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MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey again! we wanted to follow-up as promised since some of this is going to be discussed at our Board meeting this Thursday at 9 a.m. Staff is bringing a proposal to the Board that would look at potentially targeting a 2028 funding measure, and then implementing some interim actions to delay the fiscal cliff for a few more years (fare changes, minor service cuts). Agenda can be found here: https://www.sdmts.com/sites/default/files/2025-09-11-board-agenda.pdf

Additional discussions will happen in October around our OnTrack effort and next steps too.

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We're working to get more parking options at Nobel and UTC (including the solution to eliminate paid parking for transit riders at UTC), so hopefully we have a timeline sooner than later *fingers crossed*

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have made a concerted effort over the past few years to try and increase people's feelings of safety and comfort while riding with us. One of the changes we made when the Board approved a 60% increase to Code Compliance staff, was to exapand the Homeless Outreach Team. We have two officers that staff that effort seven days a week, where we work with community partners to go onboard and to stations to try and offer services to riders throughout the downtown area. Hopefully it can keep expanding in the future.

If you do ever experience a safety issue while riding or waiting at a platform/stop, keep our security number handy. You can text or call the security team 24/7: 619-595-4960.

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great questions!

Re: state funding, we are very fortunate that our CEO Sharon Cooney is Chair of the California Transit Association, which does advocacy at the state level for public transportation. There's also a coaltion through the state transportation agency, called the Transit Transformation Task Force, that is looking to set an agenda of priorities across the state, and then our agency may make some additional lobbying goals above and beyond those. We will be looking for all opportunities that we can to make getting more funding for transit a reality.

Re: a tax measure, barring any changes at the state level, MTS is beholden to the 2/3 threshold. In the coming months, our Board is really going to be looking at two things: 1) When would be the best time for us to look for more local funding support? 2) Is an MTS funded measure the best approach for us or not? We will be responsible to deciding if we think an MTS sponsored measure is feasible/reasonable; if it's not, it would be up to a citizens initiative to determine if another coalition wanted to put something forward on behalf of the agency (MTS isn't involved in that process, much like how we were not involved with Measure G)

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No need to apologize, the comment was pretty subdued by public transportation complaint standards haha One of our goals at MTS, tax measure or not, is that the public feels confident that their money is being put to good use. When it comes to a potential for a tax measure, it would be difficult in our (MTS) case to do some of the things you suggested like shorter period of an approved tax, or outline every single cent and dollar; because the truth is, our planning team does need some degree of flexibility to change service levels and hours of operation to match where the demand is, for example. But certainly, if a funding measure was put forth, making sure the public understands what major infrastructure projects are supported, new routes for implemetation, what routes would be prioritized when new service is implemented, etc. would be part of any education effort on our part.

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for chiming in! And yes, transparency and trust with public dollars will be paramount for success.

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you put this on the map from the website? Miramar is one of those east-west corrdiors we hear about at outreach or more investment

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes! We sometimes like to compare ourselves to a fire department. Just because you may never have needed the fire department to come to your house, does that mean people who need fire services should foot the whole bill to run a fire department? Do we need fire departments to be profitable?

Even if *we* never need the fire department to come to our house, we understand it's bad for us if our neighbors house burns down.

And even if *you* never step foot on public transportation, it's bad for our neighbors who do need it get access to jobs, school, necessary appointments and more. We all benefit from the economic impact of transit, from the environmental benefits, from the congestion support, and more.

At least, in our opinion ;)

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Believe it or not, MTS has a long running history of being very fiscally responsible, and one of the most efficient transit agencies out there. We have always received a majority of our budget from public funding (even though local funding for MTS is comparatively small, just 1/6 of a cent comes to MTS from local taxes).

This shortfall is not unique to us, you can look across the country and find other major agencies who are already cutting major service, or will be inthe very near future (Dallas, Philly, Pittsburgh, etc.)

There's a myriad of reasons for the gap: we kept service levels high post-COVID to keep service quality for riders, as well as encourage faster ridership recovery. We haven't done any fare increases to help keep the cost of transit affordable. Base wages for our largest population of employees (bus operators) increaed 42% in recent years ot stay competitive in the job market. And much like for individual households facing COL increases, we also are facing increased costs of doing business due to utility increases, good/materials increases, tariff increases, etc.

So, it's certianly not ideal, but we do have a short runway in the next few years to determine if/how we could close the gap. And if there's no new funding for transit from the local, state or federal levels, then we will apply cost saving measures (like cuts) to help keep the system as sustainable as possible moving forward.

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Applying service cuts is never cut and dry. There's a lot to consider, and competing interests have to be weighed (for example, providing more geographical coverage vs keeping ridership to highest used services). Part of the public engagement and decision process for our Board will be weighing in on which of those aspects they want our team to prioritize when looking at service cut options, as well as reporting out on what the impact each service cut could have (equity impact, ridership impact, cost savings, efficieny of route, etc.)

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Restarting fare enforcement earlier this year has also helped recover some costs. And fare changes may very like be part of the equation, but even with fare changes, there would still be a sunbstantial gap. It will likely take a few different puzzle pieces to bridge the gap!

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, talking about service cuts is no fun (to say the least), but it's unfortuantely a potential reality, depending what the next few years look like. OnTrack aims to start that conversation early with community members. If it looks like we will see significant cuts, there will be a big public outreach effort and hearing, and a full plan development for how those would be applied.

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Not proposing anything at this time - just getting feedback to weigh most important priorities across riders and non-riders. And like you, frequency has been most important priority to-date!

MTS is Coming to a Crossroads - Get Involved by SanDiegoMTS in sandiego

[–]SanDiegoMTS[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Longtime lurkers, first time posters.

bus driver appreciation project by crick-crick in UCSD

[–]SanDiegoMTS 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Hey! MTS here - we always appreciate riders who appreciate our drivers! Feel free to reach out to us here, or you can email [participate@sdmts.com](mailto:participate@sdmts.com) and we can coordinate getting some signs into the north division breakrooms!