Category: Parking

Broadway intersection: From bad to worse?

September 30, 2023

First in April and then again back in July we broached the question of whether it was wise to grab a lane of car traffic and some parking spaces to accommodate a new bike lane on California Ave. south of Broadway. The early controversy was about the loss of store front parking for many small merchants on California, but now that concrete has been poured and stripes have been laid, the issue of car traffic safety has burst into the discussion as well.

Last week we had the first accident at the tighter B'way-California intersection when a Samtrans bus turning left/south from B'way to Calfornia clipped a car in the northbound California lane. At least it was the first accident someone paying attention saw and photographed. See below for the photos I received that also appear on Nextdoor where the commentary has been, shall we say….less than supportive of the lane changes.

This intersection has had an F grade for years. Maybe decades. It's not like the new B'way bridge did anything but bring more traffic to a failing intersection. Caltrain will be giving the city council a presentation on its electrification project Monday night. Buried in there is this on grade separation–another long running issue:

• Broadway Avenue grade crossing is heavily congested
• LOS F operations during peak hours
• #1 priority in CPUC grade separation priority list

• City and Caltrain advancing design towards 100% design in 2024
• City continues to seek funding to fully fund project, recently received large TIRCP award

It also asserts "Project Complete- Spring 2029. There have been statements that once grade separation is complete the lanes will change again, but unless someone changes their mind in City Hall, we will have this configuration for years to come. The last big project that was completed on time was a 101 upgrade in EssEff or SSF that had a massive contractor bonus for early completion. We're not likely to be that lucky.

One wonders if the city council really understood what they were voting on. When I asked one member if this was just striping that could be swapped back easily, they said "yes". Now we see that the answer is "no" due to the concrete islands that have been added. Other inquiring minds want to know how police, ambulances and especially fire trucks will proceed on California when some sections have nowhere for cars to pull over? If they get some response to the question, we will post it here as a public service to help drivers pass this "B'game IQ driving test". Here's the accident scene that closed southbound California for a half hour.

Update: Oct. 2nd. I have received a report of more confusion on California at Oak Grove where the new lane alignment is apparently giving northbound drivers the impression that they can make left turns from the TWO leftmost lanes. The traffic light location show below would appear to encourage that.
California Drive bike lanes and…or parking?

July 7, 2023

I'm a bit behind the back wheel on this story about the kerfuffle over an new bike lane on California Drive. just south of Broadway. I did address it three months ago here. The good news is there is a regular Voice reader who has really thought about the Unintended Consequences and the law as it stands. Here is his take on the plan:

Not all parking is the same. As currently designed by the city, this project will remove about 12 spaces – on just that one block alone. But these are the most productive, highest quality parking spaces there are on California Dr. These are metered parking spaces. Which in addition to providing revenue to the city, also provides turnover for the businesses. These are 2-hr, 1-hr and half-hour parking spaces. So one space can be used by 10-20 different customers. They’re being replaced by unrestricted parking (on the east side of California). So the new spaces will just end up just like the rest of the parking on that side of the street – RV’s, autobody shop storage and cars that don’t move for weeks at a time. In addition to being inaccessible and across the way, they truly will not benefit the impacted businesses.

There is even the outstanding question of the legality of parking on that side of street, according to the City code. The city council has not acted to rescind the parking meter requirement on the block the City intends to remove (13.40.010). It also has not acted on adding the parking where the City code says it is unlawful (13.36.010).

Lurking behind all of this is if and when the Broadway grade separation might happen. We can think back four years to this post and ask are we any closer? The intersection (really two intersections–California and Carolan) have been graded F and might be the worst in the Bay Area. While Sacramento figures out how to pour billions into mass transit and will need many tens of billions to get High-Cost Rail just to run between two towns in the Central Valley, poor B'game idles away.

Here's the intersection as it looked yesterday and a nice marked-up aerial view to add details.
The BAAZ is back–for a couple of weeks

May 24, 2023

With a hat tip to Thin Lizzy, here is an ode to the Burlingame Avenue Autonomous Zone–the BAAZ:

Guess who just got back today?The wild-eyed BAAZ that had been awayHaven't changed, had much to sayBut man, I still think them blocks are crazyThey were askin' if you were aroundHow you was, where you could be foundI told 'em you were livin' downtownDrivin' all the merchants crazy

The BAAZ is back in town (the BAAZ is back in town)

I said (the BAAZ is back in town)(TheBAAZ is back in town)The BAAZ is back in town…ow..ow.owwn

As reported in the Daily Journal here, the council has voted to bring back the BAAZ for two weeks in August–exactly three years after it was stopped as we noted here.

The closure will take up two blocks of Burlingame Avenue east of Primrose Road, west of Lorton Avenue and a small portion of Park Road. The Park Road segment will be a small portion of the road ending before the city-owned parking lot, so vehicles will be able to park or turn around. The council also agreed to start the two-week street closure after the Burlingame on the Avenue festival, Aug. 19, which is hosted by the Chamber or Commerce, and reopen the streets Labor Day, Sept. 2.

There was council commentary on the thing we need most on the Avenew–live music. I'm not sure it needs to be taxpayer subsidized beyond waiving the entertainment permit and encroachment permit fees, but 5 grand is a modest amount either way:

(Council member Emily) Beach said the city could work with the downtown businesses and the Chamber of Commerce to provide a musical ambiance the remaining two weekends. “Quite frankly, the smaller single [or] duo instrumental might create exactly the right ambiance as opposed to a big loud band that some people may like the style and some people not like the style,” Beach said.

One option, she suggested, would be for the city to set aside $5,000 to match restaurants or businesses who may want to hire a small band for the night and then the city would reimburse the business up to $500.

Mark your calendars for Art on the Ave Aug 19-20 followed by two weeks of strolling the BAAZ for dining, tippling and hopefully some good music. Maybe we will even see our guitar-strumming council member out busking on the Ave.
E-bike litter arrives promptly

May 19, 2023
The Spin e-bike rental program has kicked off in B'game and Millbrae and already I have seen several bikes left in random spots around town. One was left right on a corner on Carmelita blocking the sidewalk. Another was deserted in Heritage Park. The Daily Journal noted aspects of the program that would mitigate e-bike littering:

Burlingame installed around 20 bike corrals around transit areas, downtown and major parks. City officials hope riders use the corrals to park bikes after use and has incentive alternatives if needed. “We just hope that the corrals will be used,” (Burlingame Sustainability Program Manager Sigalle) Michael said. “We are trying to avoid bike litter and we are trying to incentivize it by using the corrals, luckily, the program is very adaptable and it’s easy to make adjustments on the app.”

Burlingame and Millbrae plan to slowly integrate the bikes inventory as the program begins and there will eventually be more than 200 bikes available between both cities. Spin was awarded the contract by both cities because of its lower user fees and competitive pay to local employees. It will hire two local employees between both cities who will move the bikes to heavily used locations, charge them and fix any issues. It will be moved within two hours of it being reported as somewhere a resident doesn’t want.

The DJ article did not explain how to get the litter bikes removed. The city e-newsletter may have included that information, but if it did I missed it. So here is what I found elsewhere:

Feel free to reach out to us via these two methods:
1. Call us: 1-888-249-9698
2. Email us: support@spin.pm
Before contacting us, please have the below information readily available so we can relocate our vehicle in the fastest & most efficient way possible:
We shall see if that two-hour turnaround time is met on a regular basis. In the meantime, put Spin's number in your phone. You will need it when people fail to park inside the white lines like these on Broadway.
Biking in B’game: How many lanes are enough?

April 7, 2023

I'm a biker. Sorry, I mean I'm a bicyclist. I love my route past the country club, up Cortez or Cabrillo, through Ray Park, around the hospital, across ECR at Ray, down California on the bike lane, cross at Broadway and over the Rosalie O'Mahony foot/bike bridge (never saw Rosalie on a bike), through Bayside Park, south along Sanchez Lagoon, through Meta/Facebook and Coyote Point to the harbor and back along Bayswater. That means less than 5% of my ride is on an official bike lane and I'm fine with that. I choose Bayswater over Peninsula Ave. for obvious reasons, and I'm fine with that too.

The DJ had an article about the impending bike lane extension and loss of a car lane south of B'way

The California Drive Bicycle Facility Project — once complete this October — will create a continuous bike lane through the city from Murchison Drive to Peninsula Avenue. The current phase will build bicycle lanes on a 0.8-mile portion of California Drive between Broadway and Oak Grove Avenue, continuing the current bike route that links Murchison Drive to Broadway. However, five of the businesses and property owners on California Drive between Carmelita Avenue and Broadway have said they never received any notification about the project.

One of those businesses is Kerwin Galleries, which specializes in art sales. Gallery employee Mary Matsunaga said they didn’t know about the project. Had the city given the surrounding businesses proper notification, Matsunaga said they would have spoken up earlier. “Those metered spaces are precious to us. California Drive is a busy street and by eliminating that it could severely impact our business,” Matsunaga said.

Another concerned business owner, Robert Vernazza, has owned Lou’s Auto Repair for 30 years and said California Drive is very rarely used by cyclists, but the parking spaces are always being used.

The reaction around town has been pretty negative. I don't know Ms. Hallen, but her letter to the DJ rings of authentic understanding of the local flow

I can’t understand why the Burlingame City Council wants to put bike lanes on California Drive from Broadway south to Burlingame Avenue.

On Carolan Avenue maybe 50 yards to the east of California Drive on the other side of the railroad tracks there are excellent bike lands with very little traffic going from Broadway to Oak Grove during most of the day. And further south going from Oak Grove to Burlingame Avenue is a stretch in front of the Burlingame High School where there is hardly any traffic except when school is about to start or just getting out.

If bike lanes were put on California Avenue, I doubt that any bicyclist would want to use them since they would be biking alongside one lane of very heavy traffic where there were once two lanes of medium traffic. It would be a lot more helpful if bike lane signs were put on California Avenue at Broadway, Oak Grove Avenue and Burlingame Avenue saying that excellent bike lanes were just to the east on the other side of the train tracks.

Lois Hallen

Burlingame

I can't improve on that statement of the situation except to add that BART ridership is sinking like a rock and bicyclist access ain't gonna change that. And the idea that all of this is temporary until we find another quarter of a billion dollars to do the Broadway grade separation–and actually do it–seems unlikely.
Parking confusion: Left hand, meet right hand

October 15, 2022

Here at the Voice we love parking oddities. Just click on the Parking category and scroll back through time. Some of our regular readers know that and send us little tip-offs. It's a dinky little town version of how Herb Caen relied on "an army of reliable tipsters," but all items were fact-checked (per Wikipedia). The focus is usually on the parking scofflaws. But now we turn our attention to the city staff. Check this out and see if you see what the tipster and I are seeing?
Bad parking in broad daylight

July 29, 2022

Let's kick-off our 19th year with an old favorite topic here at the Burlingame Voice–the crazy, illegal parking maneuvers people do all over town There are plenty of examples like here, here and here. Today's gem was right on Howard Ave. in front of the bank across from Park & Howard. Facing the wrong way against traffic and parallel parked across a diagonal parking space with no money in the meter. The good news was a Parking Enforcement Officer was on the scene as I walked by. How many tickets is that?
Our newest downtown parking structure

April 15, 2022

We have a new 368-space parking structure just south of Howard Ave that recently opened. That's a lot of parking, but some people may think it's too far away from the Avenue especially if they just want to stop into Peet's and grab a cup of coffee and a newspaper. Voila, we now have a new one-space parking structure right outside of Peet's. It is not quite as secure as the big one, so be prepared with a chain and lock to hook up to the parking structure (second photo, lower left). This spot has no time limit as it was in use most of the day–and the price is right, too!
North End tsunami still coming hard and fast

April 5, 2022

We noted that a Density Tsunami Approaches eighteen months ago here. One of the elements was the old Peninsula Museum of Art space at 1766 ECR on the north end. The original, approved plan fell through and a new developer is back with an eight-story all residential proposal that is getting positive vibrations from the Planning Commission according to the Daily Journal piece:

A proposed eight-story north Burlingame apartment building with 311 units received a mostly positive review from the city’s Planning Commission this week, advancing the plans to replace a vacant building at 1766 El Camino Real. The project would include 37 studio units, 137 one-bedroom units, 120 two-bedroom units and 17 three-bedroom units. The (22) affordable units would be provided in exchange for the building’s density exceeding that otherwise allowed by the city, per the state’s density bonus law. The law in this case allows the developer to add 72 units on top of the maximum allowed by local zoning.

That seems like a deal. I'll do the math here. That mixture equals 465 bedrooms and a bunch of baths. Then we read

The 504,000-square-foot project would occupy a 1.7-acre parcel, with a partially below ground two-story parking garage providing 319 spots.

Just by chance I was talking to a neighbor of the Summerhill development now known as the Anson Apartments on Carolan who recalled how the neighbors were told there would be no overflow parking problems. Well, that hasn't played out too well. The single-family neighborhood around Toyon, Linden, Azalea, etc is apparently learning differently to their distress.

But it's not just parking. One wonders if the parents and future parents of kids at Franklin school are paying attention? Is BSD paying attention to this and all the other projects moving forward in Buildingame? Does anyone know of a portable classroom company I can buy stock in? Let's all keep these hulking monsters in mind when we are told to skip a few showers and stop watering our lawns. I choose not to participate in the Collective Amnesia. Here's a rendering of the proposed building that some seem to think is Eichler-esque.
Parklets are mostly staying; 8 go away

April 1, 2022

We touched on the parklet initiative that helped many restaurants get thru the tough Covid times. Parklets are popular and with the arrival of Spring they should see continued high use. Today is the day restaurants have to start paying for a "cleaning fee" as we noted here in January. $250 per month. No April Fooling, today is the day. So I checked with the city and so far eight establishments have decided to discontinue their parklets.

Back in December we noted staff said "Burlingame is currently home to 43 parklets occupying 88 parking spaces" so eight discontinued is about 20%. That's not bad–about 80% keeping them even with the new fee. Now let's hope the fees get put to the use they are intended to provide. The restaurants are motivated to clean up inside the parklet. It may even be a health code thing if the code was updated, but walking around town one sees a different story on the outside of the parklets. Street sweepers cannot get into the nooks and crannies between parklets, curbs and cars so this will have to be a manual job. Here is one example.

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