Having lived in Novato when I was a young kid and having seen it again just a few years ago (lots of people living with congested roads in what was once rural beauty), I would hope the cost of gas will be enough to get some people who have never left their rubber-tired commute to finally consider rail. Here in the Inland Northwest, the few people who have been advocating for light rail have been generally laughed off by the far left who think it's too expensive and that everyone should just ride the bus, or by the far right who also think it's too expensive and that everyone should just ride their big 4x4 to work. Up until now, the supposed benefit of light rail in this market would be less road congestion, but until the I-90 commute to/from Spokane or Coeur d'Alene begins to really look like the southern California or Bay Area logjam that many of these drivers escaped by moving up here, none of them are going to think there's a need for light rail. But now, the rising cost of gas puts it into different perspective. I still don't see it reaching the crossover point in the Spo/CdA area for a few more years, but in the meantime, if some intelligent studies prove there will indeed be a time for light rail in the future, they need to be acquiring the rights of way NOW, not later when the few remaining railbeds into CdA and across the Spokane Valley have been cut into trail segments here and covered with houses or malls there. If running under catenary, light rail in the Inland Northwest should be relatively cheap (and "green") to operate since it can draw from a grid that's largely supplied by hydropower. In Novato and California as a whole, electric has got to be an easier environmental sell than diesel, but at what cost?