San Rafael was going to have to deal with this anyway. The only really legitimate gripe right now is that nobody expected the Spanish Inquisitionsomething to happen right away, even before the first phase was fully operating. It was supposed to take longer to get the money. So there's a scramble to deal with the transit center rearrangement and streets. On the plus side, it might also speed up any bike lane work that was intended to accompany it.

SMART really does need to get INTO the ferry terminal, but that's probably phase 3 or 4. There are plans for it in the early documents, but the cost for structures and the like was really excessive for the c.150 riders they expect initially at that stop. So they'll probably have to have some kind of local shuttle (Airport-style golf carts? An elephant train?) from the tracks next to the freeway to the ferry terminal for those who can't walk it. But SMART must get there, even to an interim stop, to make it plausible for trips beyond the Sonoma-Marin corridor, and with money in hand it makes sense to do it now. A shuttle bus from downtown San Rafael in that traffic doesn't cut it, even for only 150 riders (which I think will grow quicker than the planners expect).