It’s hard to imagine a more chaotic and mismanaged process than the proposed overhaul of Tiburon Boulevard, a state highway under Caltrans’ jurisdiction. What started as a straightforward repaving project has ballooned into a controversial “Complete Streets” redesign that includes bike lanes running the entire length of the four-lane highway, from Highway 101 to Trestle Glen. This represents the most disruptive bike lane proposal seen in Marin County since the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge debacle.

Alarmed by the plan’s potential impacts on safety, transit and traffic, over 400 Tiburon Peninsula residents sent letters urging Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters, Assemblymember Damon Connolly and Caltrans officials to abandon the bike lane proposal for a particularly hazardous stretch between Trestle Glen and Blackfield Drive. This one-mile hilly section already has a quiet, established alternative along Greenwood Beach Road.

Opposition to the bike lanes in this stretch centers on the danger posed to children biking to Bel Aire Elementary on unprotected Class II and minimally protected Class IV bike lanes next to high-speed traffic, the narrowing of vehicle lanes and the elimination of emergency pull-offs — all compromising safety. The plan also threatens the Yellow Bus program, which serves as a crucial traffic-mitigation strategy by transporting roughly half of Reed Union School District students to and from school. Both Marin Transit and the Yellow Bus provider have made it clear that blocking bike lanes to load and unload children is unsafe and may render stops inoperable.

In response, Assemblymember Damon Connolly called for a pause and reevaluation. Caltrans initially promised a two-year delay to revise the design, but that promise quickly unraveled.

In a deeply frustrating turn of events, Tiburon Mayor Holli Thier and Moulton-Peters convened a last-minute Caltrans “workshop” ahead of the June 4 Tiburon Town Council meeting — with no clear agenda. At the meeting, Caltrans inexplicably reversed course, announcing they would proceed with the current design to avoid jeopardizing funding. They also suggested that a possible future phase could address the plan’s flaws — essentially acknowledging the problems but pushing fixes and more construction chaos to a later date.

Public comment was sharply divided. Supporters of the bike lanes included out-of-town cycling advocates and Greenwood Beach residents, who want bikes off their street. Opponents included school leaders, Yellow Bus board members and many local residents concerned about safety, congestion and the possible removal of key bus stops. Local cyclists emphasized that they would continue using Greenwood Beach Road — quieter, safer and free from highway pollution — making the Tiburon Boulevard lanes unnecessary.

The meeting ended with Caltrans offering half-hearted apologies for failing to consult stakeholders and the public earlier. They suggested that the community and Yellow Bus provider might “get used to” mixing zones where 40-foot buses, bicycles and student riders share space on a high-speed, four-lane corridor — despite safety concerns raised by transit experts at Marin Transit.

It’s clear this plan is fundamentally flawed. What’s more, there is a simple solution right in front of us: move forward with the project, including key bicycling improvements, but remove the unnecessary bike lanes between Trestle Glen and Blackfield Drive. Instead, invest in traffic-calming measures and safety improvements along Greenwood Beach Road.

This entire maddening saga highlights a glaring issue: the outsized influence of the bike lobby over Caltrans and local politicians. Caltrans’ Complete Streets policy is meant to create safe, connected infrastructure for pedestrians, cyclists and transit users — with transit explicitly given “priority status” under Senate Bill 960. Yet the Tiburon Boulevard redesign advanced to 95% design without so much as a consultation with Marin Transit or the Tiburon Peninsula Traffic Alliance, the group responsible for the Yellow Bus Program. In this process, it seems cyclists were primary, and transit riders — especially children who depend on the Yellow Bus service — little more than an afterthought.

The result? A deeply unsatisfactory plan, with a host of negative safety, transit, and traffic impacts.

The Tiburon Peninsula deserves thoughtful, community-driven infrastructure improvements — like a sidewalk from Gilmartin to San Rafael and a staging lane at Cecilia Way — not projects driven by political maneuvering and special interests.

Tiburon Councilmember Jack Ryan and Belvedere Vice Mayor Sally Wilkinson serve as board members for the Tiburon Peninsula Traffic Alliance.