THE SITE: Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego
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THE PROBLEM: Doug Austin rides the Coaster from North County to the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego and would love to store a bike in a locker there for the final leg of his commute. But there aren't any available.
It takes 45 minutes to reach his office by trolley. Riding a bike would cut the time in half, he said.
“Each day dozens of people load their bikes onto the Coaster,” Austin said.
He said he has called the Metropolitan Transit System and asked that they add more lockers, but he did not get any help.
STATUS: The San Diego Association of Governments – not MTS – oversees 672 bike lockers at 47 mass transit locations in the county. It is well aware that demand for lockers exceeds supply at most locations.
The Santa Fe Depot has four lockers. All are being used, and there is a waiting list of 22 people, said Thomas Bruccoleri, a senior transportation planner with SANDAG. Throughout the region, there is a waiting list of about 200 people.
SANDAG has $300,000 available to purchase or retrofit about 100 lockers at seven locations. Work will begin this summer in Old Town. A locker user today pays a $35 deposit for a key and has exclusive use of a locker. New and retrofitted lockers will have electronic access with a card issued by SANDAG. Lockers will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Bruccoleri hopes to retrofit all existing lockers within three to five years, assuming money becomes available. He said SANDAG is looking for a business interested in purchasing lockers in exchange for advertising or sponsorship. A locker costs about $2,700. The agency also is looking into charging locker users an annual fee.
As for the Santa Fe Depot, there are no immediate plans to add lockers or retrofit existing ones. Bruccoleri said he will talk to Amtrak about whether it would set aside space for more lockers, but SANDAG would have to find the money to pay for them.
WHO'S RESPONSIBLE: Thomas Bruccoleri, who can be reached at (619) 699-7381 or tbr@sandag.org. For more information on SANDAG's bicycle program or other transit issues, call 511 or go to 511sd.com and click on “Bicycling” at the bottom of the page.
NEED A PROBLEM SOLVED: Is there a problem government hasn't fixed despite your complaints? Whether it's a missing bus bench or an unkempt park anywhere in San Diego County, Just Fix It might be able to help.
Complaint forms are at justfixit.uniontrib.com, or call (800) 820-8714.
