Our Work Calling for a Better Bridgeway

Update, 12/13/18: We presented the Council with our letter and 215 of your signatures and comments and were told that the item will move forward for further discussion in early 2019. Thanks for supporting this effort. Sign up for project updates in the form embedded below.

Marin’s busiest bicycling corridor is long overdue for safety improvements. MCBC is teaming up with passionate Sausalito residents to call for fixes to Bridgeway, starting with new bike lanes south of downtown.

Sausalito’s streets and pathways have not evolved to meet the needs of residents, commuters, and visitors alike, hundreds to thousands of whom ride on Bridgeway daily. Led by Sausalito Safe Routes to Schools champion and MCBC member Aaron Roller, the City’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee has honed in on a what seems like an easy fix that would deliver dramatic safety and congestion improvements to the stretch of Bridgeway south of downtown.

Roller, who started a bike train to get students to and from Willow Creek Academy, was inspired by his experience watching children hug the curb and experience the threat of close passes on this stretch of Bridgeway.

“I’ve never understood the purpose of the center lane and wondered why they didn’t just convert it to bike lanes,” said Roller. “Since I’ve been biking that section of road with other people’s children, I’ve felt more urgency to improve bike safety. When you see cars passing children at high speeds in close proximity, it really makes you wonder where our priorities lie.”

THE PRoposal

Roller and the group would like to see the three lane stretch of Bridgeway between Richardson and Princess Streets reconfigured to include bike lanes. The fix? Eliminate the underutilized and illegally-used center turn lane in favor of bike lanes. It’s a no-brainer.

Existing

proposed

The project would deliver several benefits in addition to the obvious safety improvements for people bicycling. The reconfiguration would relieve traffic congestion currently caused by drivers slowing to pass bicyclists, especially when passing space is limited by delivery trucks illegally parked in the center turn lane. Forcing delivery trucks to the curb would have the added benefit of increasing clearance for emergency vehicles.

IMPLEMENTATION

We’re calling on the City to pilot this configuration by next summer to allow time for evaluation before it repaves and restripes this stretch of Bridgeway, which is expected to happen sometime in the next few years.

As we’ve written in the past, pilot projects are an increasingly popular way to experiment with new roadway configurations. Pilot projects allow people to experience and re-imagine how streets can be used–and they’re cheap and easy to install.

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