The view of San Francisco, from Tiburon.

Mill Valley is now 10 years into a quiet-but-extremely effective effective revolution around bike transit. There’s no doubt that the volume of people cruising on two wheels around Mill Valley over the past many years has exploded.

The primary driver of that increase has been pretty clear: safety.

As is is evident from a stroll on Miller Avenue or the Mill Valley-Sausalito multi-use path just about any time of day, the popularity of bikes, e-bikes and cargo bikes has exploded in recent years, and looks to continue to surge for years to come. The forecast calls for the e-bike market to generate around 51.78 billion U.S. dollars in revenue by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of around eight percent between 2024 and 2029, according to Statista.

The amount of families and kids of all ages riding on Miller says it all. Safety has cascading effects, drawing visitors from other parts of the Bay Area and beyond without adding to car traffic, and allowing residents and visitors to more easily connect via bike to neighboring communities. For instance, Class IV bike lanes on Blithedale have made progress toward a protected bike route linking the Mill Valley-Sausalito Pathway with Tiburon’s Old Rail Trail in order to create a seamless connection between two of Marin’s most popular multi-use pathways. Caltrans is scheduled to repave the stretch east of 101 in 2024.

If You Make It Safe, They Will Come

According to the Marin IJ, the California Transportation Commission has allocated $7.5 million for road improvement work in Marin, and the plan includes the largest project of the bunch: a $23 million effort to improve Tiburon Boulevard with bicycle lanes and pedestrian upgrades. The project is expected to be completed in three segments beginning in January 2026 and lasting about a year.cThe project also aims to improve ride quality and support active modes of transportation such as biking, he said.

The plan calls for upgrading or replacing guardrails, road signs and drainage and electrical systems. It also includes upgrading curbside ramps to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, repaving roads and adding bike lanes. The western segment of the project, from Tower Drive in Mill Valley to Reed Ranch Road in Tiburon, includes changes to two intersections. At East Strawberry Drive, the right turn lane onto eastbound Tiburon Boulevard would be removed and the existing bus stop on Tiburon Boulevard would be relocated.

Not all are happy with these changes. According to the Marin Independent Journal this week, there’s plenty of local opposition to additional bike safety measures in Tiburon. 

But despite local opposition, bike lanes will be added to both sides of Tiburon Boulevard when the road is upgraded next year. “The bike lanes will stay,” said Matt O’Donnell, a Caltrans spokesperson. “Can there be adjustments to the bike lanes? Yes, that’s a possibility. … But, for the most part, these are tweaks.”

The Belvedere City Council approved a letter to Caltrans calling for the project be halted until the agency addresses safety concerns about adding the lanes on the busy road and their interference with school and transit bus stops.

“The pace and lack of transparency have blindsided key stakeholders and left critical concerns unresolved,” the letter said. “We also question whether early letters of support from County and State officials were based on a complete understanding of the project’s real-world impacts — and whether that support still stands in light of current agency and community objections.”

The council’s action followed letters raising similar concerns sent by the Reed Union School District, Tiburon Peninsula Traffic Alliance and Marin Transit. Tiburon has hired a consultant to examine the traffic impacts. Only WTB TAM, a cycling advocacy group, supported adding bike lanes on Tiburon Boulevard.

The yearlong, $23 million project between Highway 101 and downtown Tiburon also includes pavement repairs, drainage upgrades and improved accessibility. The project is in the final 95% design stage and will soon go out to bid. O’Donnell said the project cannot be paused because its funding has been committed and could be rescinded.

“It is late in the process. But they do plan to respond to these inquiries,” he said of the design team.

At the council meeting Monday, Belvedere officials were mystified by the state agency’s plans. They said alternative bike routes exist along quiet streets that parallel most of Tiburon Boulevard, also known as State Route 131. Where bike routes are missing, Caltrans could develop them.

“It is beyond unfortunate,” said Belvedere Mayor Jane Cooper, who tearfully recounted how a car speeding near Blackie’s Pasture killed a friend’s son. “I can’t imagine the option of mixing e-bikes, bikes and cars all next to each other.”

“These buses are 40-feet long and it’s already hard for the buses to pull over into bus stops,” Vice Mayor Sally Wilkinson said. “It seems something that is shockingly unsafe.”

The city’s letter cited “safety hazards” from “unprotected lanes” adjacent to car “traffic traveling at speeds regularly exceeding 50 mph”; “severe impacts” forcing school and public transit buses to “skip stops entirely”; two planned intersections that “would worsen congestion”; and “the removal of hard shoulders” that would interfere with “drivers’ ability to yield to emergency vehicles.”

“I don’t understand when you have a pretty good road on Greenwood Cove Road, which is a 25 mph road, that you would advocate to put bike lanes on a major highway with speeds of 45 to 50 mph for cars,” Wilkinson said.

“The proposed bike lanes between Blackfield Drive and Trestle Glen Boulevard as designed both imperil bus transportation for a number of our students and potentially encourage young students to bike along a busy transit corridor when a safer route is currently available to all bikes along Greenwood Beach Road,” Reed Union superintendent Kimberly McGrath wrote in her letter to Caltrans.

“According to our bus provider, First Student, the current Caltrans design would require our 40-foot school buses to cross or obstruct bike lanes, something they will not permit due to safety regulations,” wrote Bob McCaskill, chair of the Tiburon Peninsula Traffic Alliance. The service has five bus routes and 32 stops in the corridor.

The city’s letter said it had not heard from Caltrans about the project since last spring. However, correspondence from 2023 between Caltrans and county supervisors, state legislators, cycling advocates and the Greenwood Beach Road Homeowners Association supported adding the bike lanes to Tiburon Boulevard and not local streets.

“Walkers on Greenwood Beach Road are in special danger,” the neighborhood association wrote. “Bicyclists who utilize the new Class IV bikeways on Tiburon Boulevard will no longer have to navigate around pedestrians, ride in traffic, watch for vehicles using driveways on Greenwood Beach Road, or compete with cars and walkers for a safe travel way.”

Class IV bikeways would be added along Tiburon Boulevard from approximately 1,000 feet west of the freeway to Trestle Glen Boulevard. A class I bikeway at East Strawberry Drive to Greenwood Cove Drive is also planned. The central section of the project, spanning from Reed Ranch Road to San Rafael Avenue, includes adding a class IV bike lane from Reed Ranch Road to Trestle Glen Boulevard. The Avenida Miraflores and Tiburon Boulevard intersection would be altered to remove the right turn lane from westbound Tiburon Boulevard onto northbound Avenida Miraflores.

The eastern section, from San Rafael Avenue to the intersection of Tiburon Boulevard and Main Street, includes a curb extension at the Mar West Street intersection. It also would add yield lines to the Ned’s Way and Tiburon Boulevard intersection.

Needless to say, the trajectory for the local and regional bike network is laden with possibility. And lucky for local bike lovers – Tam Bikes remains the local stalwart and we’ve seen Pacos Bikes at 31 Miller Ave. take over the space formerly occupied by Studio Velo, and Epicenter Cycling move into 18 Miller Ave., (formerly Wells Fargo).

But there appears more to be excited about beyond increased usage and more safety measures for cyclists.

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