A San Mateo transportation review showed that despite progress on numerous bike and pedestrian infrastructure improvements, many projects are unfunded or remain in precarious positions.
The overview at a City Council meeting June 2, was meant to evaluate the status of the city’s numerous transit — including bike and pedestrian — goals and initiatives.
According to a staff presentation, the city is in at least the planning stages of about 12 active transportation related projects, including those on South B Street, 28th Avenue and South Grant Street. Although the cost for all bike-related projects total around $40 million, most are unfunded, said Engineering Manager Jay Yu. The same also goes for pedestrian-related projects. About 70% of the city’s transportation projects are grant funded.
“Out of all the grant funding, 85% is federal funding, 9% is state and about 5% is [from the] county,” Yu said. “Federal funds tend to be higher in dollar value. They are higher in funds, but their applications are very extensive … but we have a number of big projects going on.”
While some of the projects, such as curb enhancements and sidewalk lighting, have garnered less attention, others, including the Humboldt Street bike lanes, have become a divisive issue among some residents. Three years ago, the new bike lanes along Humboldt Street removed about 200 parking spaces, as part of a $1.5 million federal grant, and the initiative caused an uproar in the neighborhood. In February, the council decided to start the process of removing the bike lanes on Humboldt Street from Second Avenue to Indian Avenue, which would bring back about 100 parking spaces. Yu said the first of three community meetings will be June 18.
While councilmembers lauded the progress made on the many initiatives thus far, they also raised concern about the high percentage of projects reliant on federal funding.
“My biggest concern is how do we pay for things with 85% being federal funding and the scare of potentially not seeing a lot of federal funding in California and particularly the Bay Area?” Mayor Rob Newsom said. “I think we need to keep moving quickly to get stuff done.”
Deputy Mayor Adam Loraine also noted the relatively low percentage of non-vehicle usage by residents. According to the presentation, about 85% of commuters use cars, while 5% bike and 6% take public transit.
“The mode share numbers are not where we want them to be … and the funding numbers, particularly with the federal number, was a little tough to see but I know the city is working on diversifying its grant opportunities,” Loraine said.
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Mike Harris said:
Dirk van Ulden said:
Eh HFAB - your traditional non-sequitur? Pulled out of your random grab bag?
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(3) comments
The whole story about the funding is also misleading.
If California gas tax and vehicle license fees are so high and pays for everything, why would we rely on federal funding in the first place?
SamTrans is 95% funded through Measure A+W. Bike/Ped funding is part of the same sales tax and is so cheap and ADA relevant, that it should be part of every single transportation project by default. SMCTA and C/CAG could pay for all bike/ped projects out of pocket and also afford free SamTrans tickets for everyone.
It's only the large projects (HSR, Caltrain electrification, highway expansion, car bridges, grade separations, etc) that require Fed funding.
Or in short ...
... for good projects - like bike lanes or ADA infrastructure - the city always needs to look for grants and charity or their poor hands are bound.
... for bad projects - like removing bike lanes or building empty car garages - the city manager always finds the necessary money in his General Fund. Never a problem there.
A bike lane comes with a cost of $5-10k per mile in paint. $40M would easily pay 4,000-8,000 miles in bike lanes. Sweet if true. But it isn't.
Of course the $40M aren't going to bicycle infrastructure (bike crossings, bike tunnels, traffic lights with bike leading signal, etc.). To get to $40M, the city manager just rebrands every "Traffic Calming" project as pro-pedestrian and pro-cycling instead of calling it an anti-speeder- and anti-reckless-driver infrastructure.
The road diet on Delaware for example is now rebranded as "Safe-Routes-To-School", whereas the real SRTS on Humboldt is being dismantled. In fact the city will brand the removal of Humboldt Street bike lanes as "Bicycle Expense" since the cyclists will be getting a "Bicycle Boulevard" instead. All while the Lexus drivers will keep their "equity"-parking, which means free car storage for Audis, cybertrucks, F-450s on our public streets. That wasteful expense will be swept under the rug by Nicole Fernandez and never mentioned.
Sidewalks and bike lanes are basically ADA relevant infrastructure projects and should be paid from the regular general fund instead of making up "Federal Funding Issues" as a cheap excuse to not providing ADA infrastructure.
We need more "Ambulance Chasers" to make the city pay for their mistakes.
As long as San Mateo intends to be a sanctuary city, I’ll continue to be happy notifying the Trump administration and requesting that they withhold federal funds. Meanwhile, perhaps we could establish a local DOGE panel and determine which projects should definitely be canceled, especially divisive bike lanes. Of which only 5% use (a high estimate?).
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