TO: San Diego Association of Governments,
SUBJECT: Expand hours for bus route 11
To whom it may concern:
The Normal Heights Community Planning Group voted on October 4th to request extention of hours of operation for the SDMT Route 11 to 1:00 AM on Fridays and Saturdays.
The MTS Route 11 Bus Line runs through the heart of Normal Heights along Adams Avenue from Park Boulevard to Kensington . This bus line originates downtown San Diego and extends to San Diego State University.
We request the extended hours to better provide safe, dependable, and convenient transit access especially for patrons and employees of the many establishments that operate late at night along the Adams Ave and 30th St routes. The late night operating businesses employ a large number of workers who without transit are likely to drive a private vehicle to and from work due to the nature of the businesses requiring the late-night hours —
The Route 11 bus does provide valuable utility during the day for commuters but, the last two buses on this route leave SDSU at 10:22pm and from Downtown just 5 minutes later. Both complete services just after 11pm. This nighttime operation limitation is more onerous for Fridays and Saturdays as most of the businesses don’t finish operations until well after midnight, some as late as 2 AM.
The current schedule does not serve anyone with late night travel needs. A route hours extension would address this by providing workers and patrons at nearby late-night establishments to use public transportation. Availability of late nights transit access would also be likely to reduce the amount of motor vehicle traffic and on-street parking congestion in the area.
To sum up, the Normal Heights Community Planning Group requests that MTS, et.al. implement a time-limited pilot program to assess the usefulness of extending the Route 11 Line hours until 1:00 AM on Friday and Saturday nights as well as advertise the new hours to potential riders
Jim Baross
Chair, Normal Heights Community Planning Group