If I had a dime for every time I got an email from some marketing company offering to sponsor a post, I'd have a lot of dimes. But when Vine & Venture Communications, which promotes, among other things, car-free tourism in Windsor, CA, offered to pay for a two-night séjour in Sonoma wine country, I couldn't pass it up.
After all, a trip to Windsor to check out the latest SMART train extension was already on my list of things I'd like to do, time permitting. So last week I packed my panniers and got on the Larkspur ferry from San Francisco for my train to Windsor. Two relaxing hours later I arrived.
The Windsor extension of the SMART train opened in the spring of this year. The residents in that town of 26,000 are still noticeably excited about it. Hang out in any of the cafes and restaurants in town, and you'll overhear some version of "Did you take the train here? Isn't it better than driving!" For some time, the town has been planning for it: with an entire mixed-use development ready and waiting right across from the station.
And SMART, as well as the city of Windsor, are making a concerted effort to solve last-mile problems by being as bike-friendly as possible. There are bike racks on each train car on SMART, secure bike lockers and racks at the stations, and bike racks throughout the town.
"People come off the train with flat tires and we're the first business they see," said Noah Casabella, a mechanic in "The Bike Shop," a local, uh, bike shop. He said they've been backed up for weeks since the new station opened.
On my first day there, I met up with Eris Weaver with the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition. She took me on a 3.5-mile ride (each way) from the Windsor Station to Airport Boulevard on the SMART train bike path, which parallels the tracks. Along the way, she talked about the lobbying that her organization had to do to get these sections built. She pointed out the bike counters she helped get installed.
"Much to everyone's surprise, there are as many cyclists using the path as riders on the SMART train," she said. Of course, some of that is overlap (cyclists who are on their way to ride the SMART train), but it underscores the importance of gathering data to convince sometimes skeptical bureaucrats that people will bike (and take the train) when safe, comfortable paths exist. Unfortunately, the path ends at the SMART storage yard, meaning there's still work to do going south. The same goes for the bike path/road intersections, which are confusing and, sorry to say it, couldn't have been designed by anyone who actually rides a bike.
That said, the path really is incredibly useful. The next day, I repeated some of that journey with Frieda Lewis of Ace It Bike Tours, which is also right near the SMART Windsor station. Lewis gives e-bike tours of the town, nearby vineyards, and the new Russian River Brewery. She said the train has been great for business.
By the way, Russian River Brewery is one of the few places in the Bay Area that makes or sells Bière de Garde, my favorite style of beer. They only sell it at their brewery locations, so I had a glass with lunch in their restaurant and yum! Not only is the food and beer great, but the dining room comes with a view of the SMART train tracks.
As mentioned, the enthusiasm for the new train was everywhere in Windsor. Back at the station, I noticed one of the real estate offices was also boasting about the proximity of their properties to the new service. "For sure, proximity to the train is very desirable," said Nadine Reyes, one of the owners of Aspira Realty, located next to the station. "The exposure it's giving Windsor is phenomenal."
This actually speaks volumes to the sophistry often bandied about that "trains don't make profits, therefore they aren't worth investing in." That's nonsense. They make "profit," but from the adjoining real estate and merchant economy that they generate. Most railroads of old in California were actually part of real estate businesses, not transportation per se.
That said, sometimes one has to get farther away from the station. The last tour I did was of Limerick Lane Wine Cellars, about a ten-minute drive from the station. Yes, I said drive. I took a Lyft for that part of my tour. It wasn't the distance. It was that I just didn't feel secure biking solo up the fast-moving country roads outside of town on my own.
I'm glad I did, because the Lyft was bumping all over the place on the craggy pavement and there was no shoulder for most of the ride. My lightweight bike with road tires wouldn't have taken that well. Ace It Bike Tours uses sturdier e-bikes that are more up to the task. I'm glad I took the trip to the winery though: Andy Tester of Limerick was amazing and, even though I'm no wine guy, I was blown away by his knowledge and enthusiasm. And he confirmed he does get bike tours in his tasting room—more since the SMART train opened.
That actually speaks to where Sonoma County needs to do more work on bike facilities—the lack of east-west connections to the SMART station and paths is a big problem. As soon as I tried to bike perpendicularly to the tracks, away from the Windsor town center, things got squirrelly. For example, my hotel, while friendly, comfortable, and nice, was on the far side of 101, along with a car-centric shopping center and office park. So while it's seven quick minutes by bike from the hotel to Windsor station, the last part of the ride is sketchy where one has to bike through Caltrans-controlled territory. I biked on the empty sidewalk through there because I don't have a death wish.
There are a few "safety" features, such as a green-paint bike lane wedged between a concrete wall and speeding traffic (see below) but it's obvious this was all designed by the kind of state officials described in Wes Marshall's Killed by a Traffic Engineer.
There's also a slightly raised crosswalk with flashing beacons across one of the many ramps and merges, as seen in the picture below. But since uncontrolled left turns are still permitted and this is across a ramp engineered to encourage speeding, this is still nowhere near safe enough for people of all ages and abilities to bike or walk on.
Ultimately, there should be a separated bike and pedestrian link that doesn't cross the ramps at all. There's a nearby creek/flood channel that goes under the freeway and ramp complex (see pic below), so I'm sure some clever engineer could design a path alongside it to keep cyclists and pedestrians truly safe from all the 101 traffic.
Ironically, I discovered a wonderfully pleasant mixed-use trail on the other side of the hotel that connects to a cultural center and a residential neighborhood (it doesn't take you nearer to the station, unfortunately). It appeared to run along that same channel that later goes under the freeway, but the path ends before it gets there.
There are also some easement areas, currently fenced off, that could allow cyclists to avoid some of the more heavily trafficked feeder roads between the hotel and train station. I followed some wheel ruts (a desire path) behind an office building when going between downtown and the hotel, which was a little more direct and lower stress. Relocate the fence and lay down some asphalt along that route for starters.
Back to the SMART train, there's also the issue of the operating hours. SMART was conceived as a commuter train. But it's actually turned out to also be a great way (at least in theory) to get to Windsor's many entertainment offerings, such as "Summer Nights on the Green," a concert series in the town's central park a block from the station.
But Lisa Ahrens, owner of Mutt Lynch Winery, a dog-friendly, bike friendly, train friendly shop adjacent to all this, pointed out the elephant in the room: the last train going south on weekends and holidays leaves at 6:06 p.m and the latest weekday train is at 7:05 p.m. "How is that supposed to work when people who take the train up can't even stay for dinner?" asked Ahrens. So my recommendation for now: if you're going to come up by train, stay at least one night so you can enjoy all that Windsor has to offer.
Obviously, this is all a work in progress. SMART is still under construction going north, with the Healdsburg station set to open in 2028. In the meantime, the people of Windsor have done a great job making their town work with the train.
Several of the merchants I met, in fact, asked me to get them in touch with the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition so they can get more involved. And I have no doubt they will continue advocating with their county and city leaders to extend SMART's hours and get those east-west bike routes improved. There's still work to do, but the town is off to a great start in making a leave-your-car-at-home holiday possible. It should only get better from here.
Click here to learn more about SMART travel packages. Special thanks to the hospitality of the city and all the merchants of Windsor, including Barrel Brothers, Fruity Moto, SoCo Reflexology, and many others.
