A slower speed limit was passed for a stretch of the Mill Valley-Sausalito bike path between the newly built roundabout and about 50 yards past the opposite end of the Bayfront dog park. The change was proposed by a collection of community groups to the Marin County Board known as the Path Safety Working Group.

The speed limit will be decreased from 15 mph to 10 mph beginning April 30. “[The path] is a super-highway for everybody,” Mill Valley Police Sergeant Michael Lane said. “[The speed limit is] just to make it safer.”

According to Scott Schneider, a senior engineer for the Department of Public Works of Mill Valley, the push for a decreased speed limit was triggered when a 9-year-old boy was hit by a cyclist while crossing that specific section of the bike path and suffered from significant head and internal injuries on September 6.

A staff report by Ronald Miska, the assistant director of Marin County Parks and the coordinator of the path’s safety group, stated that “this path segment is subject to congestion and diverse use as a consequence of the path’s adjacency to a park, playfields, and a school.”

“[The] average daily use during the summer months [this year] is 3,080 users,” an updated version of the report stated.

The Path Safety Working Group, includes representatives from the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, the City of Mill Valley, Marin County Parks, and the Marin County Department of Public Works.

“[The Path Safety Working Group] has met four times to date, and within a short time, much has been accomplished…including stepped up enforcement…and deployment of a trailer-mounted radar device that shows the speed of the bicyclists,” the most recent staff report explained.