It's no secret that public transportation hereabouts is something of a joke.  Instead of a valid, reliable transit system from Sacramento Regional Transit, we have:

• bus service that feeds light rail (instead of express buses to key destinations like we used to have)
• light rail on the other side of bottlenecks (resulting in delays due to mode shifts and additional distance)
• light rail that's oriented for commuters to downtown Sacramento (and, perhaps, Old Town Folsom), despite the existence of many other significant placess in the region (e.g. Roseville, eastern Folsom, El Dorado Hills, Rancho Cordova, Sac State, ARC)
• 1/2 hour to 1 hour headways (time between buses)
• many "you can't get there from here" origin/destination conflicts (i.e. non-systemic)
• no transit to/from the airport, difficult transit to Amtrak
• inhospitable bus stops, and
• on and on

Look, we get it. Transit funding from the feds and the state is hard to get these days. We acknowlege and appreciate that the region's bus drivers, LRT operators, mechanics and other staff work hard to serve us. Yet at the same time, we are fully aware that our community has no voice on the RT Board of Directors. The current board has 3 elected officials from Sacramento County (no one from our area), 3 from the City of Sacramento, 2 from the City of Elk Grove and 1 each from the cities of Folsom, Rancho Cordova and Citrus Heights. With nobody on the RT Board representing our community, is it any wonder we have such dysfunctional transit service?

For an example of RT's blissful ignorance of our community, look no farther than RT's recent summary of its accomplishments in 2025. Among other things, the report says RT is trying a pilot program for a better form of the SmaRT Ride on-demand microtransit service. Seeking to provide most cost-effective service is laudable. RT's experiment involves working with a contractor to have non-ambulatory customers get pick up and drop off service in specially-equipped mini vans. Called Sac RT/Flex, the program provides rides for $2.50/passenger - limited to seniors, persons with disabilities, low-income individuals, and minors aged 13–17 in low-income households. Each car has room for 1 wheelchair. The service is provided from 7am to 7pm on weekdays, excludinig most holidays. There are 9 zones in the service area. The vehicles must be operated within the service area and cannot cross into another zone.

One of the zones (see below) is "Arden Carmichael", a zone primarily east of Watt except for a tiny part west of Watt that extends along Arden to Safeway, Dave's Hot Chicken, Chipotle, or Dutch Brothers and up Morse to Kaiser hospital. Why does that matter? Because much of the territory west of Watt is unincorporated and has been formally designated by the County as the West Arden Arcade Environmental Justice Area, in fulfillment of requirements of state law. Environmental Justice (EJ) is about addressing the needs of disadvantaged communities that have disproportionately carried the burden of environmental pollution. RT's avoidance of the disasdvantaged population within the EJ area west of Watt flies in the face of the county's EJ policies. Wouldn't you think a pilot program aimed at better mobility for low-income individuals would try to learn how the program might work in an EJ community? Instead of emphasizing the 95864 zip code east of Watt, home to a concentration of the county's most expensive residences? The failure to seek answers for the EJ community west of Watt in zip codes 95821 and 95825 kind of makes sense, though, when you realize that none of the RT Board of Directors represents West Arden Arcade. Why should they care, right?

On the plus side, for just $5 a homeless camper on Butano who panhandles at Watt and El Camino could use the new SacRT/Flex service for a ride to and from BevMo.

In closing, though, we want to try to say something nice about RT. In 2025 RT significantly remodeled the Watt Avenue light rail station. Some RT users rely on that station for their mobility needs. It is great that they will be getting better service now.