An appreciation for Transit Options

Despite a few days of sunny weather, the Sacramento and American Rivers remain high. The bikeway is still flooded and impassable near Del Paso Blvd.  In addition, when I pass over the flooded area on Light Rail, I can see that even the patches of bike path that are exposed mostly covered with debris. Even when the water recedes, it's going to be a while before the path is suitable for skinny road tires. So, I continue to ride H Street. Most days.

On Wednesday last, I needed to attend a meeting up on Truxel. Ordinarily, getting to the Natomas area from downtown is easy by bicycle--one can ride through Discovery Park, along the Sac Northern Bike Path, or up Northgate to get across the sloughs north of the American River.  All three of these options are flooded as I write this, and were flooded all of last week. 

The only viable alternative for a cyclist was to ride all the way to Fair Oaks and then backtrack--a ten mile detour to get from Downtown to Natomas. 

Fortunately, we have other options.

My route on Wednesday was to walk downtown and catch a bus which took me across the Interstate 5 freeway bridge to Natomas--an option which is otherwise closed to cyclists.  

Sacramento isn't a world-class transit city but it does pretty alright for a second-stringer. Being so close to the Bay Area, with its intermeshing and mostly functional transit systems, Sacramento has to provide transit options. Many of us, who spend a good portion of our time in the Bay, would demand this. Or at least, barring that, would think of Sacto as all that more of a backwater for lack of transit.   

Like many community transit systems, Sacramento Regional Transit (RT) is struggling to keep its head and budget above water. It is easy for the politicians in the Capitol or in Washington DC to cut funding for public transit--or bicycle infrastructure, for that matter. Few of their loudest constituents and probably few of them use these services. It seems that the loudest voices in the halls of transportation subcommittees would rather demand continued subsidy for multilane restricted-access highways than for these other services. 

It has been argued that transit and bike lanes are "extras" or that they serve few people for the amount of funding that they require. 

Having seen those of our community who rely on these modes the most, I would find it difficult to see them as so indispensible. Many of the riders who get on the train with me at Alkalai Flat have no other means of transport to get them to and from work. A bicycle is fine but it won't get you there when the bikeway is flooded. A bus is okay but it's healthier and cheaper to ride your bike. We need both options.