This is a post I originally wrote for the USC ITE website.
In December 2024, eight USC Viterbi School of Engineering and Sol Price School of Public Policy students embarked on USC ITE’s second-ever technical study trip for three days. Heading in the opposite direction of our 2023 trip to San Francisco/Oakland, this time we decided to visit San Diego. We engaged public agencies across San Diego’s diverse transportation landscape to learn about their operations, impact, and exciting projects.
City of San Diego, Department of Sustainability and Mobility
Our first tour was with the City of San Diego’s Department of Sustainability and Mobility (SuMo). We were greeted by Christine Mercado, Senior Traffic Engineer of the City of San Diego, and her colleagues. (Fun fact: Christine helped establish the USC ITE chapter in 2011 and served as USC ITE’s founding president!) We learned that, among other capabilities, SuMo has many traffic engineers who help plan the City of San Diego’s mobility and transportation options. Their role is critical, serving a city of 1.4 million residents and 342 square miles. Additionally, SuMo manages significant coordination with the unusual stakeholders in San Diego, including the US Department of Defense, tribal nations, the government of Mexico, and two separate transit agencies.
We learned about SuMo’s ambitious goal to convert 50% of all transportation journeys to a mode other than private automobile. (Currently, about 90% of journeys are made by private car). One aspect that stood out to us was SuMo’s focus on equity and inclusion in developing the plans to achieve this goal. These principles manifest themselves in the technical details: as Project Manager Phil Trom put it, the City has moved from only considering the vehicle-serving attributes of roadways, to a more holistic perspective considering vehicles, transit, pedestrians, and bicyclists.
We saw this equity focus in play across many of the specific plans discussed during our visit to SuMo. For instance, SuMo developed a community mobility plan for Hillcrest, a neighborhood with unique transportation needs driven by its large concentration of hospitals and dense commercial corridor. For this plan, SuMo held office hours for residents, allowing them to directly discuss their transportation needs with the transportation engineers and planners developing mobility options in their neighborhood. Additionally, rather than using vehicle level of service, which supports only car users, as a measure of success for new transportation projects in Hillcrest, SuMo now also considers pedestrian comfort, bicycle level of stress, and public transit speeds. In this work, SuMo’s mission to give all San Diegans better transportation options – regardless of how they get around – was abundantly clear.
Port of San Diego
Our next stop was the Port of San Diego’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal (TAMT). With our host, Director of Government Relations Aimee Heim, we appreciated the Port’s vast operational scale. At TAMT, we observed how the terminal’s primary tenant, Dole, moves millions of pounds of fruit every year through a complex refrigerated supply chain. Additionally, the Port has another terminal (National City Marine Terminal or NCMT), through which the terminal operator (Pasha) moves over 450,000 cars per year. This accounts for 10% of all imported cars in the US. We were amazed by the vast array of stored cars and roll-on roll-off (RO/RO) vehicle transport ships at NCMT. We were also inspired by our fellow Trojan Aimee Heim’s knowledge and impact in the maritime world.
Since the last time USC ITE toured the Port of San Diego in 2022, the Port has made great progress towards its sustainability initiatives. Many cranes and trucks are now electric, offering fewer emissions and better carrying capacity than their combustion-driven equivalents. At the TAMT, the Port has installed a set of battery cabinets to create a “microgrid”, ensuring the Port can power most of its critical functions without electricity from the power utility. And in response to regulations that will soon require ships calling at California ports to reduce their emissions while docked, the Port has installed shore power plugs (allowing ships to use utility power for ship functions instead of running their engines), and deployed bonnets that capture and store carbon emissions from ship engines.
The march towards greater sustainability is not just inside the port terminals. Harbor Drive, the arterial road linking many of the Port’s assets (including both terminals and San Diego International Airport), is a busy corridor that rail, bikes, pedestrians, cars, and trucks all share. The Port is currently designing a new multimodal corridor along this route, including freight-only managed lanes with traffic signal preemption, a protected cycle track, and protected turn lanes. These improvements will reduce time spent idling, which is a very polluting activity, as well as collisions along Harbor.
MTS and SANDAG
After the Port of San Diego, we visited Metropolitan Transit System (MTS), the agency that operates bus and rail (Trolley) services in metropolitan San Diego. At MTS’s light rail vehicle maintenance shop, we explored how MTS ensures their trains are always ready to safely serve San Diegans’ transportation needs. An especially interesting sight was a light rail vehicle recently damaged by a pickup truck that crashed through it. We learned how MTS is planning to recover and rebuild the damaged train.
Meanwhile, at the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), we looked to the region’s future. SANDAG is an unusual agency: it combines the normally separate functions of a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Regional Transportation Planning Agency (RTPA), and a capital projects construction agency, all under one roof. We learned about two of SANDAG’s transformational projects in the region. First, the Purple Line rapid transit project will expand transit access along the I-805 corridor, spanning 30 miles from the US-Mexico border to Serrano Mesa. This is an extremely ambitious and innovative project, not only because of the long distance and its $27 billion projected cost, but because it would be San Diego County’s first subway. We also discovered the many projects associated with the LOSSAN corridor, the intercity rail corridor serving passengers and freight between San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, and San Diego. SANDAG is taking extensive, innovative steps to protect this critical corridor from climate change-related vulnerabilities and rebuild the aging infrastructure. We were heartened to learn about SANDAG’s extensive community outreach effort associated with LOSSAN projects, building local support for and combating misinformation about this regionally important work.
San Diego International Airport
Our final stop was at San Diego International Airport, where we met with the joint venture team constructing the airport’s new Terminal 1. This $4 billion project will replace the original Terminal 1, built in 1967, which is facing age and capacity challenges. Scheduled to partially open in 2025, the new Terminal 1 will turn SAN into a world-class airport.
During our walk-around tour of the still under-construction terminal, our hosts showed the innovative technologies used to make the new terminal both more efficient and more sustainable. For example, at the departures area, a “smart curb” and automated baggage handling system will allow customers to conveniently drop off their checked bags right at the curb. And extensive skylights coupled with a state-of-the-art central air handling system will help the new terminal achieve its planned LEED Gold status. Moreover, keeping with local desires, the entire terminal is designed to be art – from the flooring (which reflects San Diego’s mountains, beaches, water, and sun) to the rooftop (meant to leave a lasting impression on arriving and departing travelers). Not to mention, the view from the roof is simply incredible!
Connecting with San Diego State and University of Washington ITE
Aside from office tours and learning, we believe it’s critical to build and sustain our connections to other ITE student chapters. As part of this, we collaborated with ITE students from San Diego State University and the University of Washington for dinner and a social on the beach in Coronado. We visited Little Italy for dinner and dessert, while enjoying excellent conversation about all things ITE and transportation – including, but not limited to, ITE student chapter growth strategies, credit card travel points ecosystems, the latest rail construction projects in the US, and our favorite types of planes. After dinner, we moved to the foggy beaches of Coronado, marked with struggles to start a fire and more conversing and connecting.
We’re very grateful for the ITE Western District’s Connections Grant support for this event!
Side Questing
A USC ITE field trip wouldn’t be complete without some impromptu, spontaneous adventures. Among many other side quests, we visited Chicano Park under the SR 75/I-5 interchange and marveled at the largest collection of outdoor murals in the country. We also explored the tidepools and stunning view at Cabrillo National Monument, followed by a delicious dinner at Liberty Public Market, which is a former naval installation turned creative spaces and food hall.
Overall, learning from all these agencies – each structured differently, doing different work, and serving different needs across the San Diego region – helped our students broaden their perspectives on what it means to do transportation. And this technical study trip reinforced upon our group that change is constant in transportation. We discovered how the common values of community engagement, equity, sustainability, and innovation help transportation agencies manage that change while delivering better mobility experiences for all. We’re excited to continue this tradition of a winter break study trip next year!