Public Comment
Marin-Sonoma Coordinated Transit Service Plan
(MASCOTS)
The Marin-Sonoma Coordinated Transit Service
Plan (MASCOTS) is a collaborative project between
MTC and nine tran...
Some of the changes:
1. Greatest impact on Cotati residents-- No Golden Gate Transit Services are stopping in Cotati as of this week. Cotati previously had hourly service both ways on Route 101 to San Francisco. GGT is still running some commute buses to S.F., but they only stop at the R.P.
Expressway bus pad. Route 101 was a good local service to Cotati riders from the Cotati Hub, making it easy to get to Petaluma, Rohnert Park, or Santa Rosa, even though it was more expensive. That no longer exists. The bus stop on West Sierra Avenue near Water Rd. will have no buses going to that stop as it was previously GGT only. The GGT/SCT stop in front of Walgreens/Cotati Hotel will only have one bus a day arriving there...no GGT, just 1 SCT route 26.
2. Sonoma County Transit Route 44/48 mostly bypasses the Cotati Hub that goes to Petaluma or Santa Rosa. Buses are generally 2-3 hours apart to the Hub and 3-4 hours on the weekends. They also bypass all the stops on Old Redwood Hwy with their new route, only serving the hub (going to Adrian Dr. in R.P. instead). This means that there is no bus service near Walgreens or the Cotati Hotel area. This will affect people around the north end of Old Redwood Highway, as they will need to walk to the hub to catch a bus that comes every couple of hours only.
3. They didn't coordinate local route 10 well with the SMART train. It is still one way to the train station from the Cotati Hub to SSU. There is not a way back from the SMART train depot and SSU to the Cotati Hub and service ends at 6 p.m. No Sunday service is available for route 10. SCT route 44/48 comes every few hours on Sunday, so there will be little opportunity to take the SMART train via the hub on Sunday or to get to SSU, i.e. for Green Center events at SSU.
4. There is one bus that will service the 116/Alder Avenue area/behind Lowe's where the Cotati Village I, Cotati Village II, and Redwood Row housing developments are supposedly coming in. I literally mean one bus. One in the a.m. eastbound from Guerneville and one p.m. westbound on Route 26. The new developments will be in a transit desert. Already, the local routes do not go between Lowe's to/from even Rohnert Park.
5. For 30 years, Cotati's residents on the west of the freeway area have asked for a bus route to connect to the 101 corridor transit. Now, the west side residents will have to walk/drive to the SMART train depot which is over a mile from us.
I urge the council, the MTC, and regional transit partners to work to rectify quickly how this will affect Cotati and its economic status as well as its climate ready goals. I am attaching the pdfs of the new SCT routes that serve Cotati/Rohnert Park as of this week.
Sincerely,
Laurie Alderman, resident of Cotati.