ROADWAY NETWORK

The recommended roadway network for the plan area is made up of three types of facilities.

Regional Connector Streets

Millbrae Avenue and El Camino Real both provide regional access and connections to and from the Plan Area. Millbrae Avenue provides connections to U.S. Highway 101 on the east side of the Plan Area and Interstate 280 to the west. El Camino Real links the Peninsula communities along the east side of San Mateo County, extending from Daly City to the north and San Jose to the south. These roadways are important regional travel corridors that need to balance a diversity of road users and land uses. Designing these connectors to efficiently operate for motor vehicles and transit service while providing safe, convenient, and connected accommodations for walking, biking, and crossings is a key focus for these roadways.

Commercial Corridors

Broadway and El Camino Real between Millbrae Avenue and Meadow Glen Avenue are the two primary commercial corridors within the Plan Area and the city of Millbrae, and are the heart of local economic and social activity. Additionally, these roadway corridors serve a broad range of users from drivers using El Camino Real for regional connections to pedestrians accessing shopping and services. Under the Specific Plan, these two corridors have been identified for key streetscape enhancements to reorient the roadways from emphasizing motor vehicle operations to enhancing the transit, walking and biking environment with improvements, including wider sidewalks, street trees, curb extensions, enhanced bus stops, and sidewalk dining areas to provide a more appealing environment that invites people to walk, shop, and congregate in these central districts of the city.

Local Roadways

The majority of the roadways within the Plan Area primarily serve local traffic. These roadways are currently designed to encourage slow-moving traffic through short blocks and narrow lanes. Some of these roadways, such as Magnolia Avenue and Hemlock Avenue, are recommended as key bikeway facilities. Aside from signing and striping improvements along these corridors to identify them as bike routes, these corridors will operate similarly to all other local roadways within the city. Improvements to these roadways should be focused on maintenance, speed management, and enhancing the local character of the neighborhoods.

California Drive Extension

As new transit-oriented development occurs on the west side of the Intermodal Station, these projects should accommodate the extension of California Drive to meet Victoria Avenue at El Camino Real and connect with Hemlock Avenue. Given the proximity to the Intermodal Station, the extension should be developed to provide quality facilities for people walking, biking, driving, or taking transit to or from the Station Area.

Transit

MTC and ABAG identified the Millbrae Priority Development Area for future growth based on its accessibility to the Inter-modal Station and to highfrequency transit service along El Camino Real. As shown in Figure 6.2 (Transit Service), transit in the plan area is focused on El Camino Real and regional connections from U.S. Highway 101 and Old Bayshore Highway via Millbrae Avenue. Maintaining transit service along these two corridors is of primary importance. In the case of El Camino Real, transit stop improvements are proposed in concert with the streetscape enhancements. These include in-lane bus stops and transit islands to reduce boarding and alighting times, as well as transit signal priority to ensure that buses along the El Camino Real and Millbrae Avenue corridors are given priority when waiting for a signal. Concurrent with the effort to improve the streetscape for pedestrians, providing improved bus stop waiting areas with shelters and benches will contribute to the sense of place along El Camino Real and make transit use more comfortable.