San Mateo working toward El Camino Real and 17th Avenue improvements: City’s recent talks with Caltrans yield promise for long-awaited changes

Nearby residents have also complained over the years about the dangers of the intersection, especially as drivers making a left turn onto El Camino Real often accelerate to make the light, as there is no dedicated turn signal and they have to yield to oncoming traffic. But because El Camino Real falls under Caltrans, or state, jurisdiction, making changes to the corridor are more complicated and time consuming than if it were under the city’s purview.

Public Works Director Matt Fabry said the city has been meeting with Caltrans recently and are close to finalizing plans for short-term improvements, such as an exclusive pedestrian signal, meaning pedestrians would be able to cross El Camino Real while all vehicles have red lights.

“We requested they consider putting in an exclusive phase for pedestrians so if you’re crossing east or west, all vehicles would be stopped,” Fabry said. “So you’re eliminating the conflict of vehicles making left turns on either side as pedestrians are trying to go east-west on those crosswalks. That can be done with modifications of traffic signal programming.”

Long term, the city hopes for changes to the traffic signal that would allow cars to cross El Camino Real if they are going straight — at the same time as pedestrians are also crossing the state highway — but vehicles would have to wait for a dedicated left-turn signal if they planned to turn onto El Camino Real.

“You can’t just hang a new signal on the existing pole, so you have to usually replace the poles and have them specifically fabricated so you have the right mounting points,” Fabry said. “That can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to do that longer term solution.”

Hopefully, the change could be included in Caltrans’ robust repavement plan along El Camino Real, set to begin in 2028. If not, the city would likely have to initiate project plans and potential financing options.

Still, even short-term improvements have required significant modeling efforts to ensure the changes wouldn’t result in potentially dangerous backups, both along other El Camino Real intersections and State Route 92 ramps.

“If you’re going to put in that exclusive phase where vehicles can’t go … it does mean that there are going to be vehicles queued up for longer periods of time, so we need to do modeling to make sure that we understand what that would look like,” he said. “The main thing we want to avoid is creating other safety problems … with the primary concern being the proximity of that intersection with the 92 on- and off-ramps.”

The city and Caltrans plan to meet again May 22 and potentially finalize short-term plans, including public outreach efforts.