General Reports

[Dogers69]

I've been hypersensitive about this but I'm grateful you've tried it out and wrote about it. And I'd have to think you're right. They have bigger fish to fry and parking lot enforcement sounds like a very time consuming task which probably may not ultimately yield the city all that much money. After all, I wonder how many people would really leave their car at a trolley parking lot for multiple days. Who knows, I probably shouldn't assume; maybe I'd be surprised.

Thats a bad way to view it. Law enforcement wants the smallest fish to fry, particularly when they have a car to give a ticket to. Do you think law enforcement wants to pull up to the trolley station and witness a gang beating. Or. Pull up and give some tickets to cars? They don't want to see or get involved with any crime. They want safe, no hassle. And I do see tickets on cars and I've seen many cars towed away from the trolley station. I guess the Importent question is, How much exactly is the ticket? Its possible its under 50 bucks. My only ticket in sd was $55. If its $55 and under, you probably won't get towed if its just 3 nights. You probably wouldn't get the ticket till day 3 or 4 anyway. So you can just do it and factor in the ticket at 17 dollars a day cost to park on the car in weekends that's pretty good.

[Clone8884]

I been waiting for 18 months now for my approval. I hear the pass use to take about 6 weeks before all the COVID stuff happened.

I am talking about the Sentri pass.. Maybe I should apply for Global Entry. Will it allow me to drive in the Sentri lane?

Yes, global entry allows you to register your car and use sentri.

[ParallaxView]

I live in Mira Mesa, which is a very low-crime district in the city of San Diego, and there's a horrific amount of chatter on NextDoor.com, along the lines of, "somebody stole my catalytic converter" or "some random wierdo tried to walk into my house." And the post usually ends with, "and I called the police, and they didn't do squat!

Of course, this stuff is all anecdotal. If you want really reliable data, you might want to try CrimeMapping.com. That's how I found my low-crime home in Mira Mesa.

Apologies, but Nextdoor is about the opposite of a reputable data source and exactly the anecdotal accounts that don't bear much weight. Besides the fact that Nextdoor, in my lone opinion, is the absolute bottom of the barrel of the internet.

And no, I won't do your work for you in proving your claims right or wrong by going to a website. I'll take the fact that you referenced Nextdoor as a reputable website that you don't know what is going on regarding crime nor have any basis to back up your claims.

[WombatEd2]

Out of curiosity, any reputable data to support this claim?

I live in Mira Mesa, which is a very low-crime district in the city of San Diego, and there's a horrific amount of chatter on NextDoor.com, along the lines of, "somebody stole my catalytic converter" or "some random wierdo tried to walk into my house." And the post usually ends with, "and I called the police, and they didn't do squat!

Of course, this stuff is all anecdotal. If you want really reliable data, you might want to try CrimeMapping.com. That's how I found my low-crime home in Mira Mesa.

[SeaBeeJoe]

I imagine that this was to be directed to Dogers, now he does exaggerate on things but many thefts are going by with law enforcement not doing anything to look for them. Just because a law is on the books it doesn't mean anything if the criminals are not going to be prosecuted. So law enforcement knows this and thus has given up on many thefts since it's basically a waste of their time.

The Police are over worked in the US and most petty thefts will never be investigated or prosecuted. Still any theft is against the law so you always take that chance when a person steals. I believe in karma and I think if I do evil yo others evil things will also happen to me, but that's my opinion. I was raised not to steal things from people and to also return things you borrow in the same or better condition.

[Dogers69]

Sometimes I go to Tijuana at the last minute use the trolley, , start drinking and get back to car at midnight, and can't drive yet. I either sleep two hours, and then drive or sleep 6 hrs but. I don't recommend it. If someone's breaking I to cars or stealing them, or taking the cat converters and sees you it could be dangerous. At dawn the police show up, and look at registrations. I heard them talking a;out the car next to mine while I was sleeping. I beleive they saw me sleeping I forget. I could have gotten a ticket for sleeping. But these lots are a dead zone by 1 am till 6 am. Its a long 5 hours of nobody in them. I did see undercover cops at 8th st station once watching cars when I slept in that station the 1 time. But basically I wouldn't park in these spots unless your car is empty of belongings. My car looks so bad, it fits in oerfectly in San Diego and Chula Vista even would look perfect for Tijuana. I would not try and use my car in Florida or NYC suburbs the police would be staring at it and start following me. They don't like poor looking beaters in nicer places.

[ParallaxView]

I am talking about the Sentri pass.. Maybe I should apply for Global Entry. Will it allow me to drive in the Sentri lane?

I admit, I don't know since I don't drive into Mexico. I'm only talking about using Global Entry as a Sentri pass for walking over the border to USA. I hope you can get your pass soon.

[ParallaxView]

So law enforcement knows this and thus has given up on many thefts since it's basically a waste of their time.

Out of curiosity, any reputable data to support this claim?

[ParallaxView]

Palm Ave trolley station seems pretty safe. Find a spot near the platform where cameras are looking, would be safer.

This seems like really solid advice.

[ParallaxView]

I've tested it several times for 2-3 days with no issues. So 2-3 days I probably wouldn't worry about it. Honestly, I don't think they even care. The rule I think is only in place to prevent people from taking complete advantage of it by having their cars parked there several days (ie a week or more) at a time as the lots weren't intended for that. If leaving your car there for that long they probably would ticket or tow.

I've been hypersensitive about this but I'm grateful you've tried it out and wrote about it. And I'd have to think you're right. They have bigger fish to fry and parking lot enforcement sounds like a very time consuming task which probably may not ultimately yield the city all that much money. After all, I wonder how many people would really leave their car at a trolley parking lot for multiple days. Who knows, I probably shouldn't assume; maybe I'd be surprised.

[ParallaxView]

To each his own, I guess. I personally like to minimize my interaction with law enforcement LOL. I'm personally not interested in playing games with MTS enforcement over a $5 round trip fare but if you are comfortable with that then more power to you. Agree that it's highly likely you can avoid paying fares by doing as you suggest but at the same time you never know if / when MTS decides one day to more strictly enforce ticket purchases (and they may end up having no choice but to do that in the future when they realize a lot of people aren't actually paying). You also never know when you might run into a prick officer who decides to write up a ticket for you anyway, if for example he's having a bad day.

My thought on it is, in a world of ever-increasing inflation and jacked up pricing, free parking and a $5 round-trip trolley fare is an excellent deal so don't see the reason to skimp on it. $5 is miniscule when we're in Tijuana spending hundreds on these chicas anyway. But again, to each his own.

Interesting. Like I wrote, just having the Pronto app and money preloaded already minimizes any type of law enforcement risk, so I'm not clear what the risk is. No power to me really as it seems pretty failsafe. One click and you've bought the ticket. Seems awfully painless, quick and easy. There are a lot of more significant things to me to worry about. But again, I guess that's me.

I also am skeptical about all of these people supposedly not paying. Unless I see reputable statistics showing that, I'll figure it is just a myth and nothing to take seriously outside of individual anecdotes and opinions which don't mean a whole lot to me.

[BrotherMouzone]

I'm not really sure what isn't worth it. Just have the Pronto app on your phone and put some money on it when needed, but don't actually buy a ticket. When (or, more likely, if) confronted for a ticket by a transit officer, just plead ignorance and buy a ticket. I don't see any downside on skimping on the trolley ticket. I highly doubt anything negative would ever happen as long as you buy the ticket when asked for proof of purchase by a transit officer.

That said, I've done two round trips (not many, admittedly) on Saturday and then returning Sunday morning, and did not get asked for a ticket either time.

While I think it is wise to simply buy the ticket to support the trolley, I'm not sure MTS can do much to ensure fares are being purchased.

To each his own, I guess. I personally like to minimize my interaction with law enforcement LOL. I'm personally not interested in playing games with MTS enforcement over a $5 round trip fare but if you are comfortable with that then more power to you. Agree that it's highly likely you can avoid paying fares by doing as you suggest but at the same time you never know if / when MTS decides one day to more strictly enforce ticket purchases (and they may end up having no choice but to do that in the future when they realize a lot of people aren't actually paying). You also never know when you might run into a prick officer who decides to write up a ticket for you anyway, if for example he's having a bad day.

My thought on it is, in a world of ever-increasing inflation and jacked up pricing, free parking and a $5 round-trip trolley fare is an excellent deal so don't see the reason to skimp on it. $5 is miniscule when we're in Tijuana spending hundreds on these chicas anyway. But again, to each his own.

[BrotherMouzone]

I do that any time I'm walking in, but there is one thing to be aware of: Parking at the trolley stations is, in theory, limited to 24 hours. I have never seen this enforced, but I've never tested it, either.

This all works fine for me, because if I'm going for more than 24 hours, I drive in. But I don't recommend that for most people.

I've tested it several times for 2-3 days with no issues. So 2-3 days I probably wouldn't worry about it. Honestly, I don't think they even care. The rule I think is only in place to prevent people from taking complete advantage of it by having their cars parked there several days (ie a week or more) at a time as the lots weren't intended for that. If leaving your car there for that long they probably would ticket or tow.

[Captain Solo]

Yep. There is $10 for 24 HR parking behind the shoes store.

Last week I was waiting there for the bros to cross in pedestrian lane, a guy ran out from the lot, screaming at the attendants. He said his car had been broken into and he could not restart engine. Cars parked along the rail track are broken into frequently. Any parking near the border carries higher risks.

Palm Ave trolley station seems pretty safe. Find a spot near the platform where cameras are looking, would be safer.

[Dogers69]

From past discussions on the GE it will allow you to use the Sentri but I'm not sure the process would be any faster. Have you been trying to contact anyone for an idea on why so long? I seem to remember others posting here recently that it o my took a matter of weeks and this was during COVID. You might have some questionable things in your past that is making it more difficult for them to approve you.

Never apply for sentri if you qualify for global entry. Its the same thing for the Mexican border. Global entry took me 3 weeks, start to catdcin my hand, in middle of covid. You need to stay on top of it, read how to get next day appointment, don't pay any service, then jump in the car and drive to that city for that appointment. For me it was driving to LOS Angeles from san Diego. Putting the car on it takes a little longer I just needed the pass to walk across the border.