ROAD DESIGN CONCEPTS

In line with the City’s 2040 General Plan and Active Transportation Plan, a number of design concepts have been developed for key street improvements within the Plan Area. These concepts focus on transforming the streets and crossings within the Plan Area to better support livable places and multi-modal access. The recently adopted Active Transportation Plan prioritizes three corridors: Broadway and El Camino Real between Millbrae Avenue and Meadow Glen Avenue, and Millbrae Avenue, for enhancing the public realm and walking experience, improving connectivity, and creating a vibrant walking and shopping environment. This chapter provides an overview of improvements to these three corridors.

The Broadway and El Camino Real Streetscape Plan (Appendix A) provides details on streetscape improvements to Broadway and El Camino Real.

• Sidewalk widening

• Bulb outs for safer pedestrian crossings

• Median refuge

• Enhanced greening the downtown

Each of these concepts is described briefly below. For improvements recommended on other streets, please refer to city of Millbrae’s Active Transportation Plan, 2021.

El Camino Real Corridor

El Camino Real (State Route 82, a State highway under Caltrans jurisdiction) currently has three lanes in each direction with high traffic speeds and volume. The improvement concept for El Camino Real reflects the objectives of the Grand Boulevard Initiative, which focuses on making the corridor more comfortable for all road users from motorists and bus riders to bicyclists and pedestrians.

A key element of the Specific Plan is implementing comfortable bike routes for both experienced and novice bicyclists. For more experienced cyclists, a protected bike lane (Class IV facility) is proposed along El Camino Real, which provides a higher-speed route, but will still require navigating a number of high-traffic-volume intersections. The ATP proposes parallel on lower traffic roads.

Frontage Roads

In addition to pedestrian and bicycleoriented improvements, entrances and exits for frontage roads along the west side of El Camino Real (State Route 82, a State highway under Caltrans jurisdiction) should be reconfigured to allow for direct access to and from El Camino Real, rather than from side streets. This will make intersections safer by reducing the number of potential conflict points for motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists. It also allows for shorter crossing distances for pedestrians crossing El Camino Real, as the existing frontage road driveways are replaced with large curb extensions, street trees, landscaping and other amenities can be added to provide a more comfortable walking and shopping environment. Finally, this adjustment also allows for in-lane bus stops with transit islands to be provided along the corridor, allowing a comfortable and efficient place for passenger boarding and alighting. Throughout the corridor, wider sidewalks shall be provided as new development occurs.

NO-FRONTAGE ROADS

The first phase (if needed) of the northern zone without frontage roads maintains an even 12’ through-lanes in both directions and a widened 12’ turn- lane in the Northbound direction from the existing 11’.

• On-street parking is eliminated from both sides of the street.

• A 5’-wide Class II bike lane with a 2’ buffer is added to both directions.

• The median is maintained in its current location, however the 6’-wide median is extended to provide a pedestrian refuge at the crosswalks. The median could be reconstructed during Phase 1 or Phase 2.

• Existing large trees in the median could be protected and additional median trees would be planted.

• In Phase 1, bus stops are within the sidewalks such that the bus crosses into the bike lanes to load and unload.

In the second phase, Phase 1 improvements are maintained and one travel lane is removed from each direction, allowing the following improvements:

• The sidewalks are widened from 8’ to 10’.

• Parking is reintroduced to the street.

• The bike lanes are Class IV protected, with 6’-wide lanes and 3’ buffers. The bike lanes continue between the sidewalks and the bus stops. At the bus stop locations, the bike lanes are raised to the sidewalk and bus platform level to provide accessible route between the sidewalk and bus platform.

• Street trees are proposed for both sides of the street, at approximately 30’ spacing.

• Bus-boarding platforms are aligned with the parking lane and bike buffer, allowing for a 10’ width. A minimum width of 10’ is required for bus shelters which are located on the bus-boarding platforms.

Broadway

The design concept for Broadway focuses on creating a more walkable environment and sense of place, with increased interaction between the stores and serviceoriented businesses and people walking throughout the district. Recommendations include widening the existing sidewalk to create space for sidewalk dining, parklets, and landscaping. This enhanced streetscape would support a “park once” environment where drivers are more likely to walk rather than drive and re-park their vehicles to visit multiple destinations.

Existing angled parking would need to be reconfigured to parallel parking to accommodate sidewalk widening, reducing the supply of on-street parking. However, the experience of nearby Burlingame indicates that the effect of the trade-off on local businesses will be very positive. The wider sidewalk allows for canopy street trees, pedestrian-oriented lighting, a landscaped buffer to separate pedestrians and shoppers from the street, curb extensions to shorten crossing distances across side streets, and comfortable side-by-side or bi-directional pedestrian travel on the sidewalk.