BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ
Daily Post Correspondent
Caltrans is proposing to eliminate a lane on El Camino Real through the North Fair Oaks neighborhood to make the street safer for bicyclists and pedestrians.
The council heard from Caltrans on Thursday (Feb. 27) to gather their thoughts on three concepts for the road.
The stretch of El Camino that runs between North Fair Oaks and Atherton has some of the highest pedestrian fatality rates in the Bay Area, said Carolyn Mamaradlo, senior project manager for San Mateo County Transportation Authority. She said the current layout of the road lacks space for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Caltrans is planning to eliminate a southbound El Camino lane in favor of a bike lane. The bike lanes are planned to connect to the future bike lanes on Selby Lane.
Mamaradlo and consultant Andrew Lee walked the council through three possible layouts for El Camino through North Fair Oaks.
The first concept is to add sidewalks and striped bike lanes to both sides of the street without removing any lanes. This would lead to removing 35 parking spaces along the north side of El Camino to make room for the bike lane.
The second concept removes a lane from each direction, replacing it with wider sidewalks and raised concrete to protect the bike lane – while keeping street parking.
The third concept removes one lane from each direction so sidewalks can be widened and bike lanes installed with a raised concrete barrier between the cars and the cyclists. This would result in 35 removed parking spaces.
“I’m pleased that something is going to be done,” council member Blair Whitney said. “ I just don’t want to get killed when I’m on my bike.”
Caltrans is currently gathering survey responses, hosting listening sessions and speaking at community meetings to finalize a decision.
The council ultimately decided that the second option — which doesn’t result in any loss of parking, would be the best to protect businesses in the area while also improving safety for cyclists and pedestrians.
We’ve heard this BS for a long time — remove lanes and traffic will disappear. People will ride their bikes. Sidewalks will flourish in this utopia. It never turns out good. Bike ridership doesn’t go up. Deadly accidents do. Traffic backups increase. The consultants who propose this garbage move on to the next town. I vote ‘no’.
What utter nonsense. Shame on the consultants and the bureaucrats. Why can’t Caltrans just pave the roads and stop preaching this craziness.
Brilliant idea! The county is doing such a good job eliminating two lanes on Middlefield just a few blocks away, why not try it out on El Camino? Businesses are closing on Middlefield because of it. Thank you Josh Becker, Marc Berman and Gavin Newsom!!!
That’d great, we never bike there because it’s horribly dangerous. Having a flat route though would let us get to daycare without the car!
Nice! 2nd option was a good one and will make El Camino a pleasant place to be.