Divided Tiburon council approves letter to Caltrans on bike lanes

The Tiburon Town Council labored for hours Wednesday to write a letter to Caltrans on a mistaken assumption it could exclude parts of the bike lanes in the state’s $12.7 million redesign and repaving of Tiburon Boulevard.

“The Tiburon Town Council understands that you are coming back to us with an updated plan for phase one and phase two,” said Councilmember Isaac Nikfar, reading the letter. “Tiburon Town Council expects the updated plan for phase one to address critical issues … raised by the bike lanes.”

Critics of the project have cited safety concerns because of the bike lanes’ proximity to cars, saying the mile-plus stretch west from Trestle Glen Boulevard poses the greatest risk and should be removed from the plan.

In early June, Caltrans announced at a special town meeting that the project would proceed in two phases. Phase one, starting in January, would repave the road, slightly narrow traffic lanes, add bike lanes and modify bus stops, traffic signals and crosswalks. Phase two would further remodel bus stops for accessibility and move bike lanes behind the bus stops.

Nonetheless, a majority of council members assumed that Caltrans would present revised plans for the entire project as they wrote their letter on Wednesday. They expected to weigh in and be heard, with some insisting the bike lanes be removed from the road’s speediest stretch between Blackfield Drive and Trestle Glen Boulevard, with wider shoulders instead.

Their letter was approved in a 3-2 vote. Mayor Holli Thier said she was awaiting Caltrans’ revised plans, but that removing the bike lanes “kills the project.”

“When we say no bikes lanes, we don’t have a project anymore,” she said, before voting no.

In an interview on Thursday, Wajahat Nyaz, a Caltrans deputy district director, clarified the agency’s constraints and plans.

The bike lanes cannot be removed because they are not optional under state funding guidelines. The California Transportation Commission considers repaving and bike lanes to be “core assets,” he said.

“This is not something that you can just drop,” he said.

Moreover, the California Transportation Commission deadline for approving and funding the project is in August.

“If you don’t come and get the money by that date, you lose it,” he said.

Caltrans is revising some phase-one elements, Nyaz said. As Thier and town staff requested, it is adding piping for broadband and preserving existing highway medians. Lane widths would be reduced from 12 feet to 11 feet to create wider bike lanes and shoulders at some bus stops. Vertical posts and other protections for bikes and pedestrians also would be added.

“What we are doing right now is going to make things better,” Nyaz said. “I see this as a win-win. We preserve the pavement. We preserve the money. We do some improvements. We make things better right now, maybe not to the satisfaction of the entire community, but we make things better. And then we open it up for more improvements in phase two which will involve the community much more in a deeper way.”