A new parking reservation system and expanded shuttle service for Muir Woods is helping the National Park Service manage visitation, park managers told county supervisors last week. At the same time, neighbors expressed concern that the memorandum of understanding between the county and the park service is leaving them out of the process.

“The success of refining the visitation to Muir Woods has been outstanding,” said John Neville, an associate civil engineer for the department of public works. “It was chaos—people were walking two miles up the road into commuter traffic. Now, I have people who come from out of town and visit the woods and their comment is, ‘Why do we need a reservation system? It is so easy.’ One of the great complements to the success is that people don’t even see the problem anymore.”

But Kristin Shannon, the chair of the Mount Tam Task Force, which speaks on behalf of the neighbors of the national monument, pushed back on the success of the M.O.U. Parking enforcement has been lacking, and neighbors have been left out of the engagement process, she said. Residents are also concerned about safe evacuation routes.

“Rather than just surveying the paying customers, we really do need to include members of the community,” she said. “Engage us earlier in the dialogue when we are having these meetings that have been baked in twice a year.”

Last Tuesday, park superintendent Laura Joss provided an update on the M.O.U., alongside Mr. Neville and Sally Golub, a business management analyst for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Ms. Golub said the park service has reduced illegal parking on Muir Woods Road, shrunk the number of people arriving without a reservation, and increased the time visitors spend inside the woods since a reservation system was implemented in 2017.

“Visitors are spending less time getting to the woods, less time sitting in traffic, less time looking for parking and, as a result, they can spend more time enjoying the woods, which is really what it’s all about,” she said.

One of the most important goals of the reservation system is to manage peak visitation during the busiest times of the year, particularly on weekends. In 2017, there were 20 days with over 5,000 visitors to the park; in 2018 and 2019, there was just one such day in each year. Ms. Golub also pointed to a visitor survey that saw more people reporting a positive experience this year as evidence of the parking reservation system’s success.

The shuttle service, which picks up visitors from bus stops in southern Marin, expanded its days of operation when the reservation system was implemented. The share of visitors who arrived by the shuttle has increased from 5.5 percent to 9.3 percent.

The reservation system is achieving the goals set in the M.O.U. of managing peak visitation, improving experience, reducing safety hazards and reducing the impact on natural resources and the local community, Ms. Golub said.

Moving forward, the county and the park service will continue to improve conditions on Redwood Creek. The number of unreserved parking spaces on the shoulder will be reduced from 80 to 40, and four pedestrian bridges across the creek will be replaced over the next two years with longer and higher designs. The monument’s entry plaza will be redesigned, and trails from parking areas to the woods will be improved. 

The reservation system will also be streamlined. Currently, commercial users make their reservations on one website and regular visitors use another. In 2020, all reservations will be managed by Ace Parking through GoMuirWoods.com.

Frank Valley Road, the route to Muir Woods from Highway 1, will be reconstructed by the Federal Highway Administration starting in 2022. The county obtained a grant through the Federal Lands Access Program to rehab the pavement, address landslides, and look at drainage issues on a 2.5-mile stretch. The estimated $5 million project is under environmental review until fall 2020, when a report on the project will be released.

On behalf of the Sierra Club in Marin, Judy Schriebman raised an unfounded concern last week that the road was being expanded to a 54-foot divided highway, but she met pushback from engineers. 

“There is no room in that corridor to widen the road beyond two lanes,” Mr. Neville said. “So, we have two 11-foot lanes, and in some places the shoulder is falling away and they will look at restoring that. But there’s no conversation to turn it into anything but a local route.”