Bold bike experiment
Pilot project will test feasibility of using bicycles to reduce traffic
By Bill Meagher and Peter Seidman
Pacific Sun, April 7, 2006
Late last month the Marin County Board of Supervisors gave the OK for Marin to participate in a landmark transportation experiment, one that could affect the entire country.
The Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program, which has been included in the current federal transportation bill, includes funds for bicycle and pedestrian projects in Marin and three other communities: Columbia, Missouri; Minneapolis-St. Paul; and Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. Each community will receive $25 million for bike and pedestrian projects.
The disbursement of federal dollars for transportation projects is nothing particularly special. But this pilot program is intended to do much more than simply fund individual bike and pedestrian projects. “We have a unique opportunity to really make a difference,” says Patrick Seidler, head of Transportation Alternatives for Marin. The pilot program is aimed at creating viable bike and pedestrian trails and road routes that will enable people to use their legs instead of their cars. Each community will have four years to use the federal money to create its own practical alternative transportation projects. “It’s not only about transportation,” says Seidler. “It’s about the environment; it’s about energy independence and getting away from foreign oil; it’s about homeland security; it’s about getting kids safely to school.”
In addition to his association with Transportation Alternatives for Marin, Seidler is president of the Wilderness Trail Bikes company. He was a driving force behind creating the pilot program. “We based an office in southern Holland for seven years to study the Dutch [transportation] model.” Seidler took his observations and, along with Deb Hubsmith of the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, enlisted the support of Marin Supervisors John Kress and Steve Kinsey. Kress has since left office, but Kinsey continues to support the bike and pedestrian vision that Seidler brought back from Holland, where bike transportation is part of everyday life. Seidler and Hubsmith also enlisted the support of Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey and Senator Barbara Boxer. They all got the attention of Congressman James Oberstar (D-Minnesota), who has a strong interest in alternative transportation and a little bit of clout: He’s the senior Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. In 2005, legislation passed through Congress that cut loose the federal transportation dollars that will fund the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program.
Kress and Supervisor Charles McGlashan are representing the county on the project at this point, along with the county Department of Public Works. One of the first tasks will be to hire an administrator to help plan and guide spending for the pilot program. The county expects to spend about $117,000 annually for that position. It’s a job that will come with a heavy call for detail work, says Kinsey. Planning and constructing bike and pedestrian paths in Marin often means dealing with stringent environmental regulations, not to mention the equally sensitive responsibility of laying out new routes through and between towns. An advisory committee will form in the next few months to make recommendations to the Department of Public Works about which projects should be included in the program. The department will then make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors. Each city and town in Marin, as well as the county, already has bike and pedestrian master plans, compiled to qualify for state and federal funds. The recommendations in those plans will serve as a starting point in creating the new pilot program, which will result in far more than additional bike routes and pedestrian crossings.
Bike routes in Marin are laid out along old railroad rights of way running north to south along Highway 101 and also east to west. Most of the news about bike routes concerns the north-south route because the proposed SMART rail project includes a bike route along the train right of way. But equally important, yet much less discussed, are the critical east-west routes from Fairfax to San Rafael, from Novato to the freeway corridor, from Larkspur and Mill Valley. To create a viable transportation alternative, any plan must include ways to improve those east-west routes between towns.
Seidler says “it’s incumbent” on Marin cities and the county to eventually improve all alternative-transportation routes: primary, secondary and tertiary. Kress thinks of it like a nervous system in a skeleton, with the northsouth primary route as the spine. Others think of the system in terms of veins and arteries. Either way, it means a viable program needs more than just one or two main routes. “We’re looking at the whole thing,” says Seidler. “The county is keenly aware of that need, but the only way we are going to get a true mode shift is by having a complete primary system and then build a secondary and a tertiary system. In addition, there are other things we need to do. What I call low-hanging fruit. We need signage, striping, signalization and probably most importantly: bicycle parking.” Based on his observations abroad in areas where bike transportation is common, Seidler says adequate bike parking is a necessity for a fully functioning alternative transportation system.
The pilot program aims to fashion a comprehensive alternative transportation model that will yield measurable results. Traffic counts during the program will determine its effectiveness.
No one expects Marinites will change their travel habits to match those in Holland, where about 45 percent of all trips are on bike or on foot. But, says Hubsmith, even a small change can make a big difference in traffic and the environment. “You don’t need to use your bike for all trips [or for commuting] to make a dent in relieving traffic congestion.” Forty percent of all trips in the United States are two miles or less says Hubsmith, who adds that it’s a realistic goal to “provide a complete network” so people can get to school, to the store, to the post office without using their cars. In Marin about 11 percent of trips are on bike or on foot. The county’s Transportation Vision Plan, says Hubsmith, envisions 20 percent of all trips on bike or on foot.
“We think that’s doable,” says Hubsmith. “The Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program has created an experiment, a living laboratory, in Marin County and the three other communities to test how investment in walking and biking can shift [transportation patterns].”
As with any experiment, the answers are far from clear at the outset. To begin with, the north-south bike route is tied to the SMART rail plan, which has attracted its fair share of critics who object to its cost. They also say rail isn’t the answer for efficiently carrying large numbers of passengers between Sonoma and Marin counties. Supporters of the north-south bike route obviously have a big stake in the outcome of a possible ballot measure to raise funds for the train system. And opening the Cal Park Hill tunnel to bike traffic has generated some controversy. That project is connected in part to the SMART project, which includes trains running through the tunnel. With the addition of bike and pedestrian access in the tunnel, it would be a fairly easy trip to San Rafael and Larkspur. Some criticism has been raised over the $17-million price tag for the tunnel project, but it’s on the books and at least for now is scheduled for completion in December 2008.
Many other bike-route projects also are on the front burner, including an underpass on Lincoln Avenue planned as part of a connecting route between downtown San Rafael and the Civic Center area. The grand idea envisions bike travel from one end of the county to the other, north to south, on relatively flat ground, except for the hill at the Civic Center. While it may seem incongruous to envision a flat north-south route in Marin, Seidler points out that the route already has been created on a relatively level playing field because it follows the old train tracks and the tunnels the old trains went through. Seidler says the route actually is flatter than southern Holland where he studied bike use.
Kinsey says Marin’s participation in the pilot program could have far-reaching consequences. There’s a lot at stake. “The goal we have is to be successful and set a national example, so that five years from now when Congress passes a bill the entire nation will be able to have access to funds to make these kinds of improvements.”
Hubsmith says about $100 million in alternative transportation improvements have been identified in Marin. She and others, including the county Department of Public Works, believe Marin can leverage the $25 million in federal money allocated for the pilot program to come close to meeting that $100-million need. Kinsey concurs. He thinks the cities and the county could add three or four times to the value of the initial federal money.
Seidler calls the pilot program “the Holy Grail of projects” because it “encompasses so many elements that can benefit the community.”
Contact the writers at meagher_seidman@yahoo.com
