Transportation

SMART board approves Jennings crossing

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A long-sought rail crossing for pedestrians and cyclists in north Santa Rosa appears to finally have a clear path forward after leaders of the North Bay’s commuter rail agency endorsed the project Wednesday.

Board members overseeing Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit acknowledged protracted delays advancing the Jennings Avenue crossing, which has been snarled for a decade in a legal and political impasse pitting the rail line and its top officials against Santa Rosa and its representatives.

The inaction led to significant community frustration, much of it aimed at SMART.

SMART General Manager Eddy Cumins addressed that tension in comments ahead of the 8-2 decision, where Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt made up one of two votes against the agreement.

“I want to be clear, from staff’s perspective it was never our intent to be a barrier,” Cumins said.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/17/smart-rail-crosssing-santa-rosa-jennings-avenue/

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North Bay coordinated transit plan to begin in April

Adrian Rodriguez, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Route 101, which runs between Santa Rosa and downtown San Francisco, will no longer serve Sonoma County. Northbound buses will end in Novato, but with increased service.

North Bay transit agencies have approved a regional plan that provides fewer routes but runs more frequent trains and buses along the Highway 101 corridor.

The Marin-Sonoma Coordinated Transit Service plan aims to restructure transit operations as if managed by a single agency, eliminating redundancies. The plan focuses on where rider demand is highest, which is San Rafael and points south.

Some riders, bus drivers and transit officials worry that the change will leave a gap in service for late-night riders traveling to and from Sonoma County.

“We can’t just leave people stranded,” said Marin County Supervisor Dennis Rodoni, a board member of Golden Gate Transit, the regional bus provider, and Marin Transit, the local fixed-route provider.

Marin Transit approved the plan on Monday. Golden Gate Transit approved plans last month. The service change is expected to occur in April for a two-year pilot period.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/04/north-bay-coordinated-transit-plan-to-begin-in-april/

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SMART supporters submit petition for tax renewal measure

Adrian Rodriquez, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

North Bay voters could decide within months whether to throw Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit a financial lifeline or let it fail.

The quarter-cent sales tax that collects more than $51 million annually, or about half of the agency’s revenue, is set to expire in 2029. Without an extension, the agency would be forced to cease operations.

On Friday, a coalition of SMART supporters filed an initiative seeking to extend the tax for 30 years. The petition aims to put a measure on the June 2 ballot.

The petition was submitted three months ahead of the deadline. To be successful it needs signatures of at least 10% of registered voters between the two counties, or 48,809. The petitioners submitted 71,851 signatures.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/11/25/smart-supporters-submit-petition-for-tax-renewal-measure/

Transportation, ,

Santa Rosa slow walks proposal to close Fourth Street to vehicles

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Santa Rosa officials are slow walking a proposal to close a segment of Fourth Street to vehicle traffic as they mull over how to transform the space for pedestrians and seek to assuage skepticism from affected businesses.

Council members in spring 2024 asked staff to look into converting the major downtown street into a walkable and bikeable path that could draw more visitors to the area.

Officials with the Planning and Economic Development Department returned Tuesday with several options that included moving forward with the idea, scrapping the proposal, or exploring alternative locations where the city could pilot a street closure.

Council members appeared supportive but didn’t outright endorse shutting down the street.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/09/15/fourth-street-closure-downtown-santa-rosa-discussions-continue/

Transportation,

Sonoma County grand jury calls for greater oversight and resources at county airport

Emma Murphy & Martin Espinoza, PRESS DEMOCRAT

‘In effect, county leadership is treating the airport as if the significant traffic growth and larger facilities under management don’t require more resources, or more capable staffing,’ the civil grand jury said.

Despite years of sharp growth that has transformed Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport into a thriving, mid-sized commercial hub, county leaders have failed to provide the operation with the necessary resources and strategic planning it needs, the county’s civil grand jury has concluded in a new report.

The airport, which dates back to World War II, has reached the stage in its development that it could benefit from being its own agency, giving it greater autonomy to address pressing infrastructure and planning needs, the grand jury found.

The airport is currently a division within the county’s Public Infrastructure Department. The county ought to study whether to make it more of an independent entity, reporting directly to the Board of Supervisors, the grand jury recommended.

“In effect, county leadership is treating the airport as if the significant traffic growth and larger facilities under management don’t require more resources, or more capable staffing, than were needed to handle a much smaller business six years ago,” the jury states in its 8-page report.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-county-airport-grand-jury/

Transportation, ,

Marin, Sonoma propose transit overhaul along Highway 101

Adrian Rodriguez, MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL

A North Bay transportation committee proposed significant changes to transit along Highway 101, aiming to improve service in Marin and Sonoma counties by reducing redundancies and enhancing connections.

A North Bay transportation committee is proposing some major changes to transit, including bus and train, along the Highway 101 corridor to improve service in Marin and Sonoma counties.

The committee representing six transit operators and three funding agencies wants to eliminate redundancies while improving connections among operators and increasing services where rider demand is highest.

“All the agencies involved in transportation in Sonoma and Marin got together and we said, if one company ran all this based on what’s going on today, what would it look like? It probably would look different,” said Denis Mulligan, general manager of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. The district operates Golden Gate Transit and Golden Gate Ferry.

Mulligan said the task of the committee, called the Marin Sonoma Coordinated Transit Service, is to restructure and coordinate transit to provide the best service to riders.

Read more at https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/article/marin-sonoma-propose-transit-overhaul-along-highway-101/

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Sonoma County emergency preparedness falls short, grand jury says, warning of ‘chaotic, life-threatening’ evacuations

Emma Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The report comes weeks after local fire officials warned the region is likely to experience a long peak fire season.

Despite years of work and extensive investments to bolster its disaster planning and response, Sonoma County remains ill-prepared for emergency evacuations in the event of another regional firestorm, flood or other major disaster, the county’s civil grand jury has concluded in a new report.

The stinging assessment comes even after the strides the county, local cities and grassroots groups have taken after the 2017 firestorm and subsequent disasters to improve planning for the type of large emergencies that can displace thousands of people at a time.

The tools and protocols now in place, the grand jury found, function only as a foundation for evacuation plans — and those plans, covering much of the region, lack the detailed, proactive steps to ensure they can work, especially along the county’s sprawling rural road network, the new report says.

The panel faulted the county for its lack of modern modeling technology to evaluate evacuation routes and plan around known traffic choke points. The county also depends too heavily on cellphone networks and the internet to communicate alerts — an unreliable method for rural residents, according to the 20-page report.

“Without accelerated investment in planning, communications, and road improvements — and full compliance with California’s legal standards — the risk of chaotic, life-threatening evacuations remains high,” the report states.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-county-grand-jury-emergency-evacuations/

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