A version of this post appeared on the Marin County Bicycle Coalition website and is published here with permission
On Saturday, March 31st, the Sausalito City Council rejected a proposal for bike lanes on Bridgeway, the most ridden road in Marin County, and a street on the city’s High Collision Network, turning down half a million dollars in grant funding earmarked for the project.
This funding, promised by our regional government, would have implemented the bike lanes, smoothed the road’s broken pavement, and provided new crosswalks where people are forced to jaywalk today. Despite being in alignment with the city’s own policies, receiving an endorsement from the city’s Pedestrian-Bicycle Advisory Committee (PBAC), and the recommendation of seasoned transportation consultant David Parisi, the project was deemed too controversial thanks to the turnout efforts by the “change nothing” crowd.
Rendering of proposed configuration of Bridgeway
The Need
We have written about the project before at length (see here), but in short the project have done the following:
- Provided continuous Class II (painted) bike lanes between Golden Gate Market and Princess Street
- Added crosswalks with flashing beacons at Golden Gate Market and The Trident, with potentially a third at the Sea Lion Statue
- Moved illegal loading that now occurs in the center turn lane to safer locations on the curb
- Improved emergency access by freeing up the road from parked vehicles
This would have closed a gap in the San Francisco Bay Trail, as well as provided key safety benefits on a road that is on Sausalito’s High Collision Network, and where a surprisingly large number of crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists occur. Because of the need, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) had awarded one of its competitive grants to the project, requiring just a 12% match from Sausalito.
The Meeting
Saturday’s four-hour meeting was…a lot of things. It featured a clear recitation of the needs on Bridgeway by David Parisi and his staff, a civil and traffic engineer with decades of experience in Marin County. It saw desperate pleas from parents trying to safely ride bikes in town with their children, and it contained some clear and fair-minded questions from the council dais.
It also featured what can only be called sophomoric behavior from a crowd that should clearly know better. Speakers commenting in support of the project were jeered, statements of fact were loudly called into question, and members broke into loud applause anytime an enforcement crackdown on bicyclists was mentioned. This is not just our perception – multiple residents have sent subsequent letters to the council denouncing the crowd’s behavior.
Unfortunately, the behavior was not limited to the audience. Councilmember Hoffman exhibited shockingly rude behavior toward the engineering consultant, Mr. Parisi, all but accusing him of cooking the crash data to make the road appear more dangerous than it is. In a hostile line of questioning conjuring a courtroom drama, Councilmember Hoffman cowed Chief Tubbs of the Southern Marin Fire Protection District into a position that he had not taken prior to that despite many opportunities over the last year, and one contrary to the response he had given just minutes before to another councilmember’s questions. Bizarrely, she also took pains to mention that our Policy & Planning Director, Warren Wells, serves on the Sausalito PBAC, apparently in order to cast doubt on the objectivity of that body’s recommendations. Warren is, to be clear, a non-voting member of that body, and the PBAC’s unanimous support of the project was voted on by residents of Sausalito.
Failure of Governance
Between an hour and a half of presentations, councilmember questions, and over an hour of public comments, followed by deliberation, the meeting made for a grueling affair. While there were many supporters of the proposed changes, the “no” contingent was clearly mobilized and a majority of attendants, which obviously affected the council’s ultimate decision to reject the plan and return the funding to MTC.
We would be remiss not to note that attending a public meeting longer than the runtime of “The Brutalist” is not something most can do on a Saturday afternoon, particularly if they are not retired and have children to tend to. Research has clearly shown that commenters in public meetings are not representative of the city in which they are participating, and tend to be older, whiter, and wealthier on average (meaning, more likely to be drivers than people who bike).
Ultimately, what is most frustrating is the reliance on a facade of “public participation” that is, in reality, a straw poll of residents with time to attend a lengthy meeting. Saying that “our community has spoken” rings hollow when even the two hundred and fifty emails received on the topic represent a mere tenth(!) of the votes received by the winning city council candidates in November 2024. This in an election year when one of the city council candidates made opposition to the Bridgeway a central plank of her campaign, and lost decisively!
Americans are supposed to live in a representative democracy, and we at MCBC long for elected leaders that would run on a platform that represents their vision of the city, and then, if elected, govern in line with that platform. This is what the thousands of voters who supported the winning council candidates expect and deserve.
Instead, we see too many councilmembers across Marin putting their proverbial finger in the wind before every vote that might engender a few dozen angry comments, and meekly ignoring both city policy and expert advice in favor of appeasing those who yell loudest.
The Fallout
The immediate outcome for Bridgeway is that it will stay the same for the immediate future. Guidance to staff featured a grab bag of recommendations, some of which would represent minor improvements to Bridgeway:
Parking and Loading Study
The council asked for a study about how to move vehicles loading in the center turn lane to designated loading zones on the curb. Confusingly, this has already been done, and it was a core part of the Parametrix plan (linked here). That said, we support this independently of the addition of bike lanes, since loading in the center of the road is dangerous.
Bikeway and Speed Signage
Staff were told to install more signage, including signs clarifying the road’s new 20 mph speed limit, which was passed by the council earlier this year. This is good, but was in the works already, so not much to comment on there.
Traffic Enforcement
Police were directed to step up enforcement. Whether this is specific to bicyclists (as many in the crowd would clearly prefer) or for moving violations among all road users, we have yet to see. We are well aware of the issues with both bicyclists and drivers failing to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks in Sausalito, and support traffic calming measures that will improve safety for the many people (both residents and tourists) walking there.
Crosswalks
Staff were directed to come back with a plan for crosswalks at Golden Gate Market and The Trident. While these were already designed as part of the Parametrix plan, the retention of the center turn lane would call for a different approach. In the case of The Trident at least, a concrete refuge island could be provided. This would mark a significant improvement in safety, but it too could end up being opposed if it impacts the center turn lane.
Congestion Analysis
Councilmember Hoffman called for this, particularly to analyze whether pedestrians crossing the road would “affect the flow of traffic.”
Bike Ambassadors
Sausalito used to have a program where paid staff would encourage bicyclists to travel slowly and to park in designated areas on Tracy Way (as there is almost no legal bicycle parking elsewhere in the downtown). This effort cost $250k to provide during the summer season of 2017, and we believe that that money could be spent in ways that produce a permanent benefit.
One additional outcome of the decision was the mass resignation of members of the Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee, including Chair Kieran Culligan, who authored this letter to the City Council. The message speaks to the frustration of volunteers, some of whom have served on the committee for years, in having hard work and good advice turned away in favor of more studies and process, rather than concrete action while people continue to get hurt.
What’s next for Sausalito
MCBC remains committed to improving safety for the many bicyclists that travel within and through Sausalito. Whether the residents of the city appreciate it or not, Sausalito is the southern gateway to Marin, and the only option for people riding between Marin and San Francisco. In our ideal world, more and more people will be riding on Bridgeway every year. Just last fall, our staff helped the city author a grant that would extend the Mill Valley-Sausalito Path another half-mile from Mike’s Bikes to Mollie Stone’s. Unfortunately the grant program was very competitive and this application was not successful, but we will offer our help refining the application if the city opts to reapply.
However, as the Transportation Authority of Marin clearly laid out in its letter supporting the Bridgeway project, rejecting grant funding already won is highly unusual and will potentially impact the city’s ability to secure future funding. This is yet another disappointing implication of Saturday’s vote.
Thank you to all of our members and supporters who took the time to write in or attend the long meeting. We wish we had better news to report and we will continue to push for improvements where they are needed most.
