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Directors at SamTrans (the San Mateo County Transit District) adopted on Dec. 6 the final version of a study on how to ease severe congestion on the Dumbarton Corridor.
Traffic on and approaching the bridge is bad and likely to get worse. According to data collected early on in the study, which launched in January 2016, during peak traffic hours, motorists inched as slowly as 4 mph in the main direction (west in the mornings and east in the evenings). And by 2040, there will be an expected 24 to 28 percent more workers and residents on both sides of the Bay, according to SamTrans officials.
The SamTrans study, funded by Facebook and conducted by SamTrans officials and a team of consultants, lays out a number of short- and long-term projects for multiple transit modes that might help reduce traffic, though further analysis is needed, officials say.
The plan
The study calls for SamTrans to increase by 2020 the frequency of the agency’s “Dumbarton Express” bus service across the Bay and add routes to run from the Union City BART station to Menlo Park and south to Mountain View and Sunnyvale and back. Doing so could increase the number of transbay bus riders by one-third, or 13,700, according to SamTrans spokesperson Dan Lieberman.
That’s expected to cost about $51 million, with annual operational costs of $12 million, according to Mr. Lieberman.
The study recommends that SamTrans by 2025 look into implementing the following:
• Installing express lanes on the highway bridges and arterial approaches.
• Making toll collection all-electronic.
• Adding bus-only lanes on Bayfront Expressway and Willow Road.
• Building grade separations on Bayfront Expressway at Willow Road and University Avenue.
• Connecting an express lane from U.S. 101 to Marsh Road.
• Building a 1,200-vehicle park-and-ride structure in Newark.
• Adding bus-only ramps between U.S. 101 and the Dumbarton rail right-of-way.
• Starting a rail line between Redwood City and Newark.
Work to restore the rail bridge and create two tracks would cost about $975 million, plus $295 million to bring the line from Newark to Union City; these changes would allow an estimated 15,600 transit riders to cross the Bay daily.
Recommendation for 2030 and beyond:
• Extend the rail shuttle service from Newark to the Union City BART station and integrate trains with the Altamont Corridor Express and Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor lines at an estimated cost of $327 million.
• Increase the frequency of bus services.
Bikes, not buses
In Menlo Park, one of the study’s more controversial recommendations was to add a bus line that would run between Redwood City and East Palo Alto along the abandoned Dumbarton rail line. The study’s authors previously said the rail corridor wasn’t wide enough to have a rail, bus and pedestrian/bike route there.
At a public meeting held at the Menlo Park Senior Center in September, attendees favored keeping the bike and pedestrian route and eliminating a possible bus route there if necessary. A bus line would cut through Belle Haven and could cause traffic, pollution and noise at adjacent homes, schools, churches, parks and the retail center at Hamilton Avenue and Willow Road, city staff said.
In response to public feedback on an earlier version of the study, the study’s authors decided to not rule out a bike and pedestrian route.
The next step for the project is to acquire funding.
Previous coverage:
● September 2017:
Tonight in Menlo Park: SamTrans discusses Dumbarton transportation corridor study
● August 2017:
Improving traffic flow: Early results of Dumbarton corridor study
● June 2016:
We have to start using air space–i.e. aerial cable cars– like many other U.S. Cities and countries are using. These don’t compete with cars or buses or bikes.
They are cheaper to build than rail or overpasses.
They can be erected in 2years–after permitting.
They are modular and need not tie up traffic during construction.
They are expandable.
Once one is erected, everyone else around will copy. We are so provincial in our thinking.