From July: Caltrans takes the lead on El Camino Real bike accommodations
Scott Mace
I just came across this Palo Alto Online story from July about how -- surprisingly -- Caltrans is taking the initiative in proposing bicycling infrastructure in Palo Alto along busy El Camino Real.
This is an outgrowth of Caltrans' adopted Complete Streets
policy. A road diet is not contemplated, but on-street parking may
be eliminated, the story says.
CABO's own Alan Wachtel, government relations director, is quoted in passing:
Alan Wachtel argued that Caltrans should have discussed its
plans with the city and with the committee much earlier — before
producing the engineering plans, according to a comment sheet
that the committee put together.
"For that reason, Caltrans should not form any commitment to
these plans, or some variation, simply because they have already
been developed," Wachtel wrote.
I'm hard-pressed to remember a situation where Caltrans took the lead in suggesting to a city that one of its state highways accommodate bicycling infrastructure - a role normally reserved for the cities themselves to develop locally-preferred alternatives.
There are probably other recent examples. I just can't think of any.
Perhaps Alan can give us an update on what's going on in Palo Alto. I haven't seen any other press coverage about this, although last week, Caltrans convened an inter-city Zoom call about bicycling and pedestrian issues on El Camino in Palo Alto, Los Altos and Mountain View. I listened in on that call. Mountain View, through a local initiative, is getting bike lanes (possibly door zone) along its stretch of El Camino, though there is continuing local clamor for a Class IV arrangement instead, and the whole thing is delayed by a multimillion-dollar El Camino repaving project through the three cities.
Ultimately, El Camino probably will get a road diet, but an
effort a decade ago to take a traffic lane away for rapid bus
service went down in flames after much politicking.
Scott Mace
Scott Mace
Clarification: The Mountain View bike lanes require actually removing parking from El Camino to make room for them. (But the call for Class IV physical separation Class IV continues.)
These will be the first bike lanes on El Camino south of South
San Francisco, to my knowledge.
Scott Mace
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CABOforum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to caboforum+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/caboforum/177ad42d-4848-4f24-b7c4-911eb188c398%40wiredmuse.com.
Gary Cziko
Ultimately, El Camino probably will get a road diet, but an effort a decade ago to take a traffic lane away for rapid bus service went down in flames after much politicking.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/caboforum/3ff13dea-295a-4bbc-ac70-2437ed8c01e4%40wiredmuse.com.
Alan Wachtel
The July article that Scott cited gives a pretty good picture of
what's happening. El Camino Real--which in this area is State
Highway 82, under Caltrans jurisdiction--is a visually blighted,
auto-oriented suburban commercial arterial, typically six lanes
wide, divided, and signalized at major intersections. It has a
high density of unsignalized cross streets and of driveways that
lead to off-street customer parking for standalone businesses and
strip malls, as well as some on-street parking. The speed limit is
35, and the ADT is roughly 30,000.
As part of a Caltrans repaving project, Mountain View and
Sunnyvale, the next cities to the south of Palo Alto, are hot to
install Class IV bikeways on El Camino. A number of other cities
are also interested in this "Grand Boulevard Initiative," while
Palo Alto has been lukewarm, for reasons explained in the article.
To me, El Camino, given the geometric conflicts that would be
created by its high density and high volume of turning traffic at
minor intersections and business driveways--major intersections
can be dealt with by providing merging areas or, more
problematically, separate signal phases--is just about the worst
place you could put a Class IV bikeway. Though there's still
plenty of room for improvement through parking removal,
restriping, and bike lanes (possibly buffered), I don't think it's
ever going to be an attractive route for most bicyclists.
Nonetheless, Caltrans went ahead on its own and designed some sort of bikeway for El Camino in Palo Alto. I say "some sort" because when the Palo Alto Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee (which I'm a member of) saw these plans in May, for the first time, we had a hard time interpreting the mass of tiny, cluttered drawings. We weren't even sure which class of bikeway was being proposed. No one from Caltrans was present at the meeting to answer our questions.
The committee compiled a long list of questions and comments that
were sent off to Caltrans for review. Caltrans has never replied.
Another good account of the situation at that time is at
https://padailypost.com/2023/07/15/caltrans-wants-bike-lanes-on-el-camino-in-palo-alto-but-city-bike-committee-has-got-concerns/.
As far as I know, the next communication from Caltrans with Palo
Alto was a letter to the city manager, dated November 3, stating
that Caltrans "proposes to add new bikeways along El Camino Real,
State Route (SR) 82, in conjunction with the upcoming paving
project in the Cities of Mountain View, Los Altos, and Palo Alto."
Whether "proposes" means ""We still want to offer ideas for your
consideration" or "This is what we've already decided to do," we
don't know. The design of the bikeways, again we don't know.
Caltrans alleges that their "Bicyclist Safety Improvement
Monitoring Program has identified two segments of SR 82 in the
City of Palo Alto (City) with higher safety risks due to many
bike-related collisions either bicycling against traffic on the
sidewalk or on El Camino Real. The proposed new bikeways are
expected to significantly reduce the incidence of riding against
traffic or riding on sidewalks." These two segments comprise most
of the El Camino frontage in Palo Alto. No one else has seen this
data. Requests from City staff made as long ago as February have
gone unanswered.
The Caltrans letter asked the city council to adopt a resolution
removing existing street parking by April 1, so the project can
proceed. It's not clear whether this is more than a formality,
since Caltrans has jurisdiction over the street. Parking removal
would in fact be beneficial to bicyclists, but we still don't know
what other plans Caltrans has in mind.
The city manager replied on November 17, asking for information
about the collision data, Caltrans' plans for resolving
intersection conflicts, draft plans for review, bike lane design
and safety, and other important questions. This letter requested a
reply by December 15, in order to adhere to Caltrans's proposed
timeline.
~ Alan
Scott Mace
Here's the latest update from local news site The Almanac:
Scott Mace
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CABOforum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to caboforum+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/caboforum/dbb9f2f0-cb20-4939-9632-934d3dd38e9d%40aol.com.
Scott Mace
in Palo Alto. They will be Class 2, except "in some portions of El
Camino, including segments around Charleston Road and California Avenue,
Caltrans plans to separate the bike lanes from regular traffic by
installing rows of vertical tubes, or delineators." (So, in other words,
some Class 4, but only NEAR major intersections.)
Whether or not the city or the bike advisory committee has other ideas,
this appears to be a done deal. SVBC is doing a great deal of lobbying
to change all the Class 2 facilities into Class 4.
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/2024/01/31/caltrans-releases-plans-for-el-camino-bike-lane-project/
Scott Mace
