Highway 101 splits Santa Rosa in half from north to south, and Highway 12 splits Santa Rosa in half from east to west. It is the county seat of Sonoma County, and is surrounded by agricultural land uses. The town of Sonoma is located about 20 miles southeast of Santa Rosa. As part of my exploration of the North Bay area during the Week Without Driving, I decided to see how people who don’t drive get to destinations along the Highway 12 corridor, which is served by Sonoma County Transit’s #30 bus.
The 30 stops a half block from my house, so the lack of a bus bench at that stop was not a deterrent as long as I got to the bus stop promptly. The line runs at intervals ranging from 45 to 90 minutes so good timing is essential. (Note to the guerrilla bus bench movement: Montgomery Drive in Santa Rosa could use some benches!) The bus stop is shared by Santa Rosa City Bus and Sonoma County Transit, and I had a moment of confusion when I didn’t notice the County Transit sign on the bus stop pole, but I figured it out and boarded the fairly crowded bus at around 3:10 pm on Thursday October 2. Half the other riders were sleeping; they looked like agricultural or construction workers who had probably started a shift at 6 am. Most of the people who boarded the bus paid with cash or used a transfer rather than a Clipper card or other electronic payment.
When we stopped across from the Rincon Valley Safeway, a passenger boarded with four bags of groceries. The kind bus driver allowed him to bring his groceries on board, but reminded him that passengers are only allowed to bring one bag onto the bus. We proceeded along Highway 12 with beautiful views of misty clouds over vineyards, detouring into a series of neighborhoods in Oakmont, a senior community of about 4,500 residents. I expected that the bus would pick up or drop off housekeepers and caregivers in Oakmont, but we only stopped to let off one active senior and his bicycle…