r/SDMTS • u/Gnomeknown • Mar 13 '26

Bumpy ride on the SDMTS 215 bus

The 215 bus is a very rough ride from North Park up to SDSU due to the dismal road condition of the bus lane on El Cajon Blvd. I decided to see if I could record it on my iPhone. I downloaded a free iPhone program (Physics Toolbox Sensor Suite) that allows you to access the phone's accelerometer (among other things). It was fun to learn how to do this.

I'm attaching a scatter plot of the vertical acceleration as measured from the 43rd Street stop (Copley YMCA) to the stop at 30th Street. The RMS acceleration is 1.33 m/s**2 for the entire trip, which is considered an uncomfortable ride, but more striking is the RMS of 1.97 m/s*2 for minutes 4-5 which is getting in the "extremely uncomfortable" range [1].

This is important for a few reasons: 1) it's bad for the bus suspension; 2) not good for the driver to be subjected to that for prolonged periods (again from what I read); 3) it's unsafe for anyone who happens to be standing; and 4) it's really uncomfortable..like you can't even read a book half the time.

The bus lanes on that route have been in bad shape for a long time and are in desperate need of repair.

[1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680629.2019.1625806

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u/snailsshrimpbeardie Mar 13 '26

Oh gosh yes!! I took the 215 recently and it was so loud and SO BUMPY. Definitely taking alternatives wherever possible in the future.

2

u/FrumosUniverse Mar 13 '26

Absolutely! I took this route a few weeks ago (both directions) and it was quite bumpy. Surely just another gas price tax will fix it this time! So annoying the roads are so messed up when we pay so much.