SMART's underlying problem is that Marin County doesn't really want public transit. It's a caste thing. So Marin won't be at all upset at a SMART debacle. See - we paid lip service, we did all the right moves, we're environmentally correct. Not our fault. Just give us some more ferries for the ceo's and some more lanes on 101. The more amateurish the more convincing the political theater.

And sadly there is no middle ground. At the other end of the transit spectrum you have the inner Bay Area, under the aegis of BART-Bechtel - massively overbuilt, ugly and noisy as sin, and fraught with labor militancy. The richies are rightly not interested in that.