San Diego buses and trolleys abound with riders

Last month drivers for the Metropolitan Transit System witnessed three accidents on their bus and trolley routes. First, on October 19, at about 4:30 pm, a black-colored vehicle collided with the trolley. Then the car flipped over, and lay on its roofline by 3rd and C downtown, reported 619NewsMedia on Instagram.

Two days prior and less than a mile southeast of the rollover, by the trolley tracks on G Street and Park Boulevard, a red-colored Mitsubishi collided with a gray-colored Ford Explorer. 911 VIDEO NEWS was one of the first on the scene and posted the raw video footage on YouTube.

Elizabeth T. saw the video depicting the trolley sitting dormant; she was "extremely happy that the trolley lines [were] delayed." The Mitsubishi was stuck on top of the trolley tracks, and the Explorer careened into a fire hydrant and a parked Cox van.

On October 14 at Park Boulevard and University Avenue in Hillcrest an "MTS bus driver stopped to let a rider off of the bus," explained 911 VIDEO NEWS. The bus "driver did not pull over to the curb at the bus stop but stopped in the bike lane about eight feet from the curb. As the bus rider got off the bus, the male driver of [a Honda] came speeding between the curb and the bus, according to the witnesses. He may have been trying to make the green light. The male victim was hit and suffered injuries. The driver of the Honda stayed at the scene and cooperated with the police."

In August, the MTS site reported a substantial increase in ridership, including the bus and trolley.

"Ridership on the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) continues to climb, exceeding five million trips a month since March 2022. The latest Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) report revealed an increase in ridership of 52 percent for the trolley and 41 percent for the bus compared to FY21."

A big part of the increase was because San Diego County was in lockdown the year before, so the ridership numbers dropped during the pandemic — then increased when San Diego opened back up again. Also in November 2021, MTS started the 11-mile Mid-Coast Trolley extension, the UC San Diego Blue Line, which ends at UTC. On this line, ridership increased "by 66 percent, jumping from 10.4 million rides the prior fiscal year to 17.4 million," touts the MTS site. "This allowed for the largest increase in ridership in one year for any line in the history of MTS."

California's high gas prices were another factor. Then lately, even after the aforementioned August MTS report went public, the San Diego Padres' fans bolstered the ridership numbers. Two of the three accidents mentioned above happened on the same days the Padres' played at Petco Park. On the 14th, the Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1; on the 19th, the Padres beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-5.

"I [have] seen close calls more this year," Ricky Dixon said in a November 14 interview. "I take the bus and the green line, orange line, and the blue line trolley when I'm in South Bay."

Dixon rides the MTS trolley and bus nearly daily to work at an undisclosed school.

"I have seen people [on foot] almost get hit not watching where they're going," he noted.

On September 13 an 18-year-old female was hit by an MTS bus on Doriana and South Woodman close to the Paradise Hills Skate Park, says the 619NewsMedia page. "She flew approximately 5-6 feet and landed on the street. She was transported to a local hospital with a broken wrist."

In May, 911 VIDEO NEWS reported a male walking eastbound on the trolley tracks at Imperial Avenue in Encanto pushing a cart. "The trolley driver didn’t see the victim and hit him," reads the report. "The male was pronounced deceased at the scene."

Dixon, who's been riding the trolley and buses since the 1980s, said it's not just the pedestrians — many who are on their phones — not paying attention. "Our bus drivers almost get hit by cars which cut them off."

In August, an MTS bus and a car collided in Chula Vista. In July, two vehicles collided next to the El Cajon Transit Center. In May, 911 VIDEO NEWS posted a video of a purple-colored compact vehicle that collided with a trolley car downtown. The month before 911, VIDEO NEWS captured video of an MTS bus that collided with a Jeep SUV in the Altadena neighborhood.

In March, NBC 7 news published a story headlined "Car, Trolley Collide in Downtown San Diego." Then, in January, an MTS bus t-boned a truck in Chula Vista.