Living car-free in Burlingame

In 2015, I hit the ground at SFO without a job and no savings, just a closet to sleep in. During my first year in the Bay Area, I earned minimum wage while interviewing for design jobs, and moved five times. One thing remained constant: Riding my bike and taking public transit were the only transportation methods I could afford. While I achieved independence and joy from commuting by bike, I quickly learned that most cities are not designed to make anything other than driving easy.

I moved to Burlingame in 2018 where my partner operates a vehicle for their livelihood. While I can now afford to drive, I don’t. The thought of adding one more vehicle to Burlingame’s congested streets pains me. I know I’m resisting the status quo, but it’s the status quo that’s gotten us into public health crisis levels of traffic violence on top of the climate crisis.

What shaped the routes I take to get around Burlingame was a close call in 2018 while biking up California Drive toward Millbrae Station. New to the area and noticing the new bike lane, I headed north through the Broadway intersection. After I made it through the intersection and onto the thin refuge provided by paint, I felt a weight pull down at the left side of my body, causing me to lose grip of my steering. As this happened a box truck passed me within an inch. What happened was that the right strap on my backpack broke, dropping like an anchor tethered to my body. The pull forced me into the traffic lane, where it’s pure luck I wasn’t run over. I rode the rest of the way to Millbrae Station one-handed. This wasn’t my first close call there, so after settling into my Caltrain seat with trembling hands, I decided it was time to find another route.

I’ve changed my commute by going to Burlingame Station where the baby bullet train doesn’t exist, adding 20 minutes each way. I justify it, however, because I don’t want to use a street where death or injury is the penalty for a broken backpack. Or because a driver veered into my lane or someone opened their car door. The simple solution: a protected bicycle lane. With a protected bike lane, no one would have to worry about death being the penalty for the type of close call I encountered, because it would be nearly impossible. Unfortunately, when the City Council chose the new design for California Drive, it didn’t pick the safest option. And in the updated Bicycle Pedestrian Plan that will be presented next week on Dec. 7 (a plan which will serve our community for 20 years) there is no vision to make the bike lanes on California Drive from Broadway to Millbrae fully protected.

I don’t have evidence the council is willing to prioritize people’s safety over parking, but it’s possible the omission is because collision data was used to scope the whole plan. It’s great for playing catch-up, but collision data is a lagging indicator of a problem. It doesn’t take into account Burlingame’s future needs, with hundreds of new homes near transit and Facebook’s new Oculus campus. Burlingame will experience a surge in road users of all ages, abilities and across transportation modes. A broken backpack strap can happen to anyone, but when people are injured or killed in ways that could have been prevented through infrastructure — that’s a policy failure.

Looking back to my first year in the Bay Area as a young bike and transit rider, I would have been an important underrepresented voice to tell electeds how my survival depended on riding a bike, and describe the close calls I endured. I didn’t though, because at the end of an eight-hour shift on my feet and housing insecurity in the foreground, I didn’t have the capacity. I often wonder how many of these stories we don’t hear from people, because they too, are busy surviving.

Madeline Frechette writes about local politics in The Burlingame Local, a Substack publication inspired by her experience engaging in Burlingame’s public processes.