Frances Barbour Hayden Promotes Larkspur Bike Station

By Nancy Salcedo

What seems like the ideal commute situation—ride your bike to the Larkspur ferry terminal and board for the city—can actually be laced with difficulties. For one, if you’ve got a nice bike, you don’t feel right leaving it vulnerably chained to a bike rack at the terminal, or in one of the few bike lockers provided by Golden Gate Transit (where a recent, impromptu poll of cyclists who were asked what they thought might lurk inside turned up such horrors as “a bomb” and “a body”). The alternative of bringing it on the boat with you can be problematic, as the bikes are stashed outside while onboard and get misted with salt spray during the crossing. (There is no water provided as you disembark to rinse off the salt.) Even if it were good for the bikes, bike storage onboard takes up valuable room.

Some resolve to get a “beater bike” solely for the purpose of bicycle commuting, and bide their time until the ever-increasing commuter crowds ultimately displace bicycle commuters and/or their bikes. But Frances Barbour Hayden has a better, more proactive idea—organize a bike station at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal so commuters can valet park their bikes free of charge and relax onboard. Frances is an effective, forward-thinking problem solver, as well as a member of the Marin Bicycle Coalition and Ferry Passenger Advisory Committee, and in general, a person who puts people together to make things happen. She approached the Marin Bicycle Coalition with the bike station concept for the Larkspur Ferry Terminal, and is now spearheading the campaign.

“We’re going to need this,” Frances envisions, noting that currently there is no support within 5 miles of the ferry terminal. Nothing, not even a bike shop. In addition to providing free, guarded, valet parking for bicycle commuters boarding the ferry at the Larkspur terminal, the bike station concept includes bicycle repair services, bike rentals, and sales accessories, as well as concessions to accommodate all the traffic at the east-west and north-south hubs. Long term, the goal is to join with other services, such as elite guided tours of Marin trails, the birthplace of mountain biking, and perhaps ultimately, to create a trailside assistance program resembling AAA, but for bicyclists.

The bike station concept is modeled after transit systems in Europe and Japan. The first one opened in the United States in Long Beach in 1996 with amazing success. Instantly, more and more people there began to incorporate bicycle riding into at least a portion of their commute. Following the Long Beach concept, bike station advocates opened one in Palo Alto at the Caltrain station. Caltrain has the highest number of bicycle riders boarding the train in the nation. Before the bike station idea was implemented, the high demand for onboard bike storage ultimately resulted in riders being bumped. There is another bike station at the downtown Berkeley BART Station, owned by BART and operated by the Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition to encourage intermodal activity between bikes and BART. The Bike Station Coalition is the national nonprofit organization facilitating the spread of the concept, and is involved with other bike stations planned for San Francisco (Embarcadero BART and another one at 4th and King,) as well as others in Davis, Eugene, Denver and Pittsburg.

The Larkspur Ferry Terminal bike station concept involves the site nearest the flyway to the Larkspur Landing Center, at the north end of the parking area, where the terminal’s master plan calls for an administration building. The bike station could one day house a level of the administration building, but for now will likely be housed in something more temporary, awaiting its impending allocation of grant money. The bicyclists will likely be tickled with the short-term improvements in parking, and the concept will spread to other hubs in Marin. In fact, the ferry terminal bike station is just the first of several such stations envisioned.

For the commuter, the timing is perfect. With the CalPark tunnel scheduled to open sometime in 2004, joining Larkspur Landing with Anderson Boulevard and being adjacent to a new connector bike path coming down from First and A Streets in central San Rafael, many more people will gain quick and easy bicycle access to the ferry terminal. With the replacement of the trestle over Sir Francis Drake Boulevard with a bicycle flyway, bicycle commuting from the south will also be on the upswing. And it’s not just the bicycle commuters. The Safe Routes to School program, of which Marin is the national model, continues to create an increase in bike traffic by encouraging students to bike, walk, or carpool to school, and participation among each of the alternative modes is way up. In terms of recreational use, the connection between the ferry terminal and the Marriot Hotel at Larkspur Landing and a bike station where visitors to Marin can get a cup of coffee, rent a bike, and perhaps hire a guide for a grand tour of the birthplace of mountain biking makes for an even more effective service.