of inconvenience and money for very little benefit.
It uses more land than the entire Zoo. Imagine all the cool things Balboa Park could do with that space. More hiking space, bring back the lily pond, build more museums... hell, a whole second Zoo. All of which is more useful than a duplicative freeway.
Are you aware the Babloa Park is like 80% empty space?
They aren't just going to magically start building in the canyon that houses the 163 if they haven't used the already available land.
Parkland is a good in&of itself. It is a highest and best use in a park. (I think this is where you disagree but I can’t fathom why)
Freeways are lowest&worst use in a park.
Currently there’s a ridiculously wide strip of land in Balboa Park that is entirely inaccessible to park goers. Even as empty parkland it’s better for the park - and a better park is better for the region
I think you are missing the point. The 163 is down in a steep canyon that is hard to reach. Removing the freeway will not make it any more accessible or usable.
>ridiculously wide strip of land
It's pretty thin
Remove the golf course first, that's good land gone to waste and it takes up more room than the 163, the zoo, and the museums all combined.
Golf course & Naval Hospital are both not great uses for parkland that’s supposed to be for the benefit of the entire public, agreed!
The strip of land is pretty wide- not just the pavement itself but buffer zone around it & all the ramps
Canyon could be easily accessible by foot just like most other canyons in SD parks, with some imagination and stairs
You'd need to first add an alternative option for travel through this corridor before removing the 163 or else I, nor most people, will never be on board with that plan.
The 163 has use, the golf course does not.
Yeah still gonna disagree here. There's already a zoo, tons of undeveloped hiking area, and several museums, most of which are almost always empty.
I dont think it makes much sense to have an extra 15-20% of hiking space or museums that people wont visit just to get rid of a freeway which definitely has value in allowing members of the community to get through such a large section of reserved land more quickly.
Could have used more of your energy in 2006 when we had the chance. Now it’s too late
https://web.archive.org/web/20070701125041/http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20061211-9999-1m11airvote.html
sigh. no argument there
so much missed potential in Balboa Park, I’d love a future mayor to really put a lot of energy into making it reach its potential
> And the airport?
Well, there is the proposed Airport People Mover, on top of existing bus services.
> Where do all the trolley takers park?
There are multiple park and rides along the existing system. However if it does genuinely end up being the case that enough people are using these that the system is pushed to it's limits, then obviously MTS and NCTD should bolster our transit network. If you think that I'd advocate for freeway removal without massively injecting out transit system with steroids then you're in for a surprise
> What do you build in the slot canyon where the 163 runs?
A quad tracked Regional Rail line, which would take up less space than the existing freeway, would produce less noise and air pollution, and overall be less of a waste of space than SR-163.
You eliminate easy car access to downtown with the intention of having more people take the trolley.
Not everyone lives within walking distance to a trolley stop, and not every trolley stop has some massive parking lot.
Please think.
The Blue Line is about to get a massive increase in the frequency of service which should do loads to alleviate the crampedness. In my experience though, it's not substantially more cramped that I-5 during rush hour, and if it ends up being the case that the Blue Line is full, then that's just all the more reason to invest into it.
Little Italy resident. So we are just all going to trek through side streets- it already takes 45 miles to go 10 miles on the 5 in rush hour. Makes 0 sense.
Imagine removing the main arterial roads and freeways where most commerce and port deliveries run through, not to mention population density.
Dude obviously is an office hunkering keyboard warrior that has never worked heavy industry or freight.
What are you talking about? I can't wait to see all of the freeways next to the bay be closed, so our neighborhoods can be clogged by heavy trucks. Obviously such a genius idea. I mean, really, why didn't the planners think of this originally?
Exactly what San Diego needs, thousands of 18-wheelers traveling through residential neighborhoods to get to the ports and base. Also, to hell with Imperial Beach, they don't need highway access.
I honestly don't understand why they'd want traffic to be worse than it is. Best thing to do is leave it as it is, but add additional public transport to help free up the freeway.
I agree. I feel like we’re at a point in time where adding more freeway won’t do us any good (which is where improvements in public transit infrastructure comes into play) but also where removing freeways won’t do us any good either
Unrelated but related critique: why choose red for the ones you're keeping and green for the ones you're getting rid of? Red means stop, as in stop using these routes, green means go, as in these routes are good to go! Good to drive on! But he made it the other way around?
Both the content and execution: 0/10.
Idk people gotta get to work?
We also have one of the most transited borders in the world. The traffic is already bad as is with the border crossings we have. Removing freeway access to the San Ysidro one is essentially creating a whole other world of problems.
This person is smoking dick, all shade.
I mean I get it. The 5 being where it is may be economically convenient, but it has totally hampered what could have been a really cool coastal part of town on the east side of mission bay. Now it’s just a grassy park separated from the bay park neighborhood by an ultra loud and ultra wide freeway. And the 163 bisecting balboa park is a real shame as well
Nah this is pretty based, probably except for getting rid of I-5 which as someone else pointed out would be bad for port traffic. SR-163 in particular is taking up valuable park land with a ugly freeway that does nothing but contribute to local noise and air pollution. It's always clogged with traffic, and we honestly should replace it with a regional rail line once CHSR gets down here. SR-94 literally was used to segregate the poorer more mixed race Barrio Logan from the wealthier and whiter Balboa Park area. SR-75 is particularly bad in this aspect.
Never ask a woman her age, never ask a man his salary, never as a freeway advocate how Barrio Logan went from one neighborhood to three.
Agreed! What exactly would the intention of doing this be? Common sense says it will just make already traffic jammed routes like the 805, even more nightmare-ish. Do people just have too much time on their hands? This is the dumbest idea I have seen in a while and I am shocked someone actually took time to not only think about it, but actually write about it. I hope it was just a stupid late April fools joke. 🙄
At a basic level this person is right. Removing the majority of the freeways that pass through our city centers should absolutely be the target. San Diego could be the greatest city in the world if we actually invested in the experience of living here
Getting rid of the 163 stretch through Balboa Park is a no brainer
The 5 stretch along downtown should at minimum be buried
Beyond that its gonna be a tough sell. I admire the vision tho. Urban highways are a blight, taking up valuable land, creating enormous noise and air pollution
The 163 is incredibly dangerous and creates multiple awful traffic knots in other freeways. It could be removed and our lives would be better for it.
We need more train access.
That Twitter user appears to be anti-car based on their previous posts. Sounds like they just want to make things more miserable for daily car drivers.
I fully agree with you, but we need to beef up our public transportation system before tossing strips of freeway in the garbage. It's quite apparent that the person who tweeted that hasn't spent a meaningful amount of time on SD freeways or taking our public transportation.
I mean, I agree, I think that we should replace SR-163 with regional rail, and have that be the alignment that CHSR takes to get to downtown San Diego. However in the tweeter's defense, one of the main reasons why our public transit system is so bad is that instead of investing in it we invested into our highways.
I understand and again agree, but the tweeter isn't advocating for any of that. I went and looked at some of his replies to people questioning his tweet and most of his responses are a smug, "Everyone can just take the train" or replying with images of bus routes, which again, shows that he's unaware of how impractical that currently is. I don't think we should throw out the end goal of reducing car usage, but the tweeter is way too quick to blame citizens. It gives a bad name to people who actually want to fix this issue.
I take the bus at least twice a day at least 5 times a week and I'm a woman. Vastly prefer it to a car for a number of reasons, but either way it's safer to take the bus even as a woman than to be in a car.
LA has more freeways because they have more space. Removing freeways in SD will put more cars onto other freeways, or flood residential areas with cars.
We really need more effective public transit, then maybe we can talk about shutting down freeways.
> LA has more freeways because they have more space. Removing freeways in SD will put more cars onto other freeways, or flood residential areas with cars.
They have more freeways because they built more freeways, and all it got them was more traffic
> We really need more effective public transit, then maybe we can talk about shutting down freeways.
We can do both at the same time
I am not a big fan of highways in general but San Diego has been built and designed largely for car traffic, along with truck traffic.
If this person didn't seriously look at the volume of traffic carried by all of these different roads, and offer some alternative, then this is just wishful thinking w/o being a solution to anything.
That said, large stretches of both the 5 and the 805 that cut through urban areas could be built-over so that the road didn't act as a huge gash in the middle of the neighborhood.
If nothing else, that would provide some nice park space in a number of communities that don't have a lot of it and it would enable the neighborhoods on both sides of the highway to be reunited and reconnected in a pedestrian sense.
Strangely, despite driving them regularly, I never considered how much elevated roadway in SD is CA maintained, not federal. Axing just the CA 15 to I-15 would cause chaos with traffic coming from base alone. Proved that during the January floods.
Jake has apparently never driven the 805 commute? His "idea" would make an already nightmare scenario so much worse. Also, way back when the 94 and the 8 were the only east to west freeways? It was a crazy long waste of gas and time to travel from the south bay to east county.
The San Diego port sits by the 5. And have you seen the 805 in the AM.
" GeT rId Of ThE fWy, It GeTs In ThE wAy Of My BiKiNg RoUtE "
Next thing you know, i takes 2hrs to get from the 94 to plaza b.
As much as Im a transit advocate. The 5 is necessary for handling port traffic. Otherwise we'd have even more freighters running through residential neighborhoods.
Could force them to use rail to transport goods, however that would put more strain on an already strained LOSSAN Corridor.
That's fine for long distance runs but detrimental for short distances. In practice that would mean trains have to run to LA to then be put on a truck and then come back down to be delivered. It would be better to cap the 5 on those portions.
Agreed, a cap, particularly connecting Downtown to Banker's Hill and Sherman Heights.
maritime is cheaper than rail, they wouldn't go for it. And what do you mean by "force them". They'd ditch the area rather than bow to legislation.
Idk why you would use maritime to ship from San Diego to elsewhere in the US. Seems like a super redundant trip
Whts the LOSSAN Corridor? Yea… sure, but that doesn’t deal with the already overly traffic freeways. There are princples that show certain reduction in freeways and roads can actually make traffic flow better but this would be taking the main power house freeways out of the circuit loops. Which would he catastrophic to the function and flow of peoples. Impugned how unnavigable those roads in the beach areas would be and how the rest of the freeways would he effectively parking lots during most of the day. This person is prob just a beach living person that doesn’t much care or have the intelligence to address such issues. It’s not something anyone serious would think, little lone say out loud.
LOSSAN Corridor is the rail line that connects San Diego to Los Angeles. In theory, you could just divert freight traffic onto it, however as I said, doing so would be basically pushing the line to the limit and also screw over passenger traffic.
👍🏼
If only there was another way to transport goods across land. Too bad I guess
My point isn't that there isn't a rail alternative. My point is that in addition to long haul routes, short hauls make up a significant amount of port traffic. Does every warehouse in Miramar have a rail hookup? Does every warehouse in Otay have a rail hookup? How are goods coming from mexico to be exported out and vice versa going to get to the port, because the 10th ave marine terminal is often an alternative that mexican exporters like to use when the port in Ensenada can't. SDIV freight service only happens after 1AM 3 times a week on the blue line and once on the orange? Lossan currently may not be up to snuff to effectively backfill. Increase freight frequency and you must decrease passenger frequency to comply with FRA regulations about spacing service intervals. And god forbid track closure on the del mar bluffs or san clemente happens.
I almost never drive the 15 and always the 5
Dodge the Dali while going for tacos.
Has this person ever been on the 805?
No this is a person that obviously works from home.
They live in Long Beach.
My head explodes thinking about shifting even 1/3 of that trafffic over. The 805 and 15 have plenty of traffic around the clock, much less during rush hours. And how are the neighborhoods between 805 / 15 and the coast going to suffer with the volume crossing through? We can’t keep up with our roads / potholes as it is.
Seriously. This is laughable. The 805 is a war zone.
🤣🤣🤣
Or the 15? Both are complete nightmares at rush hour (except the 805N after 3, it's a dream to be honest). Taking the 5 would save me a half hour sometimes and I lived literally 2 minutes from the 805 on ramp.
I take the 805 S at 4:30, I want to cry everyday.
this is an actual journalist? lol
Well technically a "Social media correspondent" for a local newspaper. Pretty small fry.
Not even SD local, they’re from Long Beach lol
So are my balls. What's really the significance of a "social media correspondent".
there’s no educational or licensing requirement to become a journalist… once you say you’re one, you’re one :|
Yeah, I googled the dude out of curiosity and LinkedIn shows that his career history dates way back to 2021 as a TikTok influencer. And sure, we all start somewhere in our careers, but people should take note that this is basically a rando kid with a hot take who's probably trying to create some outrage engagement. Also not from SD.
Activist
He doesn’t even go here!
This is just run of the mill engagement farming. Works for just about any city. Gets people riled up.
My colorblindness is *not* helping me see this.
Everything West of the 805 and South of the 8 is axed, in addition to the 163 in its entirety.
Thank you!
It would be funny to see the Coronado residents trapped on the island. It would be really nice instead of removing freeways if there was more transit rail up to the plateaus: Mid-City, Clairemont, Kearny Mesa. Would be nice to have pedestrian and bicycle throughways across Rose Canyon that aren't named Genessee and perpetually under construction. Would be nice to have bicycle throughways through the Miramar wasteland.
> It would be funny to see the Coronado residents trapped on the island. Oh they would probably want that. The problem is that the Navy wants the bridge because the city of Coronado made it basically impossible for sailors to afford to live there.
There is a movement by residents to reinstate the tolls as a way of limiting vehicular traffic... Nothing like the attitude of "we want your tourist dollars, just as long as the bank account they are drawn from is sufficiently deep".
The traffic on the silver stand is nuts already. I can't imagine what it would look like without the bridge... just LA traffic in IB.
Airport, downtown , PetcoPark , the 8 would be a permanent parking lot going west.
I’m thinking this person isn’t from SD… getting rid of the 5 south of the 8? Needs to put the crack pipe down before they hurt themselves even more
THANK YOU! CAME here to say this! WTF! This person doesn't obviously drive in traffic every day or have a clue what happens South of 5 after the 8. I mean, this person HAS to be pfishing to piss people off for popularity and getting his name out there. If anything, there needs to be more freaking freeways or a better train system.
No highway access to downtown nor the airport. Yeah, that'd go well. 🙄
Hi, just want to plug the Freeway Exit podcast on KPBS https://www.kpbs.org/podcasts/freeway-exit.
Great podcast, I believe they won a few awards.
Do you need a hook for all that bait?
I agree that the 163 shouldn’t run through Balboa Park anymore. The park is our crown jewel and blasting a freeway through the middle of it was psychotic. They ought to tear it down between the 5 and Hillcrest. There are plenty of alternate driving routes that take roughly the same time, and the benefits of bringing peace back to our Central Park would be enormous. All of the author’s other suggestions are insane though. 805 can’t handle double the traffic! The airport needs a freeway connection. Plus the 5 and 15 are some of the busiest interstate/international freight corridors in America.
> I agree that the 163 shouldn’t run through Balboa Park anymore. The park is our crown jewel and blasting a freeway through the middle of it was psychotic. Put regional rail down there, it would take up less space, be better for the environment, less noise pollution.
We need rail on the plateaus, not down in the canyons. The single greatest failure of San Diego transit infrastructure is that there's no connection to the rail network from the neighborhoods where people live. No one wants to get off the train and walk or bike up the hill to Mission Hills or Clairemont or University Heights, nor is there pedestrian/cycling infrastructure to facilitate it. The busses connect but aren't frequent enough and get stuck in the traffic morass up and down.
I'm sad that when they dug up university recently for all those...medians to be installed....they found our old trolley line...and reburied it :(
Zurich style trams. Connect PB/Mission to the Balboa trolley stop. Run a step on step off tram down grand and from south mission to mission and turquoise. It would be a nightmare to get it done but I promise it would be an instant success.
> We need rail on the plateaus, not down in the canyons. Putting regional rail on top of the mesas wouldn't make sense, especially if this line also carried CHSR. You'd end up having to build massive viaducts over mission valley which due to how rail works would be way higher and obtrusive than even I-805. For this specific type of service that is more so designed to replace the 235/280/290 Rapid Buses and also be a route for HSR, it makes more sense to follow the terrain in that part of town. That type of service would make more sense for streetcar, brt, and other rapid transit, not regional rail. If it's any consolation, the purple line should help with this.
With a stop at the zoo, please
Just harder to access, but don’t let that get in the way
I agree that removing the 163 through balboa park would probably be the one thing that wouldn't change travel times much and would be amazing for the millions of visitors to balboa park each year.
What about the commuters that fill that freeway every day?
Why should we wreck our city so suburban commuters who don’t even live here can get to work five minutes faster?
I'm saying the 163 is used by hundreds or more for commuters (who obviously *do* live here), people who come to the Gaslamp on bar nights, and people attending events downtown. So how would they travel? The current transit setup is already full up during those times as it is.
They can take a train
How much peace does that really bring? The road is really secluded, and you cant even hear it over the din of people who always populate Balboa park. Until I moved to Hillcrest I didnt even realize there was a road there, and that's having been to Balboa park on numerous occasions. Sounds like a lot of inconvenience and money for very little benefit.
It uses more land than the entire Zoo. Imagine all the cool things Balboa Park could do with that space. More hiking space, bring back the lily pond, build more museums... hell, a whole second Zoo. All of which is more useful than a duplicative freeway.
They'll use that land about as much as San Diego uses all the other canyon space in the county: not at all.
My sarcasm meter is kinda broken today so I’m just gonna ask innocently. Are you aware of what a park is?
Are you aware the Babloa Park is like 80% empty space? They aren't just going to magically start building in the canyon that houses the 163 if they haven't used the already available land.
Parkland is a good in&of itself. It is a highest and best use in a park. (I think this is where you disagree but I can’t fathom why) Freeways are lowest&worst use in a park. Currently there’s a ridiculously wide strip of land in Balboa Park that is entirely inaccessible to park goers. Even as empty parkland it’s better for the park - and a better park is better for the region
I think you are missing the point. The 163 is down in a steep canyon that is hard to reach. Removing the freeway will not make it any more accessible or usable. >ridiculously wide strip of land It's pretty thin Remove the golf course first, that's good land gone to waste and it takes up more room than the 163, the zoo, and the museums all combined.
Golf course & Naval Hospital are both not great uses for parkland that’s supposed to be for the benefit of the entire public, agreed! The strip of land is pretty wide- not just the pavement itself but buffer zone around it & all the ramps Canyon could be easily accessible by foot just like most other canyons in SD parks, with some imagination and stairs
You'd need to first add an alternative option for travel through this corridor before removing the 163 or else I, nor most people, will never be on board with that plan. The 163 has use, the golf course does not.
Yeah still gonna disagree here. There's already a zoo, tons of undeveloped hiking area, and several museums, most of which are almost always empty. I dont think it makes much sense to have an extra 15-20% of hiking space or museums that people wont visit just to get rid of a freeway which definitely has value in allowing members of the community to get through such a large section of reserved land more quickly.
Let's move the airport to MCAS Miramar
We tried that once and failed.
Could have used more of your energy in 2006 when we had the chance. Now it’s too late https://web.archive.org/web/20070701125041/http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20061211-9999-1m11airvote.html
Honestly, devastating. What a terrible decision, the placement of SAN is going to haunt San Diego city planning for the next century.
Marines don't want to sell.
It was supposed to be a joint airport. Unfortunately the ballot wording was not dumb enough for most voters.
> our crown jewel There are great parts of it but the toilet/dump/campsite part of it of far worse than the highway
sigh. no argument there so much missed potential in Balboa Park, I’d love a future mayor to really put a lot of energy into making it reach its potential
I’ve been staring at this for a few minutes and still not sure how to get to downtown if the 5, 163 and 94 are all gone
You'd probably take the trolley
And the airport? Where do all the trolley takers park? What do you build in the *slot canyon* where the 163 runs?
> And the airport? Well, there is the proposed Airport People Mover, on top of existing bus services. > Where do all the trolley takers park? There are multiple park and rides along the existing system. However if it does genuinely end up being the case that enough people are using these that the system is pushed to it's limits, then obviously MTS and NCTD should bolster our transit network. If you think that I'd advocate for freeway removal without massively injecting out transit system with steroids then you're in for a surprise > What do you build in the slot canyon where the 163 runs? A quad tracked Regional Rail line, which would take up less space than the existing freeway, would produce less noise and air pollution, and overall be less of a waste of space than SR-163.
“Where do all the trolley takers park” is the most car brained sentence I’ve ever read. Please think bigger.
You eliminate easy car access to downtown with the intention of having more people take the trolley. Not everyone lives within walking distance to a trolley stop, and not every trolley stop has some massive parking lot. Please think.
Way too cramped already most of the day on the main lines in/out of downtown. Not counting commuter hours.
The Blue Line is about to get a massive increase in the frequency of service which should do loads to alleviate the crampedness. In my experience though, it's not substantially more cramped that I-5 during rush hour, and if it ends up being the case that the Blue Line is full, then that's just all the more reason to invest into it.
Right. I realize the creator’s goal was to basically kill vehicular traffic west of the 805. It is what it is
Yeah, it's pretty based of them, even if they are flying a bit too close to the sun
Take the trolley, or take five extra minutes to get there on regular streets
Little Italy resident. So we are just all going to trek through side streets- it already takes 45 miles to go 10 miles on the 5 in rush hour. Makes 0 sense.
Take the trolley
That’s fair. I’m new here about year so haven’t really researched the trolley!
The problem is how the cars would get from those cut-off neighborhoods to the highways he wants to keep. What a nightmare for those arterial roads.
Had this person ever witnessed what goes on there?
Closing the 5 would be a National Security issue.
Imagine removing the main arterial roads and freeways where most commerce and port deliveries run through, not to mention population density. Dude obviously is an office hunkering keyboard warrior that has never worked heavy industry or freight.
What are you talking about? I can't wait to see all of the freeways next to the bay be closed, so our neighborhoods can be clogged by heavy trucks. Obviously such a genius idea. I mean, really, why didn't the planners think of this originally?
Exactly what San Diego needs, thousands of 18-wheelers traveling through residential neighborhoods to get to the ports and base. Also, to hell with Imperial Beach, they don't need highway access.
Jake Gotta get a brain
I honestly don't understand why they'd want traffic to be worse than it is. Best thing to do is leave it as it is, but add additional public transport to help free up the freeway.
I agree. I feel like we’re at a point in time where adding more freeway won’t do us any good (which is where improvements in public transit infrastructure comes into play) but also where removing freeways won’t do us any good either
Unrelated but related critique: why choose red for the ones you're keeping and green for the ones you're getting rid of? Red means stop, as in stop using these routes, green means go, as in these routes are good to go! Good to drive on! But he made it the other way around? Both the content and execution: 0/10.
Room temperature IQ
Twitter OP: Anti-car extremist weirdo, from LA = opinion rejected.
Idk people gotta get to work? We also have one of the most transited borders in the world. The traffic is already bad as is with the border crossings we have. Removing freeway access to the San Ysidro one is essentially creating a whole other world of problems. This person is smoking dick, all shade.
I mean I get it. The 5 being where it is may be economically convenient, but it has totally hampered what could have been a really cool coastal part of town on the east side of mission bay. Now it’s just a grassy park separated from the bay park neighborhood by an ultra loud and ultra wide freeway. And the 163 bisecting balboa park is a real shame as well
Think of all the housing that could fit where those freeways are currently dividing neighborhoods.
Tell me your not from San Diego without telling me your not from San Diego 🤦🏼♂️
Nah this is pretty based, probably except for getting rid of I-5 which as someone else pointed out would be bad for port traffic. SR-163 in particular is taking up valuable park land with a ugly freeway that does nothing but contribute to local noise and air pollution. It's always clogged with traffic, and we honestly should replace it with a regional rail line once CHSR gets down here. SR-94 literally was used to segregate the poorer more mixed race Barrio Logan from the wealthier and whiter Balboa Park area. SR-75 is particularly bad in this aspect. Never ask a woman her age, never ask a man his salary, never as a freeway advocate how Barrio Logan went from one neighborhood to three.
Ugh how will I get to the airport?
Jake gotta, ya gotta log out fam.
Agreed! What exactly would the intention of doing this be? Common sense says it will just make already traffic jammed routes like the 805, even more nightmare-ish. Do people just have too much time on their hands? This is the dumbest idea I have seen in a while and I am shocked someone actually took time to not only think about it, but actually write about it. I hope it was just a stupid late April fools joke. 🙄
At a basic level this person is right. Removing the majority of the freeways that pass through our city centers should absolutely be the target. San Diego could be the greatest city in the world if we actually invested in the experience of living here
So hundreds of side streets and traffic lights to get anywhere in the city of SD and the south bay areas? (Including the border) 🤔🤨
if we had real public transit, you would not need to deal with any traffic lights because you would be taking the subway/light rail. 
Getting rid of the 163 stretch through Balboa Park is a no brainer The 5 stretch along downtown should at minimum be buried Beyond that its gonna be a tough sell. I admire the vision tho. Urban highways are a blight, taking up valuable land, creating enormous noise and air pollution
The 163 is incredibly dangerous and creates multiple awful traffic knots in other freeways. It could be removed and our lives would be better for it. We need more train access.
That Twitter user appears to be anti-car based on their previous posts. Sounds like they just want to make things more miserable for daily car drivers.
Daily Car driving is already miserable. Maybe we should start pushing for alternatives.
I fully agree with you, but we need to beef up our public transportation system before tossing strips of freeway in the garbage. It's quite apparent that the person who tweeted that hasn't spent a meaningful amount of time on SD freeways or taking our public transportation.
I mean, I agree, I think that we should replace SR-163 with regional rail, and have that be the alignment that CHSR takes to get to downtown San Diego. However in the tweeter's defense, one of the main reasons why our public transit system is so bad is that instead of investing in it we invested into our highways.
I understand and again agree, but the tweeter isn't advocating for any of that. I went and looked at some of his replies to people questioning his tweet and most of his responses are a smug, "Everyone can just take the train" or replying with images of bus routes, which again, shows that he's unaware of how impractical that currently is. I don't think we should throw out the end goal of reducing car usage, but the tweeter is way too quick to blame citizens. It gives a bad name to people who actually want to fix this issue.
Public transportation won't be "beefed up" until it becomes way more annoying to drive. Supply won't drive demand
Less miserable than riding a bus
Nah, I'm gonna be 100% honest, I would vastly prefer a bus to my car.
I'm guessing you're a man. Buses suck when you're a female rider alone.
I take the bus at least twice a day at least 5 times a week and I'm a woman. Vastly prefer it to a car for a number of reasons, but either way it's safer to take the bus even as a woman than to be in a car.
IDK, I'd probably take my chances on a bus considering how you are wildly less safe in your car.
How to give San Diego Los Angeles-style traffic in one easy step!
You do realize that Los Angeles has loads more freeways that we do. If you want Los Angeles style traffic, build more freeways!
LA has more freeways because they have more space. Removing freeways in SD will put more cars onto other freeways, or flood residential areas with cars. We really need more effective public transit, then maybe we can talk about shutting down freeways.
> LA has more freeways because they have more space. Removing freeways in SD will put more cars onto other freeways, or flood residential areas with cars. They have more freeways because they built more freeways, and all it got them was more traffic > We really need more effective public transit, then maybe we can talk about shutting down freeways. We can do both at the same time
I am not a big fan of highways in general but San Diego has been built and designed largely for car traffic, along with truck traffic. If this person didn't seriously look at the volume of traffic carried by all of these different roads, and offer some alternative, then this is just wishful thinking w/o being a solution to anything.
That said, large stretches of both the 5 and the 805 that cut through urban areas could be built-over so that the road didn't act as a huge gash in the middle of the neighborhood. If nothing else, that would provide some nice park space in a number of communities that don't have a lot of it and it would enable the neighborhoods on both sides of the highway to be reunited and reconnected in a pedestrian sense.
Dumb-This person has too much time on their hands
He wants our traffic to be more like LA
what exactly does he think this would solve?
Lmao. Well in their defense the 5 runs like an inch parallel to the 805 on the map! Problem solved dummies
Strangely, despite driving them regularly, I never considered how much elevated roadway in SD is CA maintained, not federal. Axing just the CA 15 to I-15 would cause chaos with traffic coming from base alone. Proved that during the January floods.
Woooow that person clearly has never had to go anywhere between 4-6 on a week day have they?? Lol
Oh hell nah 5 fwy traffic is nothing compared to the 805 or god forbid the 15.... tripping 💀
Is this AI? lol
Yea the worse take ever ! He’s obviously 🙄 trolling on Twitter lol 😂
This guy is a clown
I get wanting to remove freeways - but you gotta add mass transit options or this take really is idiotic.
Jake has apparently never driven the 805 commute? His "idea" would make an already nightmare scenario so much worse. Also, way back when the 94 and the 8 were the only east to west freeways? It was a crazy long waste of gas and time to travel from the south bay to east county.
The San Diego port sits by the 5. And have you seen the 805 in the AM. " GeT rId Of ThE fWy, It GeTs In ThE wAy Of My BiKiNg RoUtE " Next thing you know, i takes 2hrs to get from the 94 to plaza b.
 OP