Burlingame seeking input for bike plan

“I hope what the community will learn during the outreach is to gather community input, they know the details of how they use the streets,” Beach said. “It is important to get stakeholder input before we start designing.”

In March, the city finalized its plans for the California Drive Bicycle Facility Project, a 0.8-mile portion of California Drive between Broadway and Oak Grove Avenue. However, some businesses on California Drive claimed they weren’t notified by the city; however, officials said they attempted to notify businesses of the project in 2021, through the U.S. Postal Service. Mayor Michael Brownrigg said the city is aware that it fell short communicating with its residents previously and plans to do a better job with community engagement.

“We are committed to doing a better job with additional implementations for the plan,” Brownrigg said.

The plan was created with a lot of input and this is what the community wants, Brownrigg said, adding that having done a master plan doesn’t mean people are aware of what may be happening around their homes.

“Secondly, a road diet or making the bike lanes will nudge drivers to recognize it’s not a highway and drive slower and safer. We are not trying to get people out of their cars, we are just trying to make it safer for cyclists and the community,” Brownrigg said.

The project on Murchison Drive is between Ogden and California drives. During the city’s community outreach in 2020, 89% of the people surveyed preferred a separated bikeway. This alternative narrows the travel lanes and provides a buffer on both sides of the bike lanes. The plan indicated this alternative would not require a lane removal, it would be highly comfortable for cyclists and there would be no parking impacts, according to the master plan.

The second focus street is Trousdale Drive between Sequoia and Magnolia avenues. The previous community outreach resulted in a preference for buffered bike lanes with center turn lanes and parking. The alternative would remove one travel lane from each direction and add a center turn lane, according to the city.

The cyclists who attended the meeting were vocal about wanting better facilities, Andrew Wong, Public Works senior civil engineer, said. One of those residents, Lesley Beatty, said she supports the project because she wants safe bike routes for her children to ride to school. Some residents said they would ride their bicycles on Trousdale Drive if there were safe facilities protecting the cyclists, she added.

The project scoped for Davis Drive between Quesada and Albemarle ways were identified in the city’s master plan as a focus area for bicycle lane improvements. Part of the plan could include construction of traffic calming elements like bollards and painted signs to separate vehicles from the bicycle lanes on the residential streets. Residents who would be affected on Davis Drive expressed concerns that removing one vehicle lane would negatively impact vehicle traffic around Burlingame Intermediate School’s dropoff areas, Beatty said.

“All of the routes are heavily impacted by traffic of parents dropping their kids off and also kids who are riding their bikes to school. Davis itself is a quiet street except during drop-off and pickup hours for school,” Beatty said. “It struck me that a lot of the people who came lived on the affected streets. A lot of people gave personal context.”

The city is focusing on areas like Davis Drive, so cyclists and students traveling to school feel safer. Beach said she believes there is an opportunity to get more students walking and biking to school if the streets are safe for them to do so, and ultimately reducing traffic congestion.

“The traffic surrounding Burlingame Intermediate School and the neighboring streets is the reason we are sort of prioritizing these different routes. This portion has risen because we want to address the commercial area, the schools and the hospital and we want to make it safer around those areas,” Beach said.

Once the city reviews the community and emergency services feedback it will determine and present the options at a later date. Wong said it will most likely occur in the fall. The city will send out notices via USPS and in the city’s e-newsletter.