Plan seeks to ease traffic on the coast

The plan — created in partnership with San Mateo County and Half Moon Bay — should be finalized in early 2025, consultant Alex Mercuri, with the firm Nelson Nygaard, told commissioners. It aims to offer a variety of solutions to traffic-related challenges the coastside faces, including road congestion and a lack of public transport.

“There’s no single gap or single solution that will address the challenges that we looked at, but there are a lot of opportunities,” Mercuri said.

Findings from the research portion of the project elucidated concerns around tourist traffic, no comprehensive approach to parking management, and gaps and lack of knowledge around public transit options, particularly in acute equity areas. In addition, people without cars often struggle to get around the coastside, Mercuri said.

Commissioner Rick Hernandez advised that the plan should also prioritize the needs of coastal residents, positing the idea of a bus service for children to take them to over-the-hill sports practices. It was an idea shared by Vice Chair Hazel Joanes, who asked that the needs of seniors going over the hill for doctors’ appointments also be taken into account.

“What I heard from members of the community, and what I hear from lots of people, is on the weekends, I want it to be easy to get up and down,” Hernandez said. “Go after low-hanging fruit. I’ve heard so many coastsiders say, ‘Let’s take care of us. Let’s do something for us.’”

The draft plan focuses on a variety of strategies to improve coastside public transit, Mercuri said, including educational marketing programs, community advisory roles and an increased push for funding to expand services.

The park-once strategy could make it easier for visitors to leave vehicles in a single location and walk or use bikes while in town, offering day-use hubs for belonging storage and parking signage and wayfinding.

Needs of those with children would also be a priority, Mercuri said, including subsidy expansions for bike-lending libraries and free transit programs, as well as a school pool program to help create carpools.

Former Half Moon Bay Mayor Mike Ferreira expressed some concerns about the broad ambitions of the plan.

“It takes a lot of personnel to make all of these pieces work. That looks like a fairly large bill and I’m not sure who’s paying it and I’m not sure who the authority is for the entire coastside,” he said.

Other possible solutions broached by the project include the prioritization of building a complete walking and biking network along the coast and revisiting the idea of transport shuttles. Commissioner Steve Ruddock cited previous failed coastside shuttle projects as a warning for the future.

“The usage of it was extremely low. I would urge you to learn the lessons of that before you go too much further on shuttle 2.0 ideas,” he said.