A car suddenly comes out of the underground Crowne Plaza garage, almost hitting Sarah Lu-Liang, a senior at Gunn High School, who is on her daily bike ride home on the El Camino Real sidewalk. Lu-Liang is unable to see the car as it exits the garage so quickly, and the car is unable to see Lu-Liang because of the other vehicles.
Lucky for Lu-Liang and many cyclists like her, the California Department of Transportation is currently spearheading a project to implement protected bike lanes along the entire 600 miles of El Camino Real by fall of 2025.
For Lu-Liang, who has had many close calls with car collisions, a protected bike lane would mean that she wouldn’t be forced to bike on the sidewalk, so close to cars coming out of driveways and with her view blocked by obstructions and parked cars.
This project is pertinent to Palo Alto High School students, as El Camino Real is a high collision corridor. From 2012 to 2022, there have been a total of 92 crashes involving bicyclists on the route in Palo Alto, which was 40 percent of all bike crashes on the Santa Clara County section, according to the UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center.
The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition has been actively campaigning to support the project. Katie Causey, a community organizer for the SVBC, explains the dual effects of implementing protected bike lanes.
“Getting the infrastructure into protected bike lanes will help make the roads safer and it’s also a good investment as El Camino Real moves towards being more of a green street,” Causey said. “There’s a lot of housing being planned to be built on El Camino Real, so making it a safer corridor for local businesses for people who are living in houses and apartments on El Camino Real [is important].”
Lu-Liang supports implementing protected bike lanes and believes that they will make her ride to school feel safer.
“If there were bike lanes, I would definitely feel more secure just because I don’t have to worry about the cars coming and going,” Lu-Liang said.
Debbie Baldwin, president of the Sunnyvale Cupertino Cycling Club, who often bikes on El Camino, echoes Lu-Liang’s sentiment. Bike lanes with parking on the outside of the lane would solve the issue of parking removal and prevent cyclists from being doored, Baldwin said
“Cyclists need designated lanes that are physically separated from cars, because cars are not paying attention and respecting the six feet separation between cars and cyclists,” Baldwin said.
According to Victor Gauthier, the Santa Clara County public information officer for Caltrans, the entire El Camino Real project will cost about $30 million and is funded through construction capital and local funds. The project includes updating sidewalk and curb ramps, as well as repaving the 9-mile stretch from Palo Alto to Mountain View.
A concern that some have about implementing protected bike lanes and eliminating parking on El Camino Real is the fate of the many RVs where some Palo Alto residents live on the street. Causey says her coalition is focused on finding a solution to the issue.
“Along that section of the road is where we have a lot of RV dwellers living,” Causey said. “Stanford has that [bike lane] right across the street from Paly and so we think there’s already good infrastructure there and we don’t want to see those RV dwellers be displaced — we’re focused on the fact that there’s already a great pipeline there across the street.”
Another stakeholder in this project is housing developers. As more affordable housing developments spring up on El Camino Real, such as the affordable teacher housing set to be available to PAUSD staff, the question of parking becomes more important. Causey says SVBC is looking forward to working with housing developers to address both of [their needs].
“That’s kind of a huge reason we’re doing this is there is about a bunch of housing about to go in — people are going to need to be able to walk and bike safely,” Causey said. “And so the housing angle was definitely a huge angle of why we’re doing this. We’re happy to have collaboration with housing organizations in the area.”
Not all has been smooth-riding with the SVBC’s efforts as some city governments are more enthusiastic than others about the proposal. This is due to parking on El Camino begin eliminated and the costs associated with the project.
“The toughest challenge is the political angle of this,” Causey said. “It is that in a lot of cities on the peninsula, some cities are very proactive. They knew that this opportunity was coming and they were like, yes, let’s make our roads safer. Other cities are very afraid to take any action because they’re afraid it’s too controversial.”
Causey says SVBC’s next steps in moving forward with the campaign are coming soon. Public meetings have been held in Palo Alto and Mountain View to generate community feedback.
Causey urges residents of cities that El Camino runs through to consider the impacts of protected bike lanes, ranging from convenience to climate infrastructure.
“Imagine having this main road that goes through 19 cities and how much safer it can be, and how good that would be for local businesses, how good that it would be for public transportation for people getting around,” Causey said. “[We should] really see that vision as an investment in their community and also as an investment in climate change as people move away from car-centric infrastructure.”