It Ain't Easy Being Green: A Day on the Bus

Driving a car is the status quo in the sprawling environs of the Sonoma Valley, but rising gas prices are sending some frugal commuters back to the bus.

Public transit ridership on Sonoma Valley Routes 30 and 32 increased about 7 percent this year, according to Sonoma County Transit data.

Stats show that riders may be using transit out of necessity rather than pleasure. In Sonoma, 10 percent of residents don’t have access to a car, almost twice the car-less rate in the County, according to Census data. For undocumented immigrants – who cannot legally obtain a drivers’ license – public transit is the only reliable way to get around.

But have you been on the bus? Neither had we. So I took to the bus for a day of work, to see what it’s like to get around.

Check out at video of the day, at right.

But first, I had to get there – by car, since no routes service my home on the far west side of Agua Caliente. Sonoma Patch Contributor Andres Rico bummed a 5-minute ride to the from his Schellville home, after Sonoma County Transit’s trip planner suggested he take a cab. 

And then there are others, like Leland Wood, who willingly gave up his car several years ago, due to rising gas prices and his declining income. So on days when the 54-year-old needs to travel outside of his Boyes Hot Springs neighborhood – which is most days – he uses the bus.

“It’s inconvenient, but inexpensive,” said Wood, who makes three transfers which turn a trip into several hours to run errands in Santa Rosa, and carries his bike to get to places the bus won’t run. “I use it for everything, for laundry, for grocery stores – if they charged $6 a ride I’d still do it, because it’s cheaper than a car.”

 “I don’t know what I’d do without it.”

Sonoma’s downtown is thoroughly serviced by two routes: Route 30, which ushers commuters and JCC students between Sonoma and Santa Rosa (in under an hour) and Route 32, a local route which circles downtown – making stops at Sonoma Valley High School and the hospital – and runs an additional loop through Boyes Hot Springs.

Want to commute home from downtown? Good luck, the last local bus leaves just after 4 pm, and no routes run on Sundays.

More troubling are the places the bus doesn’t run: though Route 32 makes a comprehensive sweep through downtown – making stops at the high school, hospital and several supermarkets – the line only runs in a single loop through Boyes Hot Springs and Agua Caliente, where shoddy or nonexistent sidewalks make it difficult to reach the nearest bus stop.

But funding comprehensive transit, particularly in smaller communities, like Sonoma, which lack a large weekday commuter population, is hardly a moneymaking affair. 

According to Brian Albee, a general manager for Sonoma County Transit, local routes like Route 32 largely service discounted riders –students, seniors, the disabled – which adds up to a lower cost than inter city routes which fill up with full-fare commuters.

Despite the increased ridership, Sonoma County Transit shelled out over $1.16 million to run Route 30 last year, which ran a $964,265 deficit; Route 32 recouped just 14 percent of its $486,889 costs.

Other bus lines make an even smaller profit. Route 38, a single ride commuter service which runs between Oakmont and the San Rafael Transit Center costs over $100,000 per year to run, and only serves between 15 and 21 riders per day. Last April, Sonoma City Council urged Sonoma County Transit to eliminate the line, but Albee denied that the County was considering it.

"We have to evaluate the entire system, not just one route," Albee told Patch last year.

But Antonio Garibay a 14-year-old Sonoma Valley High School student doesn’t care much about the cost revenue model, he’d just like to wait less.

Garibay uses the bus regularly to run errands for his family – taking it to the hospital and supermarket – and to get to Sonoma Valley High School during the summer. But he looks forward to the school year – and being able to take a school bus.

“It doesn’t have all these stops; it just goes straight to school,” he said.

Short of Obama’s murky plan for a nationalized regional rail roll-out, comprehensive routes are not on Sonoma’s horizon.  

But there are benefits to suburban transportation, if you look beyond convenience and wait times. Though the buses we  rode were empty, they were also clean. And no riders experienced the horror stories of urban transit – public urination, harassment, and theft – everyday occurrences on San Francisco’s MUNI system.

Sonoma public transit even has a small town feel.  

“There’s some real nice people on the bus: one out of ten people I recognize,” said Wood.