Petaluma envisions seamless bus, train commute

Despite the recent announcement that the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit train will not begin regular service until at least late spring 2017, Petaluma is moving forward with a process of linking the city’s bus service schedule to the future train schedule.

“This is part of a long range awareness that we want to give people options to driving their cars,” said Petaluma Mayor David Glass. “It is disappointing that SMART’s schedule is delayed, but it does give us time to coordinate the city’s bus service and that can only be a plus. Buses are a good thing for people who live in the city or are not able to afford a car.”

SMART officials announced earlier this month that the engines on their 14 rail cars were at risk of failure and needed to be replaced. SMART had been planning to begin service through Petaluma between Santa Rosa and San Rafael at the end of this year, but announced that service could be delayed as much as six months and possibly longer.

At their Oct. 17 meeting, the Petaluma City Council unanimously approved adopting a 10-year update to the city’s short range transit plan, which attempts to anticipate costs as well as funding sources from federal transit grants and the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

According to Petaluma Transit director Joe Rye, this process is required of the city by the Federal Transit Administration.

Rye said the city would work on increasing early morning and late afternoon weekday bus service, expanding routes and initiating what Rye labeled a “Silver Shuttle” – a plan which would combine fixed route and para-transit bus service to cover areas of Petaluma not currently served by regular bus routes. He said the city’s bus service was in the process of increasing the fleet of buses, and that “ridership on the bus had doubled over the last four years.”

“We’ve had a good four year period,” noted Rye. “Ridership is up this year.”

Asked about whether delays to the start of SMART’s service were a help or a hindrance to Petaluma, Rye said he felt the delay helped, as it delayed expenditures caused by the increased bus service linking to the trains.

“Remember, SMART is not providing us with any funding to expand our bus services to meet the new train schedules,” Rye said. “But we were ready to go this month, and we’ll be ready when they start. How and where the bus service goes in the future will depend on how SMART works out, but it is easy for us to change our routes and adapt.”

Council members spoke positively of the increased bus service, though some warned that there would need to be adjustments as SMART’s schedule produced more data on users and busy hours.

“SMART is an important step towards moving the North Bay towards city-centered, non sprawl growth. I think most folks view transit as a good thing as it takes cars off the streets and thus reduces congestion,” said Councilman Mike Healy.

Councilman Chris Albertson said he thought the delay in beginning SMART would also delay expanded transit service.

“Until we are certain where the SMART riders are originating from, expanding our local transit services into this neighborhood or that neighborhood is throwing darts at the board,” Albertson said.

Albertson said that he felt SMART “might be a fiscal drain” on the two counties in the short term. But he added that he hoped “in the year 2040 or maybe even 2030 or earlier” people would say “boy those decision makers back in 2010 to 2020 really had it together to think about mass transportation and plan for the future.”

Transit Advisory Committee chair Dave Alden said he looked forward to a day when Petaluma and the North Bay region had as convenient a public transportation system as he saw when he lived in the Oakland area. He also hoped that eventually transit-oriented development, or TOD, would become more common in the North Bay region.

“I spent the early years of my career riding BART,” he said. “I could walk to the station from my home and ride to within a few blocks of my office, sometimes continuing on after work to play recreational volleyball or to attend an A’s game, all using BART. And I watched over the decades as the Bay Area was reshaped by BART, including TOD. I expect the same positive transformation from the North Bay by SMART. I think we need more encouragement of TOD, better bike and pedestrian station connections, and parking management plans that encourage transit.”