I have come to the conclusion that the folks responsible for SMART plans do not ever use public transportation. They seem to be blithely unaware of declining patronage.

Last week, to take advantage of my new senior citizen half-fare, I took GGT from Petaluma to the City on a Sunday morning. Two observations come to mind: one is that a significant part of Northbay transit use is between Larkspur and Marin City, not to be served by SMART. Second is that travel to SF is not what it was once was - by the time the bus started south across the GG Bridge there were only about 10 passengers left on the bus. This is at around 10 am. Coming back at 5 pm the bus was fairly full, but the crowd was noticeably smaller than 5 years ago. The poor economy has something to do with it, but I suggest high fares are the main problem. I do not know where SMART is going to get the subsidies to run at all, much less keep the fare structure cheap enough to attract enough patronage to be anywhere near relevant. On a much larger acale the same dilemma applies to the hsr, whose business plan has already adjusted its projected fares upward significantly.

As to running streetcars along Copeland Street etc. in Petaluma I wish them the best of luck. I walk the area just about every day and I can testify the traffic is atrocious. They should have built a bypass way south of Petaluma years ago to take the rv's to the coast. Instead we have wall-to-wall traffic on Washington-Bodega and it just keeps getting worse. And they plan another freeway interchange, which won't help at all. But the local in-crowd is adamant about accommodating more automobiles.

I could see using Copeland for street running of a Petaluma-Santa Rosa light rail line on a second track adjacent to the NWP, also serving the proposed Rohnert Park casino. But that's long range - after the current SMART scheme bombs.