Burlingame eyes speed reductions

The presentation came as the Burlingame community has been contending with the impact of three fatal vehicular crashes in the span of a year, including the death of 4-year-old Ayden Fang on Donnelly Avenue. 

“The timing on this is really important and good, and we are moving in the right direction. I’m excited about it,” Councilmember Donna Colson said. “I really think speed reduction is going to be critical.” 

Part of the Vision Zero plan is identifying hot spots for traffic collisions, which included California Drive, Rollins Road, Broadway, Trousdale Drive and much of downtown, including Donnelly and Primrose avenues. Improving infrastructure along these streets, particularly at dangerous intersections, is another Vision Zero priority. 

Although 30% of these incidents in the city occur on El Camino Real, it’s not included in Vision Zero planning because it’s a state-owned road, though major renovations on the highway are currently underway. 

Consultants identified 40 streets in the city that could be studied for speed reductions. That includes reducing speed on California Drive from Burlingame Avenue to Broadway to 15 mph and from Broadway to Murchison Drive to 25 mph. Reducing speed on Broadway from Balboa Avenue to Vancouver Avenue from 20 to 15 mph was also up for consideration. 

Downtown was not included in the speed reduction study because speed data wasn’t presently available, Weissman said, though Councilmember Desiree Thayer asked it, as well as roads around schools, potentially be included in future plans. 

“I do think there's some opportunity downtown and around the schools, if we’re allowed to reduce those speeds without having to do studies,” she said. “I would love to integrate some of the safe routes to school work.” 

E-bike and e-scooter education and regulation is another component of the plan, and could include age restrictions, code clarification, accelerated constructions of protected bike lanes, and promoting the selling of compliant class 1-3 e-bikes at local vendors. Speed reductions could benefit safety concerns in this arena as well, Thayer said. 

“Tying this e-micromobility in with speed reductions as well — when we reduce the speed on a road to say 20 mph, it’s for the bicycles as well,” she said. 

It could be pertinent to examine automated speed enforcement mechanisms and increased stop signs as a way to regulate speed reductions, Mayor Michael Brownrigg said. 

“As we look at ways to enforce slower streets, we will absolutely not have the police to do all the enforcing residents will start asking us to do,” he said. “I’d like the report to have a summary of various different technology that exists … so we have a menu of different automated ways to enforce.” 

Areas where cars and pedestrians are in proximity should also be a priority, Brownrigg said. 

“Focusing on downtown — both downtowns — and schools where pedestrians are walking, not always paying attention, and cars are traveling is really important,” he said. “I would like to focus on areas where pedestrians and cars are both very proximate to each other and very frequent.”