Reservation System Proposed For Visitors To Muir Woods
MILL VALLEY (CBS SF) – Muir Woods National Monument normally draws a million visitors a year, leading to crowded parking and plenty of traffic congestion on the drive in.
The U.S. National Park Service and Marin County leaders have been searching for a solution. Now, a plan proposed by Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) would attempt to smooth out some of the issues.
The proposal calls for a vehicle parking reservation system, parking limits and public transit and traffic enforcement.
The goal is to allow no more than 80 vehicles to park on Muir Woods Road during peak periods for two and a half years, with those spaces being reserved ahead of time. That limit would decrease to 40 vehicles for the next two and a half years. Admission to Muir Woods would also be reservation-based.
"We'll have in the summertime on the weekend over 400 vehicles that will park along Muir Woods Road," said Eric Steger with the Marin County Department of Public Works. " Sometimes they're double-parked or parked in areas where they really shouldn't be parked because of the steepness of the slope or the proximity to the creek."
The reservation system would take up to two years to be put in place and Huffman's plan is long-term, a seven year course of action.
The Marin County Board of Supervisors took public comments this week on the draft memorandum of understanding and is expected to discuss the feedback at its June 30 meeting.