Mill Valley School District Kicks Off 2016-17 Year Wednesday – City Urges You to Plan Ahead

You may have noticed an unbelievable amount of infrastructure-related construction happening in Mill Valley this summer. As you can imagine, that’s on purpose, as the City of Mill Valley and seemingly every utility with pipes in town sought to get their work done while school was out and the impact would be reduced.

But with the Mill Valley School District‘s six schools kicking off the 2016-17 school year on Wednesday, August 24 – Tam High students went back to school last week – City officials are urging parents and students to plan ahead for what will likely be a more complicated school commute. Here’s a note from the City:

“The Mill Valley City Council has identified reducing traffic congestion as a priority and has taken measures to improve circulation in the community. These include supporting the Yellow School Bus Pilot Project, the work of the Traffic and Congestion Reduction Advisory Task Force, working with the Mill Valley School District to adjust bell times, and several other changes to reduce traffic congestion. 

With the start of school … and a number of ongoing road and utility infrastructure improvement projects in town, we would like to encourage community members to anticipate and plan ahead for the increase in traffic starting mid-to-late August. We also would like to remind commuters of important safety tips, as well as to inform you of the ongoing work by the City to reduce congestion. What you can do: 

Plan ahead to help lessen congestion:

• Take the bus or ferry:
  • Parents of the following schools – Edna Maguire, Mill Valley Middle School, Strawberry Point – Click here to Sign up for the Yellow School Bus Program.
  • Adult commuters – Click here for Marin Transit Schedules 
• Bike or walk:
  • Parents – Contact the Safe Route to School Champion at your school to learn about specific bike and walking programs. Click here to learn more.
  • For everyone – Click here for the Marin County Bicycle Coalition map of bike routes. 
• Carpool or rideshare:
  • Adult commuters – Click here for carpooling or ridesharing.
  • Parents – Click here for SchoolPool

If you must drive:

• Avoid peak times:
  • 8:00-8:30 am weekdays – directly correlated with school start times.
  • 3:30-4:00 pm weekdays – correlated with after-school pick up and travel to after-school activities.
• Lessen trips by linking several errands into one outing to reduce the number of times you need to leave home.
• Request that any service providers who come to your residence (contractors, housekeepers, gardeners, nannies, etc) also carpool and avoid traveling at peak times.

The City provided a slew of additional info and links. MORE INFO HERE.