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California Ave: Navigating the maze

You can think something will look bad and it turns out fine–or vice versa.  Now that the reworked lanes on California Ave. are nearing completion the street appears to be a mess.  Never mind that there was nothing wrong to begin with, but now people are finding all of the poorly designed features.  We covered the accident inducing tight left turn at Broadway to go south on California and the Oak Grove situation last month here.   This week I parked briefly at one of the scarce spots on the west side of California to jump out and get a photo.

I swear I did not wait around for 20 minutes to get this photo.  It literally happened right as I walked between two parked cars on the east side (which also seemed more dangerous than before).  Some driver either got confused by a "lane" to his right of the line of parked cars or he just thought why troll for an open spot in a traffic lane when there is the nice "bike lane" available?  Luckily he went by me pretty slowly since there wasn't a lot of room to spare.

With Caltrans closing El Camino for whole days at a time (today "traffic will be diverted onto the 1200 & 1300 blocks of Balboa Avenue and 1500 & 1600 blocks of Sherman Avenue, Easton Drive and Hillside Drive." from 7am to 4pm) you can bet California is seeing some overflow.  The concrete islands that are painted yellow with little reflective signs already have tire marks all over them.  People are figuring out what a mess it is including our emergency personnel.  One has to wonder how to fix this.  In the meantime, everybody be careful out there.

Driving in the bike lane

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12 responses to “California Ave: Navigating the maze”

  1. Cassandra

    Concrete island vs motorcycle = lawsuit.
    Why chance this inevitability?
    Jack-hammer out the island curbs.

  2. JP

    California was a mess today. Long lines of cars filled the single lane in each direction. It took several minutes to turn left out of Douglas and it wasn’t even rush hour. It looked like Enterprise rentals figured out the free parking. Talked to a friend walking down Broadway who said people are pissed.

  3. Paloma Ave.

    Traffic backed up to the fire station, trying to get to the round-a-bout. What were they thinking?

  4. JP

    Ya gotta luv the Keep Clear markings south of the firehouse where there is no driveway. If I went to work drunk and did that I’d get fired.

  5. HMB

    You’ve really got to wonder sometimes about the people who design these things. It’s like the people who design public bathrooms where the towels aren’t anywhere near the faucets or the trash so there is water and trash all over the floor. You wonder, don’t these people use a bathroom? Do they ever drive a car?

  6. Joe

    What a great analogy! Thank HMB.
    And thank you to all the astute observers who noted it is not California Ave, but California Drive and did not chastise me publicly on the blog. I am suitably chastened.
    I will leave the original misteak up because that is how we roll at the Voice.

  7. MV

    We do love our obstacle courses and mazes over here.
    https://maps.app.goo.gl/tqvTanjqVA8YXLfW9
    And now we all get to go thru here more in the dark and in the rains starting this week. Tis the season

  8. resident

    This was a mess last night. Anything to do with the new design?
    BURLINGAME – A Caltrain hit three occupied vehicles Wednesday afternoon in Burlingame, according to the commuter rail line.
    The collision involving northbound train No. 409 happened around 4:35 p.m. at Broadway, near California Drive, Caltrain spokesperson Dan Lieberman said. The intersection is close to the Broadway Caltrain station.
    While no injuries were reported, an occupant of one of the vehicles was taken to a hospital. Lieberman said. No other information was available.
    The tracks were cleared as of 5:35 p.m. and train No. 409 resumed service a short time later, Lieberman said.

  9. Ram Emanual

    Some friends who lived here for years but moved visited this week.
    “What the heck did they do to California?”
    If the train strike had anything to do with with the new roadwork the lawsuits will fly. Even if they didn’t contribute much the lawsuits will fly.

  10. Joanne

    While we are on the topic of Burlingame roadways had a question on all the speed bumps that were installed over a year ago in the Lyon Hoag neighborhood. I feel the traffic calming devices have helped. Does anyone else on this blog have any input on the outcome? Do these devices help or not?

  11. Jennifer Pfaff

    Dear Joanne,
    I do think the speed hump devices have helped. Full disclosure is that the devices are not located on my street, which is a major street, but on the adjacent side streets; it is my impression they help to remind people they have exited the freeway and are entering a residential neighborhood.
    I personally think the white outlines on the sides of my street have helped– if only as a wake-up call that there are bike-riders sharing the road who may be doored. What is less effective (I think) are the circles, because they are so small that it is easier to cut them off rather than slow down. A continuous problem is the blatant skipping of 4-way stops. It was bad before, and unfortunately I don’t think the behavior has improved, though I suspect this is a systemic problem all over the city.

  12. Lemming R US

    Now that we have this ridiculous bike lane on California can we get rid of the ones on Carolan? Asking for a friend.

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