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In the last decade, over 700 children have been involved in collisions on El Camino Real. In Santa Clara County, 30% of all collisions that occur on El Camino Real happen in Palo Alto. Once a month for the last decade, a person who walks or bikes is injured on El Camino Real in Palo Alto, usually a child or teen.
Anyone who walks, bikes, or drives along El Camino Real knows how dangerous it is, and it is time for a change.
Over the last two decades, government agencies have envisioned and planned for a better El Camino Real. A roadway with safer infrastructure that is a pleasant place to live, work, and shop — think of the “grand boulevards” of Europe. Tall apartment buildings above local businesses with outdoor dining, lush green space, street trees, wide sidewalks for people to wander, barriers protecting those who bike, and a slower road with space for public transit. This is a road that is safe for all users.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), which owns El Camino Real, is beginning the first phase of making the “grand boulevard” a reality. Caltrans will be repaving El Camino Real and they are asking cities to approve removing parking to install better bike infrastructure, something Los Altos and Mountain View voted to do two years ago. This infrastructure will include green-colored pavement along bike lanes, painted “bike boxes” in front of intersections (to designate an area for cyclists), and plastic barriers to delineate the bike lanes. This is the first step in a vision for a grand boulevard, and almost all of the 19 cities along El Camino Real have been proactive in working with Caltrans to implement road improvements for people who walk and bike and to better accommodate public transit.
On April 1st, Palo Alto City Council has a once-in-a-decade opportunity to change El Camino Real for the better. They can make a decision that will save lives.
The City Council will be asked to pass a resolution to remove parking on El Camino Real to install bike lanes. The current plan is far from perfect. As such, Council should frame this as a first step for a safer El Camino Real and begin (as other cities have) to plan for more to improve this initial infrastructure by including additional facilities in the city’s bicycle and pedestrian plan. Additionally, they should request that Caltrans collaborate closely with community partners and city and county officials to ensure that any Palo Alto residents living in their RVs or vehicles on El Camino Real get nearby safe parking locations. The city is expanding our safe parking program so we can work together to find a place for these neighbors in our community.
Investing in safer infrastructure for people who walk or bike on El Camino Real and throughout the city is a necessary action identified in the city’s Sustainability and Climate Action Plan (S/CAP). We are already behind in reaching our climate goals for 2030. New bicycle infrastructure on El Camino Real will help with that shortfall. This is also an essential climate action as homes are developed along El Camino Real. We need to ensure these new neighbors don’t just add to the congestion, but can choose to safely walk, bike, or take public transit.
The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition members have surveyed over 200 local businesses on El Camino Real. All of them want El Camino Real to be a better retail environment; including a safer, slower road — something the proposed repaving project will do with the inclusion of narrower travel lanes and a bike lane. Yes, parking spaces will be lost, but there is a 9:1 ratio of parking spaces off of El Camino Real versus on El Camino Real. It is primarily employees who park on El Camino Real, so let’s further engage the businesses and find locations for alternative parking. We can continue to promote our city’s Transportation Management Agency’s Transit Program, because bike lanes increase the ability to use transit by extending its geographic reach.
Removing on-street parking also increases the visibility of commercial frontages, something businesses said they favored. Palo Alto’s own economic consultants have recommended improving infrastructure for those who walk, bike, or take public transit, to help support our local businesses. After a protected bike lane was installed in New York City, businesses saw a 49% increase in retail sales with fewer commercial vacancies. In Toronto, those who arrive by bike or foot spend more dollars per month than those who arrive by car. And more locally, when new bike lanes were installed on Valencia Street in San Francisco, over 65% of merchants saw a positive increase in sales. We know that almost half of customers arrive at University Avenue by means other than a car, let’s strive for the same on El Camino.
You might be reading this and thinking, “But I would still never bike on El Camino Real.” You might never, but as collision data reveals, hundreds of people bike on El Camino Real every day, and we need to keep them safe. Let’s remember that those making the lowest incomes are the most likely to commute by bike — it’s service workers, food delivery drivers, teens, and new cyclists getting across Palo Alto by bike who end up on El Camino Real out of necessity or accident. Let’s make our city safe for them; reduce our climate emissions; provide a clear connection to jobs, homes, and adjacent cities; and take the first steps toward making El Camino Real the grand boulevard we all want it to be.
Amie Ashton is chair of the board of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. She can be reached at bikeloveramie@gmail.com.
Roads should be used for active transportation, not car storage. I fully support bike lanes on El Camino.
It seems like the only reason for this project is because Caltrans only has jurisdiction over El Camino and not over more bike-appropriate parallel routes.
Best practice includes testing ideas with pilot projects to see if they really work. Apparently MV and Los Altos are willing to be guinea pigs for this, so let’s see how bike lanes on ECR work out or don’t there first. Since this is only a paving project with no roadway reconfiguration, it would be easy to add the bike lanes later in the Palo Alto segment if that’s seen to be desirable.
At the last public meeting with Caltrans, they said it is actually not so easy to add them later, and the funding would likely need to come from Palo Alto instead of the State. So even that striping change would take years to implement and take funds away from some other project. Plus the success of the new bike lanes in Mountain View and Los Altos could be improved by the bike lanes continuing into Palo Alto. Can you imagine riding north in a nice bike lane and then all of a sudden it stops where parked cars force you into the regular car lane?
@Biff
Or the failure of the bike lanes in MV and Los Altos could be mitigated by not implementing them in Palo Alto yet. 🙂 That’s the point of a pilot project.
I am in disagreement on this one Amie. ECR is also a major vein for moving goods, construction, dirt moving trucks — there are too many “u turns ok” or right turns on red okay, business driveways. Plopping a bike lane will, in my view, create more hazards — not lessen them. Aside from this . The reworking construction of corners bulb outs and new sidewalk along ECR between Stanford and Cal Ave is really bad currently. Cones and yellow tape yet no “detour” or “sidewalk closed” signage for warning autos, pedestrians, bike riders. Very dangerous as this is a crossing for many to elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and colleges. Let alone the store and foot traffic impeded. Not even sure this is a cal trans or city job. No signage no designation on who is performing the work. Nothing. The city of palo alto needs better cross town cycle paths and bike lanes. Using a major HWY 82 for a bike lane is making in more unsafe with all the buss stopping. I think removing parking in front of residential and retail is wrong. While housing plans are reducing parking requirements to get more units in, the city and state are also minimizing parking for residents. the section between Cal Ave and Page Mill is particularly troublesome because of the E Cal Ave closure, the narrow bike path on W Cal Ave. The lack of a count down crossing light there. The lack of diagonal stiped cross walk. All the business’ and residents residing along the corridor between. The biz Sand Hill Properties is hogging a lot of surface parking where there is a public easement. Yet they hire guards to keep parking out. The soccer field only has one in/out entrance on ECR and Not one on Page Mill (which is a no brainer). There is no loading zone on the stretch on ECR. VTA buss stack up double long at Wells Fargo. While tons of commercial semi trucks, dirt filled trucks, dump truck, box trucks hog the roadway. The closed left turn lane onto cal ave is also a weeded mess. Traffic backs up on ECR from Page Mill to Stanford Ave hourly. Adding bikes to this mix is going to be worse.
A round a bout at Page Mill / ECR would be a good solution as well as one at ECR / Embarcadero. Bike lanes are an amenity for the road bike warrior not for the normal resident. Where is SRP and Stanford in partnering ?? 100’s of SRP / SU students teachers residents walk the Cal Ave ECR crossing for “outdoor dining” and Farmers Market — layering more on top is like overlaying residential housing on commercial. It might be a “through line” but not a good transportation solution.
Bike lanes on highway El Camino Real is a reckless proposal by a bike commuter coalition. Ashton’s case that having bike lanes will make riding on the highway ‘safer’ for children is false. Paul Lafargue was killed traversing the the ECR in the California Avenue crosswalk. He had the right of way with a greenlight. He was hit by a flatbed tow truck making a hard right onto the highway. There is just too much ‘friction’ with many driveways and buses. Emissions from trucks and cars are unhealthy. Do parents want their kids on a highway? In San Francisco businesses have suffered on Valencia Street. Taking away parking on the ECR will impact businesses and not in a good way.
Someone upstairs at Caltrans thinks having bike lanes on the highway is a cool concept. He or she agrees with the militant cycling lobby that this is a “moral” issue. Caltrans dangles money saying potholes won’t be addressed unless bike lanes are implemented. This IMO feels like blackmail. I urge the city council to stand up for safety and reject bike lanes on highway 82. Support residents and businesses and retain parking on the El Camino Real.