Iconic Marin tunnel to be named after Robin Williams

The state Senate voted last week to name the tunnel after the late comedian and Marin resident — who got his big break wearing rainbow suspenders on “Mork & Mindy” — following approval by the Assembly in April.

Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, introduced the legislation after a Change.org petition garnered thousands of signatures in support of the name change.

The tunnel is also sometimes called the Rainbow Tunnel because of the rainbows painted on the tunnel arches on the southern side.

Signs are being made at a cost of about $3,000, which is being paid from private donations, said Caltrans spokesman Steve Williams.



[...] Bay Area traffic reporters may have to practice calling the tunnel by its new name.

California Highway Patrol officers, though, will likely still call it the Rainbow Tunnel or Waldo Tunnel, said Officer Daniel Hill, an agency spokesman.

“We’ll accept whatever callers will use for it, but it’s really hard to break a CHP officer out of a habit,” Hill said.

“He was my neighbor — I often saw him running errands, walking the dog, performing at the local theater, working at the coffee shop,” she wrote on the Change.org page.