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corridors
east 14th/international
el camino real
• existing conditions san pablo avenue
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Existing Conditions - El Camino Real
Existing Land Uses Assessing
El Camino Real's potential for new region-supporting development requires
understanding the elements that give each area along the corridor its
sense of place. Individual approaches to planning and development in
each city are evident.
Despite these unique characteristics, there are two consistent architectural styles along the corridor: employment or residential buildings from the 1960s and 70s and modern, higher-density transit-oriented mixed use developments. Most cities along the corridor have limited or no vacant land available for new construction, and have therefore made underutilized parcels near El Camino Real a focus of their redevelopment efforts.
More than half of the 20,148 acres within one-half of a mile of El Camino Real are dedicated to residential uses. Low-intensity land uses are common directly on or near El Camino Real, including single-family homes, warehouses, and light industrial buildings. Other non-transit and pedestrian-oriented uses within half a mile of the station include gas stations, surface parking lots, and auto dealerships.
Residential development on El Camino Real and around the BART and Caltrain stations typically ranges from low to medium densities. The majority of the corridor consists of residential neighborhoods with fewer than 8 units on an acre. Housing densities are higher around the station areas, ranging between 13 - 25 units per acre.
While only two percent of the land within a half-mile of El Camino Real is vacant, there are many underutilized areas that may have potential for infill development. There are already many successful neighborhoods on or around El Camino Real, as well as the potential for creating new communities and enhancing existing ones. For example, several cities have maintained their historic downtown areas along El Camino Real. These areas offer excellent pedestrian environments that may have potential to be extended into the surrounding neighborhoods through redevelopment.
Housing There are an estimated 136,052 homes within one-half mile of El Camino. There is considerable variation in the number of homes located close to El Camino Real in each city. Most of the larger cities have more than 10,000 housing units located within a half-mile of the street. Burlingame, for example, has a high number of housing units on or near El Camino Real because the street is zoned residential.
Slightly more than 50 percent of the housing along El Camino Real is single-family homes. Individual areas vary significantly: portions of the corridor in Atherton are almost 100 percent single-family, while parts of Redwood City and Mountain View are less than 45 percent single-family homes.
With some exception, residential densities increase as one travels south along El Camino. The Santa Clara portion of the corridor has a higher percentage of its residences in buildings of 10 or more units. Mountain View and the Stanford campus area each have more than 45 percent of their residences in buildings of 10 or more, including student housing.
Despite numerous growth controls aimed at maintaining single-family character, most cities in both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties permitted increasing proportions of multi-family units between 2000 and 2005. During this time, 48 percent of units permitted in San Mateo County were for multi-family units and 61 percent in Santa Clara County were. The exceptions are Palo Alto and Mountain View, both of which built a higher proportion of multi-family units in the past and are now shifting to a higher proportion of single-family homes.
About half of the housing units along El Camino Real are owner-occupied, although these percentages vary widely across the corridor. Neighborhoods along El Camino Real in Atherton are over 95 percent owner-occupied, while neighborhoods in Mountain View and Menlo Park are about 40 percent owner-occupied.
Existing Transportation There
are a variety of transportation choices available along El Camino Real,
including driving, commuter trains, buses, rapid
Automobile use accounts for about 87 percent of all personal and commute trips along El Camino Real. Walking is a distant second option: less than 10 percent of people walk to work, shops, or to other services. Even fewer residents take transit or bicycle.
El Camino Real is State Highway 82, and therefore the California State Department of Transportation (CalTrans) has authority over improvements, access points, landscaping, and design.
Over the years, El Camino Real has been widened repeatedly. Generally the road accomodates six lanes of travel, three in either direction. There are, however, four-lane stretches in South San Francisco, Burlingame, and Belmont. With turning and parking lanes, the street widens to eight and sometimes nine lanes at major intersections, such as at San Bruno Ave., the Route 92 Junction in San Mateo, Page Mill Road in Palo Alto, and North San Antonio Road in Los Altos. Parts of Millbrae, Redwood City, and Menlo Park also have eight lanes. A median of varying width and landscaping divides directional traffic. Most segments of El Camino Real provide onstreet parking.
Transit Four agencies provide transit service on El Camino Real: Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and San Mateo Transit Authority (SamTrans) in San Mateo County, Valley Transit Authority (VTA) in Santa Clara County, and Caltrain in both counties. These four transit operators provide a means to connect with each other through coordinated schedules, fare collection, and transfer systems, and sometimes through shares bus stop, transit centers, and parking facilities.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has designated three transit stations along the corridor as regional transit hubs. The Millbrae BART/Caltrain Inter-modal station is the primary transit hub in San Mateo County. The Palo Alto and Mountain View Caltrain stops are also transit hubs, combining rail and offstreet bus loading.
BART There
are six BART stations in San Mateo County: Daly City, Colma, South San
Francisco, San Bruno, the San Francisco
SamTrans The SamTrans service area covers 446 miles and carries over 17.2 million passengers annually throughout San Mateo County, with routes connecting into San Francisco and Santa Clara Counties. SamTrans connects all five of the San Mateo BART stations to El Camino. The 390 Bus provides intercity service from the Palo Alto Caltrain station to the Daly City BART via El Camino Real. The 391 provides intercity service from Redwood City Caltrain to Mission Street via El Camino Real. These two buses account for one quarter of the total ridership in the SamTrans system. The 130 Bus provides local service from South San Francisco to the Daly City BART station and runs a portion of the route on El Camino Real. The 132 Bus provides connections between El Camino Real and to the South San Francisco BART station and the airport. Express buses along El Camino Real go to San Francisco in the morning and leave in the evening.
SamTrans also operates a dozen community and BART shuttles, often to areas with limited bus service. BART shuttles connect major employment areas with the Balboa Park, Daly City, South San Francisco, San Bruno, and Millbrae BART stations during working hours.
VTA VTA
buses serve almost 30.3 million passengers per year; VTA's light rail
carries over 6.7 rail passengers. Running along El
Caltrain Caltrain provides rail service along the peninsula, from San Francisco to Gilroy. Ten Caltrain stations are either on or within a quarter of a mile from El Camino Real. Caltrain operates 86 weekday trains between San Francisco and San Jose, with 8 of those extending to Gilroy. Service is concentrated in morning and evening peaks and run with half-hour headways in between.
Express service to San Francisco and San Jose has been provided in the last two years by Caltrain's Baby Bullet trains. Bullet service, which skips stations, began in July 2004 and was boosted again in August 2005. As a result, ridership at Millbrae and Redwood City stations rose 20 and 31 percent, respectively, and overall ridership increased 13 percent. The Bay Bullets, however, have negatively impacted stations that now only receive reduced local service. The number of passengers using the San Bruno and Belmont stations dropped 15.5 and 16 percent, respectively. Local governments have formed a coalition to expand train service in hopes of offering more frequent service at all stations.
Walking There are a few parts of El Camino Real that are walkable, including segments in Millbrae, San Mateo, Palo Alto, and Burlingame. The stretch of downtown Millbrae across from the transit station is separated from the rest of the highway with a landscaped median. Street-level uses aimed at pedestrians, neighborhood-serving stores, and consistent store frontages combine to make this a walkable neighborhood. The presence of large parks along El Camino Real in San Mateo and Palo Alto make the street more comfortable for walking, as do the trees and homes along El Camino Real in Burlingame. Parks and housing alone, however, do not generate the same level of pedestrian activity that downtowns or other commercial or mixed use areas do.
Bicycling Given
that land uses are often separated into residential, office, and commercial
districts along the corridor, bicycling is an alternative form of transportation
ideal for trips that are too distant for walking. Sunny weather and
flat terrain in this area
El Camino Real, however, is not designed to accommodate cyclists and cycling accidents are common. Cyclists that use El Camino put themselves in danger by riding next to fast moving traffic. Many traffic lights do not detect bicycles, so a cyclist must push the pedestrian crossing signal or wait for a car to trigger the light.
Although El Camino Real is officially identified as a Class 3 bike lane in San Mateo County, there are almost no connections to other bike lanes in the neighborhoods between Daly City and San Mateo. The bicycle path network around El Camino in Santa Clara County is far more developed. Nevertheless, bicycle advocates in Santa Clara County still recommend using alternative streets that run parallel to El Camino, and many cyclists plan their trips to avoid it.
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Some cities have preserved the low-rise, residential character of their
segment of El Camino, while others have developed employment or commercial
centers. Many cities have single-story industrial uses between the Caltrain
tracks and Highway 101.
Currently,
only two percent of the land within a half-mile from El Camino is park
space or a natural area. A large portion of these natural assets are
within the San Mateo Central Park and the Stanford Arboretum. Most cities
along El Camino have put public parks a few streets away from the corridor,
in residential zones such as Orchard Heritage Park in Sunnyvale. Loss
of remaining greenspace is one reason why residents oppose new developments,
including large single-family homes with building footprints covering
the majority of their lots. Cities and open space agencies have focused
on developing and preserving important natural areas beyond city boundaries
in the hills and at the Bay shoreline, rather than in urban areas. Redevelopment
represents an important opportunity to bring small pocket parks and
public spaces back to the city. 
transit,
walking, and cycling. Despite these choices, however, most people opt
to use their cars for the vast majority of trips for work, shopping,
and recreation.
International
Airport (SFO), and Millbrae. Both the Millbrae and South San Francisco
stations are located directly on El Camino Real and opened in 2003.
The Millbrae station includes a cross platform transfer for northbound
connections between BART and Caltrain. Parking for riders is typically
available adjacent to or near El Camino Real.
Camino
Real from the Menlo Park Caltrain Station to the Eastridge Transit Center
in east San Jose, the 22 Buss provides the backbone of the VTA bus network.
Eighty-two percent of the VTA's total ridership occurs on this line,
and it is the 8th busiest bus line in the Bay Area. The 22 Bus connects
passengers to the Caltrain Station at Menlo Park, VTA's light rail,
and other regional and local bus lines. It serves a significant community
link to large portions of El Camino Real. In addition to the 22 Bus,
there are a number of feeder routes that connect to El Camino Real.
VTA light rail also serves the corridor at its downtown Mountain View
terminus.
also
suggest bicycling could be a popular form of transportation. Because
it provides a direct connection between cities, current bicyclists state
that they would like to use El Camino Real as much as drivers.