Mayor flummoxed by commute challenge

Early last week, Mayor Joanne Sanders, a passionate spokesperson for emissions reductions and sustainability in Sonoma, decided to test local transit by taking the bus to a meeting in Rohnert Park. Starting from Sonoma City Hall, her journey would take (according to Google Maps) about 35 minutes by car. By bus, she told the city council at the July 2 meeting, she couldn’t get there at all.
“I think three different clerks from three different municipalities tried to work on the problem,” Sanders said, citing difficulties not only with the timing and the number of buses but also with simply reading the schedules. “But we couldn’t get to the bottom of it.” She said the failure was no reflection on the staffers who tried to help.
“If somebody with the determination that I have, as an elected official, to use a service that I feel I’m responsible for – because a significant amount of your tax dollars are going to fund this public transit – I think it’s important that I be able to use it,” Sanders said. “But so far, it’s a non-starter.”
There is no direct bus service from Sonoma to Rohnert Park. According to the 2008 schedule for bus service between Santa Rosa and Sonoma, a commuter can take the 6:30 a.m. express from the Sonoma Plaza and arrive at the county administrative offices at 7:43 a.m. From there, it appears, the commuter is stuck, as there is no apparent service from Santa Rosa to Rohnert Park, either.
The other side of the problem, Sanders said, perhaps related to the difficult scheduling, is that there are buses on the road, using up fuel, spilling emissions into the air, and practically empty of passengers. “I plan to stay on this,” she said.
Vice-Mayor Ken Brown commented that he used drive a non-profit bus called the Caravan, that had a route that ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and cost a quarter. “You paid it and if not, that was okay too,” he said. “We’re working diligently to bring that back.”