Weekend Roundup: Close the Marin Gap, SFBC Poll

Closing a major gap in Marin’s off-street bike network

The Marin County Bicycle Coalition is gathering support–and signatures–as part of a campaign to get the Alto Tunnel, an old rail tunnel, reopened for cyclists. “In order to create a seamless, safe link between southern and central Marin.”

More from the petition page:

Friends of the Alto Tunnel are dedicated to seeing the reopening of the tunnel, providing people of all ages and abilities a safe, easily accessible, car-free way to walk and bike between central and southern Marin and beyond. We believe that Marin needs to provide more ways for people of all ages and abilities to get around without the use of a car, improving air quality and traffic for all.

As MCBC’s allies over at Friends of the Alto Tunnel explain on their web page, it would “connect Mill Valley to Corte Madera, and complete a greenway from southern to northern Marin” They add that it will be useful for “commuting, transportation, exercise, recreation – to walk, bike , and roll safely and efficiently, enjoying the beauty of our communities for generations to come.”

Marin cyclists–and anybody else who’s interested–should be sure to sign the petition.

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition wants your input: is the org going in the right direction?

It’s no secret that many in the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s membership are not happy lately–especially with the SFBC endorsing center-running bike lanes on Valencia. The org has started a survey to see what people think about its direction as of late.

From the “San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Reflection and Theory of Change Feedback Form” page, where they ask people to answer as…

…candidly as you can to help us understand:

1) The impact of the Coalition; and 2) What you think the Coalition’s role should be in the future. We will analyze this data and use it to inform our ongoing practices as well as our theory of change.

The survey will close on July 1, so be sure to take a few minutes to fill it out and let the SFBC know what you think.

Fell/Panhandle protected bike lane becomes permanent

Fell along the Panhandle received a parking-protected bike lane treatment in 2020. It was made permanent at Tuesday’s regular SFMTA meeting. The North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association, whose members have been fighting for this for over a decade, celebrated on Twitter:

This is great news of course (even if nobody really thought the lane, which has been open since the summer of 2020, was going to get ripped out). Now all eyes will be focused on Oak. And the death-trap intersections on Fell at Masonic and Stanyan/Shrader.

And then there’s still the Fell/Divisadero ARCO station merge/death trap.