City of San Mateo Bike Master Plan
Current
Bike Master Plan Vision
The 2020 San Mateo Bike Master Plan (BMP) lays out a vision for additions to the bicycle and active mobility network. From the opening of the plan:
While the City has made much progress expanding its mobility network since the 2011 Plan, there is a desire to build on that base network and provide facilities that are more attractive and feel safer to a larger portion of the population.
The goal of the plan is build out a network to “promote bicycling and use of personal mobility devices as alternatives to driving in San Mateo.” If you're not familiar with it, the plan is worth a read or at least a quick look-over of the Executive Summary and the proposed network before jumping in to my thoughts below.
There are issues with the existing network and the planned network's reliance on Bike Routes/sharrows, and there is no plan to implement the High Priority projects in a reasonable timeframe.
Existing Network
Issues with Existing Network
Sharrows Suck
A large amount of the current network is comprised of sharrows (labeled "Bike Routes" in the map above) which, as a frequent cyclist around San Mateo, are worse than useless. Drivers don’t notice the difference between a street with or without sharrows which leads to enough drivers with zero patience for someone taking the lane for it to be scary and unsafe to use this infrastructure. They give a false sense of security and do nothing to provide a safe and connected network.
Additionally, almost every one of these sharrows violates the goals laid out in the BMP regarding the speed and volume of traffic. See the chart below for details but at a high level the current Bike Routes may meet the volume criteria (y-axis) but in my experience definitely do not meet the speed criteria of having cars traveling below 25 mph (x-axis). For all discussion below I won’t be counting sharrows/Bike Routes as safe bike infrastructure.
The Bay Trail is great but disconnected
The current network also lists 15.6 miles of Share-Use Path (Class I) facilities. I can only account for ~10 miles of that amount and a majority of that is the Bay Trail which is an amazing recreational facility which provides connectivity for some but is disconnected from the other safe infrastructure in San Mateo.
How I Experience Biking in San Mateo (2020)
Pulling that together I wanted to make a map that better matches what I experience as a cyclist in San Mateo. I made two assumptions to make the map below. Remove sharrows, assume all painted bike lanes are well-designed. Both of these have exceptions but for now, as of 2020, this left us with a map that looks a bit different than the one in the BMP document. As I move through San Mateo on bike this better matches my experience.
A disconnected and intermittent bike network that really makes you work to find a good route. Comparing this to the Existing Network above shows how much we rely on sharrows/Bike Routes to connect things.
Looking Forward
Planned Network
About 50% of the proposed additions to the network are sharrows (23.2 miles out of 45.3 total added miles). I reformatted Table 4.2 in the document to make it a bit clearer. As I made clear above, sharrows/Bike Routes are not safe additions to our bike network the way San Mateo currently implements them and I won't be considering them below.
| Facility Type | Existing Mileage | Proposed Mileage | Total New Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared-Use Path (Class I) |
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| Separated Bike Lane (Class IV) |
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| Buffered Bike Lane (Class II) |
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| Bike Lane (Class II) |
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| Bicycle Boulevard/Route (Class III) |
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| Total |
Finished High Priority Projects
The 2020 BMP has prioritization built in to the project list. In total the High Priority projects consist of ~22 miles of bike lanes. Since 2020 San Mateo has completed four High Priority projects, mostly while regular street repaving was being done.
Those completed projects are:
- San Mateo Dr. road diet and bike lanes
- Humboldt/Indian/Poplar bike lanes
- A small stretch of 5th Ave in downtown
- A small stretch of Delaware/Pacific where it crosses Hillsdale Blvd
| Project | Length in miles | Year |
|---|---|---|
| San Mateo Dr | 2020 | |
| Humboldt St/Poplar Ave/Indian Ave | 2022 | |
| 5th Ave | 2023 | |
| Delaware/Pacific | 2023 | |
| Total |
These four projects bring us to 3.3 miles of High Priority projects completed out of 22 total miles, or 15% of the entirety of the High Priority plan. Add those lanes to the previous map and we get the map below.
A slightly better situation but still a disconnected and intermittent bike network that really makes you work to find a good route
How I Experience Biking in San Mateo (2024)
Finishing the High Priority Projects
We need to finish the High Priority projects to get a safe and connected network in San Mateo. Currently the High Priority projects have no dedicated funding. They are considered when they are convenient to implement based on street width and paving plans. There is no implementation plan with a goal of safety for people outside of personal vehicles. Another challenge beyond funding is that projects that impact parking likely won’t be pursued as the current City Council is quite receptive to homeowner complaints around convenient storage of private vehicles.
At the current pace and plan of implementation the City of San Mateo has implemented 3.3 miles in the five years from 2020 to 2024 which gives us a pace of ~0.7 miles per year.
If we make that into a chart showing the progress and we have a grim visualization of where we are.
Even worse, the projection of when we would finish the High Priority projects with our current pace and plan is 2046 😳.
What you can do
- Join Move San Mateo to join the discussion and organize. Have more people show up when important topics come to council and committees is really important!
- Email your council member for your district and have a discussion with them or send them a quick email about why you think prioritizing active transportation is important. If you don't know what district your in use this city tool to find you district.
It's going to take a lot of individuals and a lot of conversations to move the needle.