El Camino Real in Redwood City.
San Mateo commissioners are hopeful that long-awaited bike and pedestrian improvements along El Camino Real will be part of the relaunched Grand Boulevard Initiative.
State Route 82, or El Camino Real, serves as a main road spanning the entire county north to south, but improving the often-dangerous walking and biking conditions is notoriously difficult, given it falls under state, not local, jurisdiction.
The Grand Boulevard Initiative is a nearly 20-year-old effort that involves ECR improvements throughout the entire county, though it has undergone some twists and turns. The initiative was once focused on housing and land use along the corridor but, with stricter housing mandates from the state, SamTrans recently pivoted to focus more on transit-related projects, however, minimal funding has been secured.
The improvements range from less-resource-intensive projects to more capital-intensive initiatives, but the agency is still in the early stages of identifying all the projects that will be included in the plan.
Cliff Robbins, member of the San Mateo Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission, said he was hopeful the city-focused efforts would include road improvements and potentially limiting left turns during peak hours.
“The quality of the road itself just sucks to be honest,” Robbins said. “Getting that road actually regularly smoothed out … would be huge.”
He added that limiting left turns during heavy commute hours would also ease congestion.
In addition to traffic safety improvements, the initiative also aims to improve pedestrian and bike infrastructure, but due to Caltrans’ jurisdiction over El Camino Real, cities along the road have had limited ability to make improvements to it. That means some jurisdictions, like San Mateo, have had to prioritize other city-owned roads for bike lane improvements. Unlike Delaware Street and other similar roads, however, El Camino Real spans over 20 miles along the Peninsula, making it a prime spot for connecting the northern and southern ends of the county.
Sustainability and Infrastructure Commissioner Kimi Narita said one of the limitations with San Mateo’s bike master plan, for instance, was that it was confined to city limits. Once some of the bike lanes cross city limits, it’s “just chaos,” she said.
“ECR’s the answer, but politically it is not owned by any individual city, and instead it’s owned by the state and the state has the view of having to think about people regionally and as a whole state, rather than city by city where things are just inherently more limited,” Narita said.
Matt Fabry, San Mateo Public Works director, warned the project may involve difficult conversations over the community’s preferences.
“To put in protected bike lanes, something has to give, and it’s either going to be parking or it’s going to be a lane of travel,” Fabry said of changes that might be made on ECR. “There is limited right of way, and there are going to be tradeoffs to accommodate that.”
The entire Grand Boulevard Initiative, which includes about 22 miles of redesign, could take up to a decade to complete. SamTrans hopes to finalize the cost, construction schedule and secure necessary funds for the multimodal plan — from San Mateo to Redwood City — by 2026.
(650) 344-5200 ext. 102
Daily Journal staff
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Only subscribers can view and post comments on articles.
Already a subscriber? Login Here
We're excited to announce our India Community Travel in Spring 2026! Join this virtual Zoom … Read moreTravel to India Information Session (Online)
“A dazzling delight for all ages” Read moreRodger's & Hammerstein's Cinderella
Dirk van Ulden said:
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(4) comments
What a lovely idea... creating a beautiful "boulevard" with endless protections for the three bicyclists on the road and pedestrians that bluster into traffic. Meanwhile, Caltrans and public officials refuse to provide the efficient, affordable, and reliable public transportation that would make a "boulevard" possible. Instead, they raise tolls, install "pay lanes" and remove parking to "force" people out of their cars and onto what? Try getting from San Mateo to San Francisco on public transportation. Block-long buses with two riders, one of whom has a knife. It's obvious that transit officials don't use public transportation, or have a clue how to create a usable system. So, beautify away fir bikers and pedestrians, and let the rest of us eat cake.
Driving is actually way more dangerous than using a bus, a train or an air plane.
There are 40,000 American killed by cars every year - the majority being other drivers and their passengers. There are also some 30,000 car jackings per FBI data, and those can end badly.
And then there are the other risks. You could be shot in a parking lot, during a highway drive-by shooting or simply when waiting at a gas station: https://local.nixle.com/alert/11921273/?sub_id=0
People on trains are easily 20x safer than people in cars.
People in urban buses are 50-100x safer than people in cars.
People on commercial air planes are some 2000x safer than people in cars.
My understanding is that Caltrans *is* in favor of adding protected bike lanes and improved pedestrian infrastructure to ECR (thanks, Caltrans DIB-94!). However, it's getting all 19 communities along the 43 mile stretch of ECR from San Bruno to San Jose that's the complicating factor. Just look at the challenges involved with the recent ECR ped/bike improvements in Palo Alto and Mountain View.
That all said, the GBI for ECR would be a marquee project for California, showing the rest of the world how to implement a regional, multi-modal road that would allow cars, buses, pedestrian, and bicyclists to easily, quickly, and *safely* transit within and between communities in San Mateo and Santa Clara County.
Thanks to Commissioners Robbins and Narita for making safety the priority, over vehicle speed and convenience. Yesterday another pedestrian was hit on ECR in SM at Tilton.
ECR should become a boulevard, not an alternative to 101 and 280.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
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.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.