This emerging group of young transit advocates wants to reshape how San Diego gets around

An emerging nonprofit led by passionate young advocates wants to help shape San Diego’s future by demanding a more extensive and user-friendly mass transit system.

Leaders of RideSD, a small transit advocacy organization that is becoming steadily more vocal and conspicuous, say the group’s emergence comes at the perfect time.

Transit has become more crucial to life around the region as officials seek to solve the housing crisis with high-density housing that is likely to make neighborhoods more crowded and steer people away from cars.

Another factor expected to encourage people to begin considering transit is San Diego officials sharply hiking parking rates, increasing citation fines and eliminating free parking in places like Balboa Park and city beaches.

And the local trolley system got a major boost in 2021 with the completion of the Blue Line’s extension north from Old Town to University City — a project that meant commuters could reach UC San Diego from the border, and that has been widely hailed as having made the whole system better for commuters.

And perhaps most importantly, the Metropolitan Transit System is at a financial crossroads that could lead to either major service cuts or a significant expansion if local voters approve a possible 2028 ballot measure.

“I think it’s a really good time, because the city is making all these changes and building all this infill housing,” said Manny Rodriguez, 26, executive director of...