Marin transportation planners are aiming to improve how people interact with the county’s transit centers.

A draft plan takes a look at key depots, including the ferry terminals in Larkspur, Sausalito and Tiburon, and six rail stations in Novato, San Rafael and Larkspur.

“This is really to say, here is how we can make improvements, which would make stations easier to access, more connected to other transit and mobility options, with a focus on safety and comfort,” said Marin County Supervisor Mary Sackett, vice chair of the Transportation Authority of Marin.

The plan was presented to the agency’s board on May 28.

Adam Dankberg, a project manager with Kimley-Horn and Associates, said the team studied the path network around transit hubs, considered gaps in the system and evaluated what type of projects and amenities could improve each hub.

The analysis was based on comments collected through surveys and public outreach at transit stops, he said. The team applied that feedback to the plan to propose concepts for six of the nine hubs.

“We looked at what a vision could be to really turn this into a mobility hub, a place that people would want to be, to access transit, to be able to seamlessly transfer between modes and to have a variety of transportation options,” Dankberg said.

The concepts include accessibility, bicyclist and pedestrian use and navigation improvements. Some enhancements were unique to the hub.

For example, at the downtown Novato SMART station, the idea was to create a community gathering place. For the Hamilton SMART station, the plan calls for adding a solar canopy to the parking lot.

Concepts for the Marin County Civic Center SMART station include a focus on passenger dropoff and pickup. Concepts for the Larkspur SMART station included connection improvements between the train and ferry at Larkspur Landing.

The Oak Hill development, a planned housing site near San Quentin, should be taken into consideration at Larkspur Landing, Sackett said.

“Once we get into construction, we have to make sure there is a good way for folks who live there to access the ferry and transit stops,” Sackett said.

A plan is in the works to relocate the San Rafael Transit Center to improve the safety and circulation of buses, trains and cars in the area. The project is led by the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, which owns the land. The transit center serves SMART, Marin Transit and Golden Gate Transit.

City officials consider the center to be the gateway to the city, and asked that the new structure serve as an aesthetically fitting landmark.

The mobility plan highlights the need to also improve bicycle and pedestrian access to the hub, safety around the hub and transit reliability and performance for bus connections.

Sackett said bus circulation in and out of the site needs to be thoughtful, and planners also need to look at keeping sidewalks safe and clean.

“Comfort goes a long way,” Sackett said. “For a transit-oriented community, if we want people to use transit, it needs to be a good experience all around. If we want people to choose transit instead of driving, it needs to be a nice experience.”

Another aspect of the plan is a “shared mobility policy” to govern and encourage transportation options such as bike-shares, car-shares, scooters and others at or near transit hubs. Today, the Redwood Bikeshare is operating along the SMART rail corridor as a pilot project.

Driving the mobility hub planning effort is a regional push for cities with significant transportation hubs to adopt what’s called the “transit-oriented communities” policy. This is an incentive program from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission that rewards compliance with a share of federal funding.

Jurisdictions that meet compliance would be eligible for direct access to about $1 million to $4 million for transit center improvement projects. These dollars, a total pot of about $45 million, are usually only obtained through a competitive grant application process, said Derek McGill, director of planning.

The policy offers compliance opportunities in four categories: density, housing, parking and station access. Each category is scored up to 25 points. Jurisdictions need to score at least an 85 to be eligible for project funding, McGill said.

“This is sort of a unique way of distributing federal funding that we haven’t seen,” McGill said. “We think some jurisdictions may be very close to this 85 points, and so if a jurisdiction is close, there may be some steps that can be put in place to get them over this 85-point threshold.”

McGill said if a municipality falls below the 85-point threshold, it still can be eligible for funding through the county’s share of the One Bay Area Grant, which is a competitive source.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission will be providing technical assistance for jurisdictions this summer. Cities have until July 2027 to update policies to be eligible for funding.

MTC does not require local jurisdictions to adopt the mobility hub plan, but the Transportation Authority of Marin recommends that Marin cities consider it, because the plan outlines specific projects that could benefit from the funding.

TAM also recommends that projects identified in the mobility hub plan are incorporated into city capital improvement programs, so the project list lines up when funding becomes available, McGill said.

A final draft of the mobility plan is expected to be presented for adoption this summer.

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