Introduction
San Diego is at the southern apex of California, not far from the Mexican border. Its transit network is quite large. The local agency is the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, nicknamed MTS. It operates both buses and trolleys. The name is misleading and should be read as light rail, instead of trolleybus.
The city is home to some famous companies, among which we find:
- Qualcomm
- DivX
- Viasat
- Teradata
The bus network
There are about 100 lines and the numbering scheme is verbose. Approximately 30 lines, numbered in the range 1 – 99 are covering the town itself. The rest of them connect San Diego with the neighbourhoods. Given the size of the metro area, sometimes it is hard to see where the town ends and the outskirts begin.
While it is not very clear it there is a specific choice of the line numbers, I believe that the hundreds figure gives the general direction:
- 2xx – near the local Broadway
- 7xx lines – towards South and the Palomar district
- 8xx lines – towards East and North-East, going to El Cajon and Mesa districts.
The website
The official site is very easy to navigate and has translations to every possible language in the world (thanks to the translate tools from a famous internet company).
There is a downloadable PDF schematics for every bus line. This is quality and quantity.
Mobile App
There are a bunch of apps for smartphones, including:
- San Diego Transit
- San Diego Transport
- Moovit
The website doesn’t contain information about an official app. However, it is responsive and it is most likely a good replacement for an app, given that you have network coverage.
Open Data
MTS has a GTFS file on the website, updated regularly. While not part of the site map, you can find it if you search for GTFS in the top right corner box.
The reason I don’t put schematics here is because everything is on the site. There is no need to add more information.
The Spline 