Yeah, sales taxes are regressive, we should pay higher property taxes,, on access improvement to land under theories like Henry George, or taxes on the impacts of parking and attracting congestion, to offset non market compensated costs of access, or even the "relatively" efficient use or fuel taxes that are based on some degree of use and system impacts, where alternatives are cost effective in reducing total travel costs for a sufficient number of users, as measured by cost benefits analysis.

Unfortunately, back in the real world where the ideological ideals of the most idealistic fringe rarely applies in an imperfect world of tradeoffs and compromise, and the marketing of public policy choices to an innumerate voter, it turned out that folks thought a half cent sales tax was less out of their pockets than a ten cent gas tax would be (it isn't..), and this is the mechanism our elected representatives in that logic and wisdom chose to present to voters to fund things like SMART.

How that affect decision making is problematic, and I think that linking development, like Virgin is doing with its projects is one of the things lacking in transit system development and "value capture" financing based on land use.

Meanwhile, your numbers do not prove your underlying "race based" or "income" thesis about SMART, as you don't have SMART income levels to compare to Countywide totals, so another incomplete grade, on that.

Since the break down on SMART is somewhat different than you breakdown in ethnicity overlap, and there is not the much difference between the two, and within an likely, the "rich white folks" narrative still looks pretty weak, it's not that much "whiter" than the County, with the overlaps, and well within sampling error ranges given what I consider low sampling rates and poor data collection by SMART.

So once again, you get an incomplete on your thesis that this is a system that is just for them there awful privileged "rich" "white" folks riding that awful train, that maybe you would prefer to have them folks relegated to only sitting in the back of buses? That is consistent with some other thinking on this, like some of the supposed "peoples" (anonymously, with secret multiple six figure annual donation checks, funded??) supposedly "left wing" anti-transit groups, who opposed "evil rich white folks" rail transit in LA...