Our friend Abby continues her Week without Driving adventures. You can read her preview here, follow her E-Trike journey here, or discover what she discovered on two feet here.
In planning to participate in the national Week Without Driving, the day I looked forward to the most was my trip on Sonoma-Marin Area Rapid Transit, aka the SMART Train. I do not like to drive to San Francisco under the best of circumstances. Highway 101 has been under construction for about 10 years. Driving over the Golden Gate Bridge is scary.
It takes about an hour to get from Santa Rosa to the Larkspur terminus of the train, and seniors and people under 18 ride for free. The trains are clean and comfortable. I have taken the SMART train several times since I moved to Sonoma County last year, most recently to go to the Streetsblog Awards event in San Francisco in mid-September. On that trip I met a new friend, and our plan was to take the train to Larkspur and catch the ferry to San Francisco, where we would have lunch and shop at the Ferry Building.
I decided it wasn’t totally cheating if I didn’t drive myself, but let Louise pick me up and drive me to the SMART station in downtown Santa Rosa, about 2-1/2 miles. We parked for free in the far corner of the almost-dead Santa Rosa Plaza shopping center, and walked about three blocks to the train station on the other side of Highway 101, which like most highways cuts the city in half. We got a coffee at one of the coffee shops next to the train station. SMART has no problem if you bring your coffee on board.
The Bay Area has a Clipper Card that is good for most of the transit options available. The train came on time and we found comfortable seats in the clean car. We watched several people bring their bikes on board and secure them in vertical bike racks. The conductor came through to make sure everyone had paid the fare; if you try to skip it the conductor will politely collect it on the train. As a frequent user of the Metro trains in Los Angeles, the tidy environment and friendly conductors are a welcome change. We rode through small towns and farmland along the route, which parallels Highway 101. We arrived at the Larkspur station in about an hour.
The train station is about a half a mile from the ferry terminal, and it’s not very clear how you are supposed to get to the ferry. There is a bridge that is set up as a bike path, and I’m conditioned to avoid walking on bike paths. There is also a road with no sidewalk. Based on the signage, we decided to take the bike bridge.
When the bike bridge ended we had to walk across a large parking lot to get to the ferry terminal. The discounted senior fare was $7 to San Francisco, and the ferry ride is very pleasant. There is a bar on the ferry, comfortable seats inside and outside, and more vertical bike racks. We arrived at the Ferry Building in less than a half hour.
The Ferry Building has a lot of locally-sourced gifts and food, an independent bookstore, many restaurants, and a shop where you can buy a Clipper Card and get information from knowledgeable humans about transportation and tourism options in San Francisco. Louise and I walked around and checked out the shops before and after lunch, which we ate on the back pier of the Ferry Building. The Ferry Building was bustling but not uncomfortably crowded, and there were tourists, families, tech bros, and locals enjoying a very warm day in San Francisco. It was well-staffed with knowledgeable staff and ambassadors, and the restrooms were clean. What a joy to spend a beautiful day at San Francisco Bay!
We caught the ferry back to Larkspur with the first wave of commuters heading home around 3:30 pm. The ferry had good wifi and many people were using their laptops. I imagine that a commute on the ferry, a half hour on the water, is a healthy transition from work to home.
I’ve previously taken a shuttle from the ferry back to the SMART train, but the shuttle was nowhere to be seen, and there was no staff in the “Information” booth. We finally noticed a sign that told us that the shuttle only runs Thursday through Sunday, so we headed back to the train on foot. It was 90 degrees out, and the train station requires more uphill walking than I would usually choose, and we missed the train by about 50 yards as we were walking on the bike path. The next train came in less than 20 minutes and we were glad to get into the air conditioned car.
An hour later we were back in Santa Rosa after a fun day without (me) driving!
Tomorrow I’ll go to a doctor’s appointment at Kaiser on the city bus.
