Update: Redwood City El Camino Real Corridor Plan
Portions of this blog were written by SVBC Intern, Desiree Humphers. Redwood City is preparing to wrap up the El Camino Real Corridor Plan process by the end of the year. The draft plan is expected to be released at the end of September. Staff will then take it back to the Corridor Advisory Group and the Planning Commission for comments before presenting it to City Council for final approval (see tentative schedule below).When the draft plan is released, we encourage you to make public comments at the meetings and in writing to staff. The plan will include policy concepts that recommend protected bike lanes on El Camino Real in Redwood City. This is the result of months of research, planning, and public feedback (see the city’s survey results and other public comments below). We don’t want to see this process be held up by opposition like in other nearby cities.Share your story: In the meantime, we’d love to hear YOUR story of how protected bike lanes on El Camino Real would benefit you, your family, your friends, your colleagues, and your community. Please email me, emma@bikesiliconvalley.org with subject “Redwood City El Camino story” to share your personal story of 1-2 paragraphs. Read some initial examples on our campaign page. We will share these stories on our website and with staff and city councilmembers in Redwood City.Next steps:
- Sept. 29: El Camino Corridor Plan draft released September 29 (Tentative date: Check online here).
- Oct. 4, 7 pm: Citizens Advisory Group meeting to review and comment on the draft plan (date confirmed).
- Oct. 17: Planning Commission meeting to review and comment on the draft plan (tentative).
- Nov. 27 or Dec. 4: City Council meeting to approve the El Camino Real Corridor Plan (tentative).
Public Feedback It was noted in public comments for El Camino that commuting to work would be more pleasant by adding safer bike lanes and pedestrian friendly areas. Another member of the public noted that as a parent, Class IV bike lanes should be prioritized to ensure that children with bikes can travel safely through the city. Currently, Redwood City only has bike lanes or routes on 26% of its streets where 2.3% of workers in the city use their bikes to get to work (US Census).Stakeholders have also noted that separated bike lanes should be installed for safety and on street parking should be removed for bike lanes. A traffic analysis report by W-Trans found that vehicle traffic would generally only be impacted by seconds. The National Institute for Transportation and Communities Final Report “Lessons from the Green Lanes: Evaluating Protected Bike Lanes in the U.S.” found that bicyclists had a much bigger sense of comfort when there were bike lane buffers instead of just painted lanes and when protected bike lanes were installed there was an increase in usage of each city studied by at least 21%-171%.Survey resultsIn May 2017 the City of Redwood City published their results for their El Camino Real Corridor Plan Survey. A total of 612 respondents came to the general consensus that El Camino Real needs to be safer, have less traffic, and there need to be adjustments to the corridor.
- 54% of respondents were supportive of installing protected bike lanes &
- 43% of respondents said they would be “very likely” to use them
The El Camino Real Corridor Survey Results also included that:
- 40% of respondents said they would use the bike lanes to run errands and 34% said they would use them for fun/recreation
- 68% of respondents said they would like to see activity centers along El Camino and the majority of respondents said they were willing to park 1-3 blocks away to access facilities on the corridor
- The majority of respondents said that they either never (34%) or rarely (41%) use on-street parking on El Camino Real
The majority of respondents want to see change made along El Camino Real. 
