Sonoma-Marin "SMART" Train... Wait for it... Wait for it... is DUMB!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Now why would you want to take the 'DUMB' Train when you can take the 101 Parking Lot/Freeway?

SMART (Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit) will carry people, freight and parallel a new 73 mile bike/pedestrian path.   But here in lies the shocker.  Did you know that these trains cost money and that sometimes they might cost more than estimated?!?  A Sonoma County "Grand Jury" report found that out!  You can find this information on page 15, right after the "It’s 10 p.m. Do You Know Where Your Dog And Cat Are?" article.

SMART might not be like the well managed and under spent projects like the 6.5 billion Eastern Bay Bridge span, or the multi-billion dolllar 405 freeway widening project that might actually be done by now.  The SMART project relies mostly on state and county money with some moneys from the quasi-solvent Federal "Trust" Fund. Sure, the trust that ran out of money a month ago because there's too many projects and not enough money generated by a 20 year old gas tax.  The brilliant minds in congress decided they would keep it afloat by diverting funds from "Pension Smoothing" and some kind of leaky tanks fund.  I'm sure it will be back to sustainable levels again and become a magnet for pet projects and bridges to nowhere again soon.

Who would want to give this up?  It's freedom baby!!!
image found here.  

SMART officials can't even predict the future of how many people will actually take the DUMB train.  As you can see from the red on South 101 and 280, they're super popular and everyone is flocking to jam those babies up!  So why would anyone want a stupid smelly quick DUMB train anywhere?  Why would we want to go back in history to when trains got people to where they needed to go?  Should we really risk building a train that will give the public accessibility to the area between Cloverdale and Larkspur in 60 minutes when they could just sit in a car for two and a half hours and get there via america freedom fuck yeah cars?!

Freedom!!! Now double it, and add more!

Ridership has only gone up on BART, Caltrain, Amtrak, Metrolink, and AC transit, but can we really be sure this will be the case for other trains?  Do we really know it will spark land development, business, and higher home values as it's done in every other area?  We really can't be sure. Why not spend that money doubling the Freeways a few times, which is sure to work out, this time, again!

Behold, the profound loss and disappointment of taking a DUMB train.  Did you get that?  Dumb?  It's SMART but I said dumb!
image found here.