Why Marin Conservation League Supports SMART’s Measure B
Marin Conservation League (MCL) supports Sonoma-Marin Rail Transit’s (SMART) Measure B sales tax renewal. We do so because SMART has become an important transit option through the North Bay and because we believe continued funding will give SMART the opportunity to deliver on environmental benefits in the years ahead.
Transportation remains the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Marin County and across the state. Switching to electric vehicles alone will not achieve California’s climate goals. According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), even if all new vehicle sales are electric by 2035, the state will still not meet its legislative requirement of reaching zero emissions by 2045. One of CARB’s key strategies for reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMTs), the metric for monitoring transportation’s contribution to climate change, is investment in public transit.
SMART has already created a viable transit alternative to single-occupancy commuting on Highway 101. Since launching service, the rail system has increased ridership and expanded service hours, offering free travel for youth and seniors over 65 and income-based discounts through its participation in the Bay Area Clipper Card Program. At the same time, SMART continues to extend rail segments northward towards Cloverdale, and to secure grants for future rail build-out and for its bicycle and pedestrian multiuse path. Both provide connectivity to downtowns along the corridor.
SMART has received extensive capital investment and the rail system remains in a period of rapid development. Now is not the time to mothball passenger rail service, forfeit current progress, and abandon benefits still to come.
With stable funding and strategic planning, MCL sees opportunities for SMART to provide increasing environmental benefits, eliminating greenhouse gas emissions attributed to operations, steadily reducing the number of cars on the road through collaboration with other North Bay transit agencies, and lessening the impacts of existing rail infrastructure on natural and built environments.
The 2008 Measure Q sales tax ordinance committed SMART to operating “with the most environmentally clean passenger rail vehicle possible.” While SMART’s current trains meet the highest federal emissions standards for particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, combustion of diesel contributes carbon pollutants to the atmosphere. Continued extraction, refinement, transport, and use of fossil fuels, including diesel, cause global warming and accelerate climate change. MCL strongly supports SMART’s goal to switch to a fleet of zero-emission vehicles by 2046 and urges SMART to begin planning and budgeting now so that conversion can happen sooner than later.
SMART is an active member of MASCOTS (Marin-Sonoma Coordinated Transit Service), the two-county transit agency collaboration that is working to increase efficiency and grow transit ridership through the 101 Marin-Sonoma corridor. SMART’s partnership in this coordination,
combined with its multimodal pathways that support walking and biking, contribute to lowering VMTs. A valuable next step for MASCOTS would be to coordinate and integrate transit options within all major land use and housing development plans, especially in areas where infill is already near transit. Such integrated planning and coordination would help reduce stress on existing transportation infrastructure and increase accessibility.
Finally, MCL supports SMART seeking out future opportunities for funding to lift the existing rail out of areas of conflict, lessening infrastructure impacts on the environment and to local communities. Portions of SMART’s existing tracks run through low-lying areas, crossing creeks and marshes. SMART’s future growth could include lengthening bridges, elevating rail infrastructure, and replacing tracks with suspended systems, where feasible, to protect floodplains and wetlands by allowing the natural flow of water, sediment, and species. Doing so would adapt SMART’s infrastructure to sea level rise. Additionally, MCL encourages future SMART investment in engineered grade-separated crossings, wherever feasible, to improve safety and reduce delays in highly congested areas like downtown San Rafael.
SMART’s long-term success will ultimately depend on how effectively it moves all types of transit riders, including workforce commuters and those who are transit-dependent, to where they want to go, when they want to go there, and the extent to which SMART helps to get more people out of their cars and using transit.
Passage of Measure B will allow SMART to continue providing reliable and accessible transportation and the opportunity to contribute to a cleaner, more connected, and more resilient transportation system.