A Need to Cope With Growth : ‘Moderate’ Plan Offered on Downtown Traffic

By the year 2005, when the ambitious development plans for downtown San Diego reach fruition, there could be a 95% increase in the number of people working in the area, more than twice as many full-time residents, and up to four times the number of vehicles on the streets.

To handle the increased traffic, public agencies should embark on a series of improvements estimated to cost $90 million to $134 million.

Those are the conclusions and proposals contained in a $130,000 study by PRC Engineering, submitted to the Metropolitan Transit Development Board this month. A city traffic engineer described the plan as “a moderate approach.”

Among the proposals for heading off expected transportation problems are the widening of Interstate 163 as it cuts through Balboa Park and giving preferential treatment on downtown streets to buses and the San Diego Trolley.

PRC also suggested ways to reduce parking on downtown streets and improve access to California Highway 94 and Interstate 5.

In addition to MTDB, the engineers’ “Centre City Transportation Action Program” will be analyzed by the City of San Diego, the San Diego Unified Port District, the San Diego Assn. of Governments and the Centre City Development Corp. The agencies are not expected to act on the recommendations until early next year.

PRC Engineering said its plan is intended “to provide and maintain a transportation system that ensures equal access to, and mobility within, Centre City by all transportation modes.”

Officials consider such a massive overhaul of the downtown transportation systems vital to the economic viability of the convention center, planned downtown hotels, the Gaslamp Quarter, the Horton Plaza development and other projects.

To anybody who has attempted to maneuver a vehicle through the tie-ups on construction-torn Broadway and its environs in recent weeks, the proposals could spell months, if not years, of traffic jams as well.

However, representatives of a wide spectrum of downtown transit and development interests who met in a forum Wednesday sponsored by San Diegans Inc. agreed that PRC’s plan involves a minimum of upheaval.

“In the interests of not proposing something that is unfeasible politically or economically, this is a moderate approach--far more moderate than it could have been,” said Allen Holden, city traffic engineer. “It could have gone a lot further than it did.”

Holden said PRC could have proposed mandatory relocation of parking outside downtown, or a ceiling on the number of parking spaces that could be provided in the area, as a means of reducing traffic congestion.

Holden predicted that the widening of Interstate 163 would be among the most controversial proposals in the report, because it would involve taking land from Balboa Park. But the traffic engineer said he could “surely defend the extra lane, even with its impacts on the park.”

Tom Larwin, general manager of MTDB, said it is “relatively easy to get around downtown today, compared to other cities, but we must find ways of keeping the quality situation we have while providing for the increase in activity in the area.”

To do that, Larwin said, there must be more efficient use of the street space downtown, more high-rise parking structures, and increased use of public transit.

Roger Snoble, general manager of San Diego Transit Corp., said that, in most major cities, 50% of the people going downtown ride public transportation, while San Diego’s future plans call for 90% of those going downtown to arrive in their own cars.

“Our standards are substantially different from those in other cities,” Snoble said, “and this plan acknowledges that fact. But we still need to get everyone who can ride transit onto our buses.”

Buses, Snoble said, “can be a solution to downtown transportation concerns, not a problem. But we need preferential streets for transit if that is going to be the case.”

Fred Trull, director of planning for the Port District, said, “The move from reliance on the automobile to public transit is of great interest to us.” The proposed Bayside Trolley Line linking the convention center with Lindbergh Field runs through Port District property.

Like Snoble, however, Trull alluded to the different standards facing San Diego. “Now, only 6% to 7% of the transport trips downtown depend on public transit,” he said. “But we have to make sure that there will be usage (on the proposed Bayside Trolley Line) before we move ahead.

“Will there be ridership? Someone attending a convention struggling with his bags at the airport might prefer a taxi or a limousine. There is no doubt that the automobile will continue to play a major role in the transportation in the area.”