Transportation

Local bus drivers say show us the money

Bus drivers and mechanics for San Diego’s North County Transit District allege they are owed thousands of dollars in accrued vacation, sick and personal time from First Transit, a national company that operated NCTD’s bus service for the past seven years under a $178 million contract. It’s unclear how many people are affected and how much money is at stake, though interviews with drivers and…


Traffic more hassled headed down I-15

According to traffic volume counts collected by the state, traffic has increased on the winding stretch of the 15 that runs past Rainbow and Fallbrook by almost 6 percent since 2013 alone. That translates to thousands of additional cars on that stretch and 20,000 plus south of the Highway 78 merge in Escondido. TRAFFIC VOLUME The annual average daily traffic volume between Temecula and Escondido along Interstate-15…


Smartphone distractions, drinking help spur rising pedestrian death toll

Pedestrian deaths are surging across the nation, and analysts are putting much of the blame on drivers and walkers who are looking at their smartphones instead of watching where they are going. Tipsy walking also is part of the problem, with one in three victims legally drunk when they were struck and killed. The latest report on U.S. pedestrian deaths, from the Governors Highway Safety Association,…


Drive Tales: ‘It’s upside down, so what?’

Drive tales One of my many jobs right now is delivering packages for Amazon Prime Now. It’s a little different from Amazon Prime where packages are delivered at Amazon’s choosing by USPS, UPS, and FedEx. With Prime Now, YOU choose when you want your goods delivered. You can choose any two-hour window between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., seven days a week at no extra…


Gas, housing and the Golden Door Spa

Escondido gasoline prices rise for seven straight days  Up and down, ye olde gasoline price merry-go-round is going up, up and away again. The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in San Diego County rose two-tenths of a cent Tuesday to $2.824, the seventh consecutive daily increase. The average price is 1.5 cents more than one week ago and 6.1 cents higher…


JetSuite: Getting there from here

Next up out of Carlsbad’s McClellan-Palomar Airport… “If you’re looking to link up with other airlines, JetSuite is not for you.” Another new airline took flight out of McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad on Oct. 17. It is the fourth such airline to try doing business out of the North County airport since United Express pulled out in April of 2015. The other three have failed,…


Keeping up with the region, dam it

Dam it, Lake Hodges ESCONDIDO, CA. — San Diego County has 54 dams, including the venerable Lake Hodges Dam at Del Dios. State officials judge them all to be safe — an impressive feat considering that the average dam is 62 years old Inewsource filed Public Records Act requests with the California Division of Safety of Dams and 19 dam-owning public agencies, such as water districts, requesting the…


Fact Check: Will a sales tax hike relieve traffic congestion?

The Gist The San Diego Association of Governments hasn’t been shy about touting the benefits county residents will feel if they pass its proposed ballot measure in November. One of the proposal’s major selling points is that the projects the measure would fund will relieve traffic congestion. We found SANDAG thinks of traffic relief differently than a typical commuter might. Statement: “SAN DIEGO COUNTY ROAD REPAIR,…


NCTD: Don’t tread on Sprinter tracks

The luckiest man in San Marcos spooked North County Transit District officials so much they tightened pedestrian trespassing enforcement this week. Meanwhile, the man who got struck by a Sprinter train traveling at 40 mph at the Palomar College Station is still at large after casually dusting himself off and walking eastbound on the NCTD tracks, presumably towards home.  “There’s an increasing problem we are…


I-15 alternative route system runs through it

Cut through the weird bureaucratic officialese and what do you get: Maybe some better ways to navigate around  a 20-mile Interstate 15 stretch from State Route 52, the Ted Williams Freeway, at Carmel Mountain Ranch to State Route 78 at Escondido. That hallowed stretch of highway heck experiences about 305,000 vehicle trips per day, according to officials. It’s called The Integrate Corridor Management project, and…