San Mateo County Department of Public Works has prepared a modified design of Alpine Road under Highway 280 after incorporating some of our input. Due to their grant funding timeline, this is moving very quickly and they will be submitting their encroachment permit to Caltrans in the very near future--probably next week. Our window for making minor adjustments to the design is short, and it's probably not reasonable to expect major changes without derailing the project entirely.
At the District 4 Caltrans Bicycle Advisory Committee yesterday we were able to check out the County's current design. I took some photos which are included here. I hope to get some pdfs from the County but for now I thought people might like to see my photos.
One note on the design--there is a portion of the drawing where the green of the bike lane appears solid inside the dashed white lines, but if you refer to the "pavement delineation detail" on file #4 you'll note that the green is also blocked.
Comments
Elaine Haight
January 17, 2013 - 5:41pm
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freeway undercrossing
I can't tell from the plan if cars entering and exiting the freeway will cross over the bike lane. If so, I don't think it is worthwhile. I prefer the narrow path to the side of the road, physically separated from Alpine Road.
Ralph Durham
January 17, 2013 - 10:32pm
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Maps
Is there a way to make the 3 plans shown on the right larger. The construction area picture can be enlarged the others when clicked on don't get much larger and I find them unreadable.
Tony Panero
January 18, 2013 - 9:49am
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maps
Please republish in a readable form. I'd love to review the design.
colin
January 18, 2013 - 10:46am
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Flickr
Hi All,
I've uploaded the images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/38866881@N04/sets/72157632554947180/, though they were already posted here at full resolution, so this might not be much better. As Corinne noted, we are trying to get pdfs of the drawings. Stay tuned.
Robert Cronin
January 18, 2013 - 5:56pm
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Alpine-280
If we can't have plan D2, then I think that the proposed design at least does not make things worse. In fact, it merely shows with paint the path that competent cyclists have been taking through this interchange. In this respect it may be thought of as educational for motorists who are not sure of the rules of the road for cyclists.
A prominent feature of the design is the use of colored pavement for the bike lane(s) and a not-seen-before treatment for a dashed and colored bike lane in a weave zone. I understand that now in California it is possible to experiment with colored bike lanes without filing a proposal for an experiment, but surely, it remains experimental until it is adopted into the CA MUTCD. Doesn't this mean that there needs to be some plan to evaluate how well the colored bike lanes work? Otherwise, it seems to me that the CTCDC will have no basis for adopting a standard for colored bike lanes.
pmackay
February 5, 2013 - 5:40pm
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Other states?
Good point about the colored paint standards. I'm not familiar with California's guidelines but in Oregon they've worked closely with the federal government to standardize colors and signage through experiments like bike boxes and hashes. Another treatment they're looking at that might make sense in some applications is the use of rumble strips to minimize early incursions during merges (although I personally signal and take the lane assertively to prevent that where necessary).
I have some friends who are traffic engineers (and cyclists) in Oregon and they've used both blue and green paint in places, and I've seen blue used in Sunnyvale. The actual paint treatment itself has been shown to reduce accidents, not necessarily dependent on a particular color. Personally I think the red dye that they mix into the pavement in places like Utrecht is preferable (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE4KOZzQOg), but then again here in the states we're heading in the opposite direction (chip seal).
And I'll leave you with this:
http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2007/12/03/cyclists-furious-as-council-paint-...
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