The gates for the Bob Middagh Trail are finally opening to cyclists. Marin County Parks finally stopped ignoring the safety of our kids and reversed this ridiculous ban. We forced them to acknowledge that access is a right and not a privilege for the few.
September 19, 2015
Final supporters
We, the Citizens for Safe Cycling Routes, support and encourage a change of use for the Bob Middagh (also known as the pipeline or gas line) Trail between the Alto Bowl Open Space Preserve and the Corte Madera Ridge Open Space Preserve to allow bicycle use on this critical trail connection.
The Bob Middagh Trail serves as the only non-vehicle route between all of southern Marin County and the majority of Open Space preserves in Marin. Currently, off-road cyclists -many of whom are children and youth- are obligated to ride long distances on city streets and roads in order to access their public lands from the Marin Bike Path. These vehicle roads lack shoulders, bike lanes, and sidewalks. They are steep and winding with low to no visibility to vehicles and some -like Camino Alto Road- experience very high volumes of traffic at high speeds. This dangerous gauntlet can be avoided by allowing cyclists to utilize the short and direct Bob Middagh trail, a trail that is built along the right of way of a pipeline and along an old road alignment. Cyclists would then be able to exit the Marin Bike Path at Edna McGuire School instead of being forced to navigate Blthedale Avenue, Camino Alto Road, and neighborhood streets to access Open Space lands.
Despite the propagation of anti-bike myths, alarmism, and hyperbole, decades of science and research have repeatedly shown that off-road cycling is overall equal in its impacts on soil, plants, and wildlife to hiking and less impactful than equestrian use, and thus is an appropriate and acceptable activity on trails such as Bob Middagh. Not only is off-road cycling appropriate on this trail, it is also will provide a major mitigation to the safety issues faced by the growing number of off-road cyclists -and especially cycling youth- in Marin County and beyond.
We encourage the Marin County Open Space District and the Board of Supervisors to approve a Change of Use for the Bob Middagh Trail. It improves safety for a significant portion of Marin's residents and visitors, it's low impact, it doesn't require major investment and time, and it makes sense.
Updates
Reached 1,000 supporters
July 11, 2015
July 9, 2015
The local land managers can no longer ignore this surge of public demand for safe access. We are forcing them to look at the reality of these dangerous roads that our children are currently forced to navigate.
Reached 100 supporters
June 17, 2015
June 17, 2015
The local land managers are ignoring our safety and forcing kids onto dangerous high speed roads. We are about to hit 100 signatures so push this link out to everyone you know right now.
192 Comments
We need more safe trails in Marin that can be shared with cyclists, especially one like this that provides an alternative to Camino Alto. More bike travel is better for the environment and growing volumes of traffic.
As a Corte Madera resident, I urge the MCOSD and Supervisors to open the Bob Middagh Trail promptly, allowing families, kids and other cyclists safe and legal access through the Alto Bowl and Corte Madera Ridge preserves.
This trail is a key route connector that will ensure safe passage for my kids (on bikes and on foot) between the Corte Madera Ridge Open Space and Edna Maguire school - let's keep them off the road!
i have lived in scott valley all my life and have used this trail as my access to open space for years. It provides safe access to our open space as it avoids having to ride on camino alto.
Please give the cycling community safe passage away from vehicle traffic on Camino Alto. I will use this route to stay away from vehicle traffic. It will be much safer and should please local vehicle traffic as well.
Connect the people to their parks so they can learn to love and appreciate the wonders of our natural environment. What better way for them to arrive but safely and by human power.
The Mill Valley City Council recently allocated over $900,000 to improve Camino Alto, and to install a Class III bicycle lane alongside it, so that road will soon be considerably safer after construction this summer. Those of us who live alongside the Alto Bowl and Horse Hill Open Space lands have noticed on many occasions groups of cyclists on and off these trails, which are currently closed to bicycles and other vehicles. On several of these occasions, riders have left the trails, fanning out across the meadows, in utter disregard for the wildlife that lives there and the habitat that supports them. Certainly most riders are respectful of the environment, but a lot are not, and we have photographs to prove it. Many of these cyclists have been rude to the hikers on the trails, even though the cyclisrts are there illegally. So we can have a discussion about what behavior is acceptable, but please don't tell us that what we have witnessed and photographed is not real.
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The gates for the Bob Middagh Trail are finally opening to cyclists. Marin County Parks finally stopped ignoring the safety of our kids and reversed this ridiculous ban. We forced them to acknowledge that access is a right and not a privilege for the few.
September 19, 2015
Final supporters
We, the Citizens for Safe Cycling Routes, support and encourage a change of use for the Bob Middagh (also known as the pipeline or gas line) Trail between the Alto Bowl Open Space Preserve and the Corte Madera Ridge Open Space Preserve to allow bicycle use on this critical trail connection.
The Bob Middagh Trail serves as the only non-vehicle route between all of southern Marin County and the majority of Open Space preserves in Marin. Currently, off-road cyclists -many of whom are children and youth- are obligated to ride long distances on city streets and roads in order to access their public lands from the Marin Bike Path. These vehicle roads lack shoulders, bike lanes, and sidewalks. They are steep and winding with low to no visibility to vehicles and some -like Camino Alto Road- experience very high volumes of traffic at high speeds. This dangerous gauntlet can be avoided by allowing cyclists to utilize the short and direct Bob Middagh trail, a trail that is built along the right of way of a pipeline and along an old road alignment. Cyclists would then be able to exit the Marin Bike Path at Edna McGuire School instead of being forced to navigate Blthedale Avenue, Camino Alto Road, and neighborhood streets to access Open Space lands.
Despite the propagation of anti-bike myths, alarmism, and hyperbole, decades of science and research have repeatedly shown that off-road cycling is overall equal in its impacts on soil, plants, and wildlife to hiking and less impactful than equestrian use, and thus is an appropriate and acceptable activity on trails such as Bob Middagh. Not only is off-road cycling appropriate on this trail, it is also will provide a major mitigation to the safety issues faced by the growing number of off-road cyclists -and especially cycling youth- in Marin County and beyond.
We encourage the Marin County Open Space District and the Board of Supervisors to approve a Change of Use for the Bob Middagh Trail. It improves safety for a significant portion of Marin's residents and visitors, it's low impact, it doesn't require major investment and time, and it makes sense.
Updates
Reached 1,000 supporters
July 11, 2015
July 9, 2015
The local land managers can no longer ignore this surge of public demand for safe access. We are forcing them to look at the reality of these dangerous roads that our children are currently forced to navigate.
Reached 100 supporters
June 17, 2015
June 17, 2015
The local land managers are ignoring our safety and forcing kids onto dangerous high speed roads. We are about to hit 100 signatures so push this link out to everyone you know right now.
192 Comments
It's much safer for everyone for bikes to be on trails than on streets. Unless we are willing to invest in proper bike lanes...AND enforcement of share-the-road basic traffic safety...it is absolutely essential that we provide shared access on these trails to bikers.
We need more safe trails in Marin that can be shared with cyclists, especially one like this that provides an alternative to Camino Alto. More bike travel is better for the environment and growing volumes of traffic.
As a Corte Madera resident, I urge the MCOSD and Supervisors to open the Bob Middagh Trail promptly, allowing families, kids and other cyclists safe and legal access through the Alto Bowl and Corte Madera Ridge preserves.
This trail is a key route connector that will ensure safe passage for my kids (on bikes and on foot) between the Corte Madera Ridge Open Space and Edna Maguire school - let's keep them off the road!
i have lived in scott valley all my life and have used this trail as my access to open space for years. It provides safe access to our open space as it avoids having to ride on camino alto.
Please give the cycling community safe passage away from vehicle traffic on Camino Alto. I will use this route to stay away from vehicle traffic. It will be much safer and should please local vehicle traffic as well.
Connect the people to their parks so they can learn to love and appreciate the wonders of our natural environment. What better way for them to arrive but safely and by human power.
The Mill Valley City Council recently allocated over $900,000 to improve Camino Alto, and to install a Class III bicycle lane alongside it, so that road will soon be considerably safer after construction this summer. Those of us who live alongside the Alto Bowl and Horse Hill Open Space lands have noticed on many occasions groups of cyclists on and off these trails, which are currently closed to bicycles and other vehicles. On several of these occasions, riders have left the trails, fanning out across the meadows, in utter disregard for the wildlife that lives there and the habitat that supports them. Certainly most riders are respectful of the environment, but a lot are not, and we have photographs to prove it. Many of these cyclists have been rude to the hikers on the trails, even though the cyclisrts are there illegally. So we can have a discussion about what behavior is acceptable, but please don't tell us that what we have witnessed and photographed is not real.
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It's much safer for everyone for bikes to be on trails than on streets. Unless we are willing to invest in proper bike lanes...AND enforcement of share-the-road basic traffic safety...it is absolutely essential that we provide shared access on these trails to bikers.