Bike pilot program a big opportunity for Marin
Dick Spotswood
Marin IJ, January 28, 2007
WITH THE PROSPECT of significant North Bay transportation improvements looking like a pipe dream, a series of Marin micro projects is on the verge of making the most basic form of mobility, walking and bicycling, much more convenient.
Thanks to a bit of Washington lobbying mixed with a dose of idealism, Marin is the site of one of four national nonmotorized transportation pilot projects. Each will test the hypothesis that significant improvements to paths, roadways and sidewalks will incrementally encourage motorists to forsake their cars and instead walk or bike to schools, jobs or shops. The concept is one of many initiatives that potentially will facilitate an environmentally sound and healthy trek toward energy independence.
Marin's involvement came about when bicyclist activists Debbie Hubsmith and Patrick Seidler, along with their political mentors, Supervisor Steve Kinsey and now-retired supervisor John Kress, became aware that major federal funding was coming down the pike for a pilot program to promote walking and cycling.
Four localities were selected for the experiment, each representing very different sample communities. Marin is the typical suburb. Minneapolis is the urban experiment.
Sheboygan County, Mich., presents a rural setting. Columbia, Mo., the home of the University of Missouri, is a bike-oriented college town.
The four sites each will receive $25 million and each will self select a series of small-scale projects to facilitate nonmotorized transportation. After two years, the results will be tested for effectiveness by the University of Minnesota. Spokane, Wash., has the dubious distinction of being the control site where no projects will be implemented. The effort will then be to compare mobility habits in the four regions with those in Spokane.
Marin's Public Works Department, working in conjunction with our nationally acclaimed Safe Routes to School movement is assembling possible projects. The list will be finalized and submitted to the Board of Supervisors in April. Construction should start by summer.
Some of the proposed improvements are as basic as linking segments of existing bikeways in Larkspur, repairing historic hillside steps and lanes that effectively provide pedestrian access within Southern and Central Marin, making sidewalk improvements in the Ross Valley and expanding the Bay Trail by creating a multiuse path along Highway 37 linking Southern Novato with Black Point.
One of the more impressive potential projects builds a retractable bridge linking San Rafael's teaming Canal neighborhood with schools, jobs and shops north of the narrow stretch of water that's the San Rafael Canal. The bridge would run over the canal from a city-owned site at Harbor and Canal streets on the south to an area across from San Rafael High. An innovative design allows a low-rise span that keeps navigation open while simultaneously encouraging pedestrian traffic helping end the Canal area's isolation.
If the pedestrian-bicycle theory works and significant numbers are redirected from dependency on the single passenger auto, Marin will have the distinction of being a national leader in the revival of small-scale transportation. At the very least, Marin ends up with some nice infrastructure improvements courtesy of Uncle Sam.
