Completed bike path offers safe Petaluma-Novato link

It is now possible to walk or ride a bicycle directly between Petaluma and Novato without facing hair-raising freeway traffic. Caltrans on Friday was set to open a one-mile section of bike path in northern Marin County that bridges a key gap between new frontage roads constructed in the Sonoma-Marin Narrows corridor along Highway 101.

The new path connects Olompali State Historic Park with a new frontage road built just west of Highway 101 at the Redwood Landfill interchange, said Steve Williams, Caltrans spokesman. It is part of an 18-month Caltrans project that extended the northbound carpool lane, improved the landfill interchange and built new frontage roads and bike paths.

“We’re very happy,” said Tom Boss, events director with the Marin County Bicycle Coalition. “Before, you’d have to ride your bike on 101 or go miles out of your way to get between Petaluma and Novato. Now you have a more direct route.”

From Atherton Avenue in Novato, cyclists can use bike paths on the newly built Redwood Boulevard frontage road to Olompali park. From there, the new bike path extends north to the Redwood Landfill interchange and a newly extended San Antonio Road with a bike lane that fronts the freeway to the Sonoma County line.

Cyclists can continue west on San Antonio Road to I Street, which leads to the center of Petaluma.

On the Sonoma County side, construction is underway on a project to build a new highway bridge over San Antonio Creek and add frontage roads and a bike path along Highway 101 from Petaluma south to the county line. When complete in 2017, that project will connect to the bike path and bike lanes open on the Marin County side.

Gary Helfrich, executive director of the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, said that the new bike route will take cyclists off the dangerous Highway 101 shoulder.

“It was legal to ride on the freeway...if you were insane,” he said. “Petaluma and Novato aren’t that far apart. This is going to make it not be a death ride.”

You can reach Staff Writer Matt Brown at 521-5206 or matt.brown@pressdemocrat.com.