Related
SAN RAFAEL — Funding a train line through Sonoma and Marin counties was supposed to include the creation of a bike path that connects the station. The train is up and running, but the bike path has been slow coming.
The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) is celebrating this month that 100,000 cyclists have boarded the train this system, but North Bay cycling advocates say they’re not doing enough to support cyclists off the train.
To date, only about two miles of the path have been built in Marin and another 14 miles have been built in Sonoma. But they don’t all connect because the sales tax increase hasn’t brought in enough money for both projects.
Bjorn Griepenburg, policy and planning director for the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, rides the train to San Rafael for work and then cycles the rest of the way to Fairfax.
“There are a lot of people in my boat who don’t live or work within walking distance of a SMART station, so the bike is kind of a really good way to extend the reach of the train,” Griepenburg told KCBS Radio.
But not if you were hoping to go along the bike path promised in the funding package that voters approved in Measure Q.
“We think a lot of folks in Marin voted for Measure Q because the pathway was in there as a component of the project,” Griepenburg said.
Officials say finishing the rail line, which will eventually get all the way to Cloverdale, is their top priority. SMART’s board has been getting private grants to build out the path, saying that the revenue needs to be focused on the train itself.
“We’ve asked SMART to produce a funding strategy to start setting some target dates for delivery of the pathway, just as they have done with the railway,” Griepenburg said. “And, frankly, it’s something that you would expect any public agency to do for a project that it’s charged with delivery."