Attention to greenway is appreciated

The city of Larkspur is doing its part to help fulfill a goal of making the long-proposed North-South Greenway bike and pedestrian path a reality.

The Larkspur City Council last month endorsed plans to seek bids for construction of an estimated $2 million worth of safety and traffic improvements to the greenway's route along the east side of Highway 101, from Corte Madera's town limits to the Corte Madera Creek Bridge.

Working together with the Transportation Authority of Marin, the city has been able to muster the federal, state and local funding to start work.

It has been on the city's drawing board since 2019.

The greenway has been envisioned longer than that, advanced by local biking advocates citing the need to create a safer and more direct route for a path along the north-south length of the county.

Having a safer and direct route will promote biking as a way to get up and down the county without a car.

Creating a parallel path is a promised goal of the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit train. But south of Larkspur Landing requires a different funding approach.

The greenway is becoming a reality in segments — links in a chain of progress — when funding becomes available and, in some cases, debates are resolved.

For this stretch, the goal is to bring more safety for bikes along the stretch of the busy Redwood Highway frontage road.

The path will be 8 feet wide with a 2-foot safety buffer on each side. A new sidewalk will be installed on the east side of the road, between the Chevron station and Rich Street. There will still be on-street parking along the road. Drainage improvements aimed at addressing recurring flooding problems are also part of the plan.

It's not too late for officials and TAM to look into Councilman Kevin Carroll's concerns about lighting along the stretch.

Not surprisingly, the job has been endorsed by the Marin County Bicycle Coalition. One supporter who frequently rides the route called the stretch between the gas stations and the Corte Madera Creek Bridge “one of the more perilous parts of the journey.”

There are more segments that are on the drawing board for TAM and its member municipalities. For instance, the debate over whether to reopen the Alto Tunnel for a Mill ValleyCorte Madera bike path or improve the route over the hill remains unresolved, primarily due to the huge cost of restoring the long-closed train tunnel.

The Cal Park tunnel between San Rafael and Larkspur was built by SMART as it was also needed for the new train service. The Alto Tunnel doesn't have the same funding advantage.

Other segments shouldn't be as costly.

From a safety standpoint, the Larkspur leg promises to be a big improvement and the result of keeping the greenway vision alive and working toward making it a reality.