On the past, present, and future of transit in SoCal

If you live anywhere in the San Diego region, chances are you've seen one of our iconic red MTS or blue NCTD buses rolling down the street. Maybe you've seen a Trolley racing along the Mid-Coast Line or Rapid 235 flying high above suburbia on a Direct Access Ramp (DAR). Maybe you ride transit to work, school, or fun.

In any case, public transit is such an integral yet often overlooked part of our region's identity. Millions of people ride it everyday, yet few know of the stories behind it. How did San Diego's transit influence our development as a city? How did railroad barons like John Spreckels become civic giants? And where might we be headed next?

This column, hopefully, will answer some of them. My name is Samuel Sharp, and I'm a writer here at BuildSD focusing on transportation and infrastructure. I'm also a staff advisor to (and former president of) the California High School Transit Alliance, and helped lead the campaign that distributed PRONTO cards to San Diego Unified students. I've also been a daily transit rider for years. All of this has left me with questions, big and small, about San Diego's transit, and I can't wait to dig into it and share what I find.

If you've got a question about transit in San Diego, email me (transit2030@buildsd.org) and I might feature it in a column here on the site! New articles will arrive approximately every week on the blog.