Pavement conditions are just "fair" on the Bay Area's roadways, according to an annual report card from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
The report released Thursday quantifies conditions on the region's 44,000 miles of local streets and roads and shows that a typical Bay Area thoroughfare showed "serious wear" in 2022 and probably needs to be repaired soon.
It's the seventh year in a row the region's streets have collectively earned a "fair" rank in the report by the MTC, which is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county Bay Area.
"The lack of progress toward our goal of bringing all the Bay Area's streets and roads into a state of good repair is frustrating," said MTC chairperson and Napa County Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza. "At the same time, we're encouraged that our counties and cities have been able to prevent large-scale deterioration."
"And the dramatic improvements seen in some of our communities, particularly those where voters have approved local taxes for street rehabilitation, show us it's a goal that can be reached," Pedroza said.
The roads are graded on a scale of zero to 100, with 90 or higher considered "excellent," 80 to 89 considered "very good," 70 to 79 is "good," 60-69 is "fair," 50 to 59 is "at-risk" and scores of 25 to 49 are considered "poor."
Orinda, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Brentwood, Dublin and the unincorporated areas of Solano County all topped the list with "very good" scores.
St. Helena, Sebastopol, Vallejo, unincorporated Napa County, Petaluma and Pacifica all earned "poor" rankings.
Comments
Registered user
Midtown
on Nov 20, 2023 at 9:56 am
Registered user
on Nov 20, 2023 at 9:56 am
Wow! The roads are currently quite terrible! What is the methodology for making this assessment -- and what is this in comparison with?
Registered user
Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on Nov 20, 2023 at 10:20 am
Registered user
on Nov 20, 2023 at 10:20 am
"Orinda, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Brentwood, Dublin and the unincorporated areas of Solano County all topped the list with "very good" scores."
And yet again, the MTC is out of touch and needs to drive around Palo Alto more to see how rough the roads are.
Curious what they think will happen to the roads when the Bay Area is forced to add 1,000,000 more housing units with, say, 1,500,000 people most of whom drive cars because there's no reasonable alternative.
Registered user
Barron Park
on Nov 20, 2023 at 10:28 am
Registered user
on Nov 20, 2023 at 10:28 am
El Camino particularly in areas south of Page Mill Road are deplorable, the holes are so deep that it’s dangerous to go through them, which one has to during heavy traffic hours. If I am trying to cross El Camino on my bike at a newly installed traffic light near Vista I am worried to get a flat tire from going through all the holes. The state of the road is absolutely deplorable, not even fair.
Registered user
Evergreen Park
on Nov 20, 2023 at 10:41 am
Registered user
on Nov 20, 2023 at 10:41 am
I could not agree more with Barron Member: El Camino is particularly bad south of Oregon/Page Mill. The whole street is just death on a car's suspension and tires, but there are spots near Arastradero that make my fillings rattle. And while I understand that there is some shared responsibility between CalTrans and the city, its not like other purely city-maintained streets are a lot better. Whomever wrote this report for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is either co-employed by the city of Palo Alto or was completely out to lunch the day they drove around town.
Registered user
Barron Park
on Nov 20, 2023 at 10:54 am
Registered user
on Nov 20, 2023 at 10:54 am
Ditto "Barron member" and "midtown citizen" for over 3 years the El Camino Real has been a shock absorber buster!!! Caltrans indicates it might get done in the summer of 2024. What a joke!
Registered user
another community
on Nov 20, 2023 at 11:49 am
Registered user
on Nov 20, 2023 at 11:49 am
The roads throughout California are in poor condition. It's been that way for years. Fix our roads! We pay taxes for a reason.
Registered user
Old Palo Alto
on Nov 20, 2023 at 10:43 pm
Registered user
on Nov 20, 2023 at 10:43 pm
I guess this is what is called grade inflation. Our roads are poor to terrible.
Registered user
Barron Park
on Nov 21, 2023 at 12:50 am
Registered user
on Nov 21, 2023 at 12:50 am
El Camino through Barron Park is a minefield of deep potholes. It's frustrating to pay $50k a year in local tax and have roads befitting a third world country.
Registered user
Old Palo Alto
on Nov 21, 2023 at 10:43 am
Registered user
on Nov 21, 2023 at 10:43 am
After visiting family this summer and traveling the back roads through some of the poorest areas of NJ, I was astonished at the excellent condition of the pavement in an area that deals with snow, ice, salt, and snowplows. And then I came home to roads that cause serious damage to our cars if we dare to even travel the speed limit. We are now considering selling/changing one of our cars because every trip ends up with a bubble in a tire. It's pretty sad to have such tired infrastructure in the heart of high tech silicon valley.
Registered user
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Nov 21, 2023 at 11:12 am
Registered user
on Nov 21, 2023 at 11:12 am
If our roads are the third down the list of acceptability and rated "fair", then I would hate to see those in the lower categories of at risk and poor!
But I do know that in areas where there are lots of snow, ice and of course snowplows, pavement damage is common and maintenace is a regular occurrance. Because we have better weather, our pavement maintenance is low on the list of priorities. Last winter, after unusual snow on Page Mill Road, the road snow clearance was done by construction vehicles rather than snow plows and there was much damage done to the yellow and other lane markers. I haven't noticed if they were ever repaired?