Supes Eye Traffic Measures to Deter Hwy. 101 Traffic Scofflaws in Marinwood

For well over a decade, Bruce Anderson and his fellow Marinwood residents have had their own unique problem with the sluggish morning southbound commute on Hwy. 101. While commuters all over the North Bay lament the highway’s often glacial pace in the morning, Marinwood residents have had a hard time just being able to join it.

That’s because since around 2000, hundreds of drivers a day have practiced a form of “queue jumping” – getting off at the Marinwood exit and either getting right back on Hwy. 101 or taking a U-turn at one of three nearby intersections before doing the same. Although a traffic study showed that the various maneuvers saved only a few minutes at best, the practice has endured through several attempts to quell it, according to county officials.

The latest attempt, which the Marin County Board of Supervisors take up at their meeting Tuesday, proposes to eliminate those U-turns in the morning, with California Highway Patrol officers enforcing those new restrictions.

Here are the proposed restrictions during 6 a.m. and 10 a.m.:

1. Left-turn only at the intersection the southbound Hwy. 101 off-ramp and Miller Creek Road. (preventing drivers from exiting and getting right back on the freeway).
2. No U-turns at westbound approach to intersection of Miller Creek Rd. and Marinwood Avenue.
3. No U-turns at northbound approach to intersection of Marinwood Ave. and Blackstone Drive.
4. No U-turns on southbound Marinwood Ave. between Miller Creek Road and the northernmost entrance to Marinwood Market.

Anderson, the president of the Marinwood Association, said he expects the first week or so of the new restrictions to be the same and maybe worse as drivers who regularly make the U-turns will be confused, clogging up Marinwood streets even more. But the lack of smooth sailing through Marinwood – and the promised CHP enforcement of the new rules – will make a difference, Anderson said.

“Soon after, people will back off because it won’t be fun coming through here,” he said. “It’s going to become inhospitable in our neighborhood – which is what we want. We want to be able to get in and out when we want.”

The proposals, which were unveiled to Marinwood residents by county and CHP officials at a community meeting in April, goes to the board for a reading Tuesday and then again on Aug. 6 for a full hearing.

This is the latest attempt by county and CHP officials to deal with so-called freeway jumpers. Previous efforts have included temporary and then permanent changes to the medians on Miller Creek Rd. – making them wider to deter U-turns – as well as reducing a lane on Miller Creek for the same reason. The southbound off-ramp was also narrowed to reduce the options for freeway jumpers.

As far as Anderson is concerned, the latest plan still isn’t enough. He said Caltrans still needs to alter “the sweeping right turn off the freeway that gives people that free access into the neighborhood.”

“But this is a step in the right direction,” he said.