Daphne Woodford

All my life, I have walked through the same strange footpath. It is too wide to be a normal trail and is bordered by a long open gutter. It has trees and small fields, which in other neighborhoods would be space for houses. It is mostly used by dog owners who walk the path and maintenance workers who cut back overgrowth. If you didn’t know the space’s original purpose, you might assume it was for dog walking; however, the city actually intended it to become a new bus line that would run through my neighborhood and connect to a nearby freeway, but that idea was abandoned. Because of this, my family calls it the Transit Corridor. Nowadays, the Transit Corridor is treated as a public trail/park, and growing up nearby, it was a magical place to run around and have fun in.

This space is still owned by the city of Chula Vista, and could theoretically be fully developed and turned into a bus route. But, should it be? This is not an easily answered question, but it is important to understand the arguments being made.

If the Transit Corridor were made an official route, it would benefit the community environmentally and increase connectedness around San Diego. In the environmental sense, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority found that anyone “who switches from a 20-mile solo commute by car to existing public transportation, can reduce their annual CO2 emissions by 20 pounds per day” on average. This statistic shows the positive impact public transit can have on the environment, and the Transit Corridor could be part of it.

A finished route would also increase connectedness to other areas of the city. According to an article in Medium written by Evan Liu, a public transit enthusiast, most routes in San Diego are limited, and leave “over a third of the population living in the north and inland completely unaccounted for”.

These discrepancies in the transit system create pockets where the only method of transportation is by car, putting stress on the residents. If the Transit Corridor were fully converted to a bus route, it wouldn’t fix this problem, but it would be a move in the right direction.
While both these arguments are important, we can’t ignore the current value the Transit Corridor has, or what it means to my neighbors and me.

One article titled, “Great Public Spaces: What Makes a Place Great?” argues that public spaces benefit communities by “increas[ing] people’s appreciation for and stewardship over the natural environment, and also provid[ing] habitats for animals.” The Transit Corridor is one such space, an area for trees and other greenery to grow, and for wild animals to live. I have personally seen many different animals in the Corridor, from common squirrels to owls. There aren’t many places like that in a suburban environment, so it is important to appreciate the ones we have. If the Corridor were fully converted, those animals could lose their homes.

I’m definitely biased as someone who grew up near the Transit Corridor, but I don’t want it to be developed. If they finished the route, I would lose the Transit Corridor for good, and even with the benefits of a bus route, if it were gone, my community would be worse off.

Now that I have the answers to my questions, I have a new one. Why should the city decide what happens to the Transit Corridor, rather than people who’ve lived with it? If I could choose, rather than a bus route, I would declare it a protected area and neighborhood park.

The Transit Corridor may be a very small part of a much larger system, but the uncertainty of what it might become is relevant to public spaces everywhere. If we do not speak up and decide what we want these spaces to be, others may decide for us, and we will have to live with the consequences.

Daphne Woodford studies chemical engineering at the University of California San Diego.

Please follow and like us: