Going Down Avenue Q?

November 8, 2008

I said that I couldn’t endorse Measure Q, the quarter cent sales tax to fund the SMART train.  It doesn’t matter because Q won.

I have been contacted by supporters who say that BART is so much more expensive with its proprietary track system. I don’t mind spending the tax money to invest in alternative transportation, I just want a system that goes somewhere. BART goes somewhere and goes somewhere with a frequency that allows people to be flexible.

SMART simply does not have enough trips back and forth. People have to get into work early, or work late. It doesn’t help that our feeder buses tend to be expensive and don’t run frequently or conveniently enough to make sure we get to our SMART station on time. Just try to plot out a route on 511.org on the Golden Gate Bus system sometime, it takes 2 or 3 times longer to get anywhere in the county.

I live in Marinwood and work in Bel Marin Keys, am I going to take a bus to Civic Center to take a train to Hamilton and walk to work or to Safeway at Nave?

In the times I drive on South on 101 during commute hours, the build up is at the Richmond Bridge. After you pass the Richmond Bridge the traffic lightens. We need a system that gets us across the water to Richmond, Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco as well as points along the North Bay 101 corridor.

If I lived in Sonoma, it would make more sense to support Q, but still I would think that there are very many jobs in the North Bay, it would be better to invest in a system that will not lock you into having to work in the North Bay. There are just not a lot of jobs here in comparison to San Francisco and the East Bay. Wouldn’t investing in a system that can take you where the jobs are be better? There are people who think that it may be possible to use SMART to meet up with the Richmond BART station or maybe someday they could increase the frequency. This is not what we are voting for in November.

I hope I am wrong about this because the increase of the sales tax will be going to this system that needs a lot of work before it can be useful to the North Bay.

Rather than the SMART train, we really need to connect Novato to Marinwood and Lucas Valley with San Anselmo, Fairfax, Downtown San Rafael, Ross, Corte Madera, etc. Basically we need to connect all the downtowns throughout the county, so we don’t have to get on 101. Unfortunately, SMART is on the wrong side of 101. I would love to see street cars that could get me to Downtown Novato or Downtown San Anselmo. SMART will not get me to San Anselmo or Corte Madera and Golden Gate Transit takes too long forcing you to take take way too many buses to get where you want to go and costing way too much to get there.

I am sad we will never see BART here now and we will continue to be cut off from the rest of the Bay Area. I am concerned that we will be investing in a system where there are no guarantees it would solve the horrible traffic on 101. Again, I hope I am wrong.

Posted in Bay Area News, SMART, elections