Will the SURF! busway help reduce congestion? Only time will tell, if it gets built.

David Schmalz here. For this week’s cover story, I wrote about Monterey-Salinas Transit’s SURF! project, a complicated topic I felt merited further exploration, and more real estate on the page to explain. 

SURF!—a five-mile busway that, if built, would pave over the rail tracks from Marina to Sand City—was approved by the California Coastal Commission Sept. 12 at its monthly meeting, which happened to be in Monterey. 

I’ve been reporting on SURF! since 2021, and have seen the project’s prospects rise, fall and then rise again. In the story, I tried to explore what I felt were the most salient points of contention, the main one being: Is it worth spending $90-plus million on a busway that might shave off a few minutes of commute time for a small number of people? 

My first thoughts when I read about the project three-plus years ago, after I returned to the Weekly after a two-year absence, was that the project seemed laudable, something to celebrate. And ultimately, that might prove to be true—it will truly take time to tell, assuming it does in fact get built. 

Theoretically, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce commute times for those who don’t own cars or can’t drive, and will perhaps induce people to get out of their cars and take the bus instead. 

But I had to see it for myself, so I rode the bus out of the Salinas Transit Center on a Thursday morning, during rush hour, to understand what it’s like to ride the route the project would serve. 

How did that go? You can read the story to find out.