I’m diving into the world of transit Monday and Tuesday, following folks who take the bus, the trolley, or the Coaster to carry out their day-to-day tasks. I’ll be sharing their stories with you, here, on the blog. And those anecdotes will be interspersed with bits of history and transit could-have-beens, like a plan 30 years ago that would’ve implemented a heavy rail system throughout the San Diego urban core.

I want you to come with me on a vicarious adventure. What do you want to know about the way public transportation works in this place? What questions do you have for the folks I’ll meet? What thoughts do you have on the way it’s set up, and on who should pay for future developments?

If you had a perfect transit system, where would it go and how long would it take to get there? From your house in Mission Hills to a doctor’s appointment in La Jolla? From Del Mar to work in Kearny Mesa?

If where you live, where you work and the company you keep help to define your life, then a big share of that definition is wrapped up in how you get from each to the others. Hundreds of thousands of residents sit on freeways in traffic for hours every day.

Is San Diego a bunch of hubs connected by stretches of asphalt? What would it look like and how would it look different if San Diego and its surrounding cities and communities were connected by a thorough regional transit system?

But fanciful questions don’t necessarily hold water for people whose daily commutes now — not in the future — are achieved using the current system. For varying environmental and social reasons, some San Diegans choose to use the buses and trolleys and Coaster. Others, for economic reasons, have no other choice.

Join me here today, Monday and Tuesday. And click here to submit a question or comment as Survival hits the road.

— KELLY BENNETT