Safe, Multimodal El Camino Real Kickoff - May 8, 3 pm

Guest Blog by Raayan Zarandian Mohtashemi

Join us on Saturday, May 8th at 3 PM for an organizing kickoff meeting to advocate for transit and bicycle alternatives on El Camino Real in Burlingame.

Meeting registration link: Register for the meeting here, and we’ll follow up with a calendar invite/zoom link. Anyone in San Mateo County and/or the greater Bay Area is encouraged to join.

The city of Burlingame and Caltrans are working together on a roadway renewal project. Transit riders and bicyclists are routinely underrepresented in these projects, and as such, the main focus of the discussions up to this point have been about preserving Eucalyptus trees, with no focus on transit and bikes. Together with SVBC, our campaign turned out significant public comment in support of multimodal alternatives to be considered in the project, and for the needs of transit riders and bicyclists to be met on the roadway. For more on these past efforts and the project alternatives, check out this blog post. You can also check out the Caltrans project website.

Caltrans intends to release a draft environmental impact document some time in June, and have mentioned that they did see significant public comment in support of transit and bike improvements. However, Caltrans has not made any announcements that they will be adding alternatives that include transit or bicycle improvements. Furthermore, major stakeholders such as the city of Burlingame need to hear the voices of transit riders and bicyclists so that they support the creation of alternatives that make the roadway faster for buses and safer for bicyclists. It’s up to us to fight for the project to meet the needs of anyone other than motorists or Eucalyptus trees. We need your help reaching out to transit riders, bicyclists, and businesses in and around El Camino Real/Burlingame.

See below for samples of the alternatives – none of the alternatives consider any other modes  besides auto lanes or sidewalks.