Commutes extended by 15 to 20 minutes to drive the last mile home and a need to time trips in and out of San Mateo’s Fiesta Gardens neighborhood to avoid packed intersections at rush hour are among the concerns fueling a study of the 19th Avenue and Fashion Island Boulevard corridor in the coming months.
In response to calls for improvement to the afternoon eastbound traffic on the stretch of the corridor from South Delaware Street to South Norfolk Street, which passes under the State Route 92/Highway 101 interchange, San Mateo officials are taking a closer look at the thoroughfare to scope possible improvements, explained city engineer Bethany Lopez.
At a Dec. 11 meeting held in the Fiesta Gardens Pool House and through an online survey, officials have been collecting feedback from residents in an effort to home in on the key concerns of residents who travel through the corridor, said Lopez. She added the input will be provided to a consultant expected to craft a master plan for the corridor, which the community will weigh in on before the study is presented to the City Council in late 2019.
“We definitely heard that there are a number of issues on the corridor related to the intersections and various segments,” she said. “This is how we’re trying to respond to that.”
Improvements to the Fashion Island Boulevard exit from the southbound direction of Highway 101 and the timing of stoplights on the corridor were among the elements resident Crystal Chan hoped would be considered as officials scope a plan for the corridor. In traveling to her home on South Norfolk Street from her work in San Francisco, Chan said she is affected almost daily by the backup of drivers headed toward the East Bay in the afternoon. Because the Fashion Island Boulevard exit from Highway 101 is shared with the exit for the eastbound direction of State Route 92, Chan said she often waits several minutes to exit the highway and travel through the corridor during rush hour.
“You’re really looking at 15, 20 minutes wasted just to go about a mile,” she said. “It’s a daily struggle just to get on the other side, and it shouldn’t be that way.”
Though Chan alternates between driving to the Caltrain station and commuting by train and driving the full distance to work, she said she hits traffic either way, noting both Fashion Island Boulevard and East Hillsdale Boulevard are congested at that time.
Fiesta Gardens residents Steve and Allyson Strauss said the congestion along the corridor forming a northern border for the neighborhood has long been a concern. As the president of the Fiesta Gardens homeowners association, Steve Strauss said residents are also worried about the ability to park at or near their properties and emergency vehicles getting in and out of the neighborhood during rush hour.
They agreed with resident Gene Batter that while entering the neighborhood during rush hour from 19th Avenue at Ginnever Street is challenging during rush hour, it’s even harder getting out of the neighborhood at that time, with cars traveling eastbound at times blocking the intersection.
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“You have to kind of time when you’re going to the grocery store or dinner because you know it’s going to take you 20 minutes to get out of your neighborhood,” said Allyson Strauss.
Lopez said a two-way conversion of the stretch of 19th Avenue between South Delaware and South Grant streets was one recommendation that came out of a traffic action plan completed for the Fiesta Gardens neighborhood in early 2017. One of several taken on in neighborhoods across the city, the effort resulted in a report outlining the neighborhood resident’s top concerns with regard to traffic, said Lopez. It also identified Measure S funding — a locally-controlled quarter-cent sales tax expected to generate more than $5.5 million annually — to support traffic improvements in and around the neighborhood, she said.
By allowing drivers to travel west on the currently one-way stretch of 19th Avenue, the two-way conversion may reduce cut-through traffic on Ginnever Street and Bermuda Drive in the morning, said Steve Strauss. But he wasn’t sure whether it would make much of a difference in the afternoons, when most cars are headed eastbound.
Lakeshore residents Chris and Kari Lusardi said they experience the rush hour congestion on the corridor as they commute from both north and south of the corridor on their way home, which is situated southeast of the State Route 92 and Highway 101 interchange. Because he travels east on State Route 92 to get home from Interstate 280 almost daily, Chris Lusardi wondered whether maintaining the one-way portion of 19th Avenue as an eastbound street but converting the parking lane into another lane of traffic could alleviate some congestion in the afternoons.
“I get caught up in all the people trying to find every way around the 92/101 interchange,” he said. “Everyone’s trying to get around that as much as possible.”
I hope SM and Foster City planners engage in collaboration with the upcoming FC changes to Hillsdale. Once that happens we need San Mateo to do parallel work to help us all. While Foster City is an island, we are still connected and need San Mateo's help.
Honestly, the traffic studies done by the City of San Mateo over the last 10 years are a real farce. And you know what...it's going to continue.
How many more developments are we going to approve in this same area under the Bay Meadows/TOD zoning? AND how many more developments are the city's traffic planners, Hexagon, going to announce, after studying the matter, that there will be little to no impact from those developments...?
I believe the developers of the planned, nearly 1000 unit Concar Passages development, which is next to this area at 101 and 92, said that after being built there would be LESS traffic..........."the emperor has no clothes".
This isn't rocket science and these subsequent traffic situations speak for themselves, there has been little to no infrastructure improvements in the area, since the 1000's of units at Bay Meadows and the city's TOD zone were approved, and none of the area wide studies that should have been done earlier before approvals, other than the rubber stamped, annual traffic study done by the totally, developer dominated stakeholders Transportation Management Agency for the city council.
How could any of them, including the so-called planners both public and private, not have foreseen this coming?
If the on-ramps to EB 92 from Edgewater and Metro Center were closed, the whole area would lighten up. My kid's doctor is near Bridgepointe and we are considering changing for traffic reasons.
Fiesta Gardens neighborhood is a 10-15 minute flat walk to Hayward Park Caltrain, i.e. most people commuting in/out of this neighborhood don't need to drive. But habits die hard.
The traffic on Delaware St, especially with the 101/92 highway, has gotten worse because of the gentrification of new office buildings and high density housing projects that put more traffic. These studies that the planning commission did with TOD, is flawed. Most people aren't going to take public transit, because it's too linear and doesn't go across the freeway to their jobs, and those housing units are too expensive. It was not a good plan.
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(7) comments
I hope SM and Foster City planners engage in collaboration with the upcoming FC changes to Hillsdale. Once that happens we need San Mateo to do parallel work to help us all. While Foster City is an island, we are still connected and need San Mateo's help.
So lets keep adding thousands of jobs to the peninsula and see if that helps.
Exactly!
Honestly, the traffic studies done by the City of San Mateo over the last 10 years are a real farce. And you know what...it's going to continue.
How many more developments are we going to approve in this same area under the Bay Meadows/TOD zoning? AND how many more developments are the city's traffic planners, Hexagon, going to announce, after studying the matter, that there will be little to no impact from those developments...?
I believe the developers of the planned, nearly 1000 unit Concar Passages development, which is next to this area at 101 and 92, said that after being built there would be LESS traffic..........."the emperor has no clothes".
This isn't rocket science and these subsequent traffic situations speak for themselves, there has been little to no infrastructure improvements in the area, since the 1000's of units at Bay Meadows and the city's TOD zone were approved, and none of the area wide studies that should have been done earlier before approvals, other than the rubber stamped, annual traffic study done by the totally, developer dominated stakeholders Transportation Management Agency for the city council.
How could any of them, including the so-called planners both public and private, not have foreseen this coming?
If the on-ramps to EB 92 from Edgewater and Metro Center were closed, the whole area would lighten up. My kid's doctor is near Bridgepointe and we are considering changing for traffic reasons.
Fiesta Gardens neighborhood is a 10-15 minute flat walk to Hayward Park Caltrain, i.e. most people commuting in/out of this neighborhood don't need to drive. But habits die hard.
The traffic on Delaware St, especially with the 101/92 highway, has gotten worse because of the gentrification of new office buildings and high density housing projects that put more traffic. These studies that the planning commission did with TOD, is flawed. Most people aren't going to take public transit, because it's too linear and doesn't go across the freeway to their jobs, and those housing units are too expensive. It was not a good plan.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
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Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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