I spend the weekends in Sonoma County, and commute from Healdsburg to Sunnyvale where I work on Monday AM. I've been doing this for about 5 months, almost every Monday AM.
First leg - SCT Bus #60 Healdsburg to Santa Rosa, 5:10 AM. For 4 months this bus always had the exact same 4 people on it, a toothless biker guy, old Asian nurse lady, me, and Sam The Driver. The last 2 weeks we have 2 new riders.
Second Leg - Golden Gate Transit 72 from Santa Rosa to San Francisco, 5:48 AM. This bus is pretty nice, nice seats, lights, and an under the bus bike rack that slides out from under the bus and locks. $8.40 one way, $6.75 if you have Translink, which is a good deal given 60 miles of driving and a $5 Bridge toll. 5 months ago, when I first boarded this bus, I thought it was pretty cool that a BUS was 50% full mostly with SF Financial district workers, people working on laptops and the like. This morning there were exactly THREE seats empty. One problem - there is only room for 2 bikes, this morning for the first time there was a second biker, my commute could be in jeopardy of a bumping situation.
Third Leg - Caltrain from SF to Sunnyvale, 7:44 AM Caltrain ridership is at an alltime record as of February and continues to climb. Bike car full (32) per usual. I met my buddy and we racked our bikes. Back in the day we could find an empty 2 seat to sit together, or 2 singles near each other, in the bike car. No dice. Go to the next car. Packed. Back to the bike car to share 2 seaters across the aisle from each other with other riders.
I really think that it's ON. The GG Transit bus being that full was shocking. It is not a bus where standing room really makes any sense - what happens when the buses start being full? The problem is that the capacity problem is appearing very quickly, the solutions are very slow. Even if the transit agencies had extra rolling stock their bueracracy is brutal. But if they are short on buses or trains, the turnaround time to add more rolling stock is very long and demand could be very high.
There is something in here that addresses The Historian and Machka's retort to Roody. People will lose jobs but new jobs will be created. Someone has to make buses, trains, solar panels, windmills, etc... And those that adapt best will be ahead of the game. Roody is right. Of course Roody is smart enough to adapt, be car free and thus be ahead of his competition who does not use gasoline. But Roody is also really dumb in that he lives in Lansing Michigan where he has to figure out how to heat his abode and he is farther away from year round food supplies - the garden in Healdsburg can be rotated into crops that will feed me seasonally. Not to say that Michigan does not produce an abundance in season.
Murph - "hmm... those peaches are starting to come in already... yumm..."