CA: Start the Presses: Bikes, busses and the politics of transportation

Last Friday, I had the honor of moderating a keynote conversation with Assemblymember Lori Wilson at Napa Valley College, part of the Move Bay Area North Bay Summit. It was a gathering of local elected officials, transit leaders, environmental advocates, students and community members — all united by a single goal: to imagine a better-connected, healthier, and more climate-resilient North Bay.

It was also a reminder that while transportation often feels like a slow-moving machine — congested, bureaucratic, decades behind the needs of the people — it’s also full of people working incredibly hard to change that reality.

Wilson, who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee, walked into the Student Activities Center to polite applause. By the time she left, the Suisun City Democrat had earned more than that: admiration, some chuckles, and several nods of agreement from an audience that doesn’t always feel seen by Sacramento.

Our larger neighbors to the south and west often think of the North Bay as mostly rural and affluent — but if you were at the summit, you saw something else: a region grappling with real transportation inequities, existential climate threats, and the need for bold, area-specific solutions.

Wilson is the first Black woman to chair the Assembly Transportation Committee, a milestone she carries with quiet resolve and evident purpose. She spoke about her upbringing, about how taking the bus as a child and young adult in Fresno shaped her thinking about mobility not as a privilege, but as a necessity. And she spoke with particular clarity on the intersection of climate, health and public transit. I’m paraphrasing here, what she essentially told me and the audience was that you really can’t talk about one without the other, and that we can’t achieve our climate goals without giving people real, reliable alternatives to driving alone.

That sounds simple, but it's a radical reframe for much of the North Bay, where car culture still reigns and the alternatives — buses, bikes, even the SMART train — are often fragmented or underfunded. (Dreams of commuter rail in Napa County remain just that.) And then there’s how people feel about transit and riding on it.

One of her priorities, AB 394, focuses on safety — both for transit operators and for riders. It's not a glamorous topic, but it’s essential. She told us that driver assaults and rider safety concerns are among the top reasons people hesitate to use transit. Creating a safe, dignified experience for all users isn’t just about security — it’s an acknowledgement, in her words, that transit is a shared, public space. People have to act appropriately for everyone’s benefit — or face being banned from benefiting from it themselves.

I asked her about State Route 37 — perhaps the most infamous stretch of asphalt in the North Bay, prone to flooding, traffic jams and planning gridlock. Wilson didn’t duck the challenge. Her AB 697 is a nod to the complexity of the project: a bill that helps secure the necessary environmental authorizations while acknowledging that building on wetlands requires painful tradeoffs. She talked about wanting a phased approach — one that may take a bit longer and cost a bit more — but one that will actually happen.

Directly before our talk, Napa Chamber of Commerce President Jeri Hansen moderated a panel of local transportation leaders who dove into the nitty-gritty of solutions — ideas like hop-on-hop-off buses for rural areas, buffered bike lanes in Napa, and how electrifying the SMART train could be a game-changer. There were discussions about regional collaboration, like the MASCOTS plan to coordinate transit across Marin and Sonoma counties.

There was real excitement, especially when Kara Vernor of the Napa County Bicycle Coalition described how e-bikes could get people to rethink car trips — and how young people are leading the shift.

But there was also a clear message: this is hard work. Electrifying buses sounds great until you hit range limitations. Funding new infrastructure means navigating environmental regulations, public skepticism, and razor-thin budgets. Getting people to choose bikes or buses over cars requires more than good intentions — it takes safety, reliability, and infrastructure built for humans, not just vehicles.

Still, if there was one takeaway from the summit, it was this: people in the North Bay are ready to have this conversation. Not just in abstract terms, but in concrete, community-centered ways. Attendees asked thoughtful questions. Transit advocates spoke honestly about gaps. Leaders like Wilson are willing to listen — and to lead.

I left Napa Valley College feeling more optimistic than I expected. Not because we have all the answers, but because events like this remind us that change happens when people from different walks of life sit down, ask tough questions, and begin to imagine something better — together.

We often say that transportation is about movement. But it’s also about connection. Wilson reminded us that the real question isn’t just how we move, but who gets to move and who gets left behind.

If we can keep that question front and center, maybe the next time we gather like this, we’ll be talking about the changes we’ve already made — not just the ones we hope for.

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