Editorial: Don't confuse trees, lanes on El Camino

"Do you want to start a civil war?" Councilman Jack Morton asked point blank at a City Council study session in mid-July. He was responding to one alternative listed in a Caltrans-funded study of alternative designs for El Camino, reflecting today's uses of the historic "King's Highway."

The joint Caltrans Demonstration Grant Project -- funded by a $240,000 Caltrans grant and a $48,000 city match -- began in January and is due for completion in December.

The idea is to "explore context-sensitive design solutions for in-town highways, using El Camino as a prototype," the mid-year staff report noted. Times have changed, in other words. El Camino is no longer the sole north-south arterial that it was, say, a half-century ago when state standards were set in concrete for such highways.

Key objectives of the project are to (1) increase safety and comfort for all travel modes, (2) improve the "appearance and urban design character," and (3) improve the "quality of life and the environment on the street and in nearby neighborhoods."

But despite the road's name, there are some things even a king cannot decree, as when old King Canute ordered the tide not to rise. Just so, the limiting reality for El Camino is likely to be the tide of traffic -- and the fear of residents that pinching major arterials will cause that tide to overflow into side streets, where they live.

This was the basis for Morton's "civil war" alert, and it is well-taken if perhaps premature. Key leaders of a "Trees for El Camino" group even held an emergency huddle last week to discuss how to underscore that they are not behind the lane-reduction alternative.

"Either way it works. We're not advocating one way or the other," Paula Sandis of the Trees group emphasized. She noted that the Trees group was formed in early 1999 -- well before the design study. The group hopes to raise $1 million to plant up to 1,000 new trees along El Camino in Palo Alto -- complementing other tree projects in other El Camino cities.

Overall, the design project has many sound features. For years, local officials up and down the Peninsula have been frustrated by Caltrans' inflexibility toward tweaking its design standards, despite the existence of Bayshore and Junipero Serra freeways. El Camino has evolved into a primarily local but still highly important traffic arterial -- equivalent perhaps to a county expressway.

Now, with a push from state Assemblyman Joe Simitian, Caltrans has loosened up and is even an enthusiastic partner. The new approach of looking at El Camino in its present reality is long overdue.

Features of the redesign include 10-foot-wide sidewalks, 5-foot-wide bicycle lanes (yes, there are bicyclists who use El Camino), reduced median strips from 12 to 8 feet (to provide for tree plantings while allowing room for other features), and many beautification touches while maintaining parking in business areas. The report says the width of traffic lanes in some areas could also be narrowed while still meeting national standards -- approach this one with care and skepticism. The design would also seek to lower speeds from the common 50 miles per hour to the safer 35-mph posted speeds and provide for "multimodal" (different means of transportation) use.