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Safe Routes to Schools officials lead a group bike ride along Miller Ave at the City of Mill Valley’s Millerfest event in November 2017. Courtesy image.
But after what was a long slog for City officials, a major impact for businesses and an inconvenience for the community, Miller Avenue is a significantly more vibrant street and much safer for all of its users with continuous bike lanes, improved sidewalks, enhanced crosswalks, and new pavement, storm drains, sewer pipes and much more – all while retaining and even enhancing Miller Avenue’s distinct character.
With that in mind, and in the interest of using an increasingly vibrant, safer Miller Ave. to more deeply connect downtown and Miller-area shops and restaurants to both local residents and visitors, the Mill Valley Chamber sought to install a pair of wayfinding signs along the 3.8-mile Mill Valley-Sausalito Multiuse Path. With gracious support and coordination from the folks at Marin County Parks and the City of Mill Valley, two new signs direct both northbound and southbound path users from the three-year-old roundabout at Sycamore Ave. to “Miller Ave., Downtown Shops & Restaurants.”
The Chamber chose the location based on the proximity to bike- and pedestrian-friendly Miller and Sycamore avenues, as well as the massive, year-round popularity of the path. Stretching from Mike’s Bikes in Sausalito north to East Blithedale Ave. in Mill Valley with views of Bothin Marsh Preserve and Richardson Bay in between, the path was built 35 years ago and a portion of it was resurfaced in 2017. Since its debut in 1981, it has become one of the most popular paths in the entire Bay Area, with more than a half-million people using it between March and November each year, according to annual WalkBikeMarin Path Counts.
The new signs are in addition to a wayfinding sign installed earlier this year, with gracious support and coordination by the City of Mill Valley, that further connects the downtown to the Miller corridor. That sign, pictured below, is located at Throckmorton Ave. and Bernard Street – outside Vasco restaurant. More wayfinding efforts are on the way.
