P.A. Commission considers plans for El Camino facelift

El Camino Real may be in store for a makeover at the edge of the Stanford campus.

The first leg of a proposed improvement project, which will be brought before Palo Alto’s Planning and Transportation Commission for approval Wednesday evening, is aimed at the intersection of Stanford Avenue and El Camino Real.

According to the El Camino Real Master Schematic Design study commissioned in 2003, the proposed developments aim to shift the aesthetic and functional character of the highway from mere motor vehicle mobility to a more community-based urban thoroughfare. The successes and failures of this pilot project will inform future developments of other stretches of the highway within Palo Alto’s borders.

The draft plans that will be under consideration Wednesday evening seek primarily to provide a more pedestrian and bike-friendly intersection. Installation will include enhanced and textured paving of pedestrian crosswalks, wider sidewalks leading up to the intersection and new corner bulbouts, which are curb extensions.

More aesthetically-inspired amenities include ornamental street lights and new and improved street furniture.

Jeff Bowen ’10, a frequent patron of the intersection’s Starbucks, welcomes the prospect of change. “I don’t cross El Camino on foot too often,” Bowen said, “but I see others suffer through the process all the time. Any attempt to aid pedestrian traffic would be huge.”

The pedestrian-oriented project, however, is not without its detractors.

Roger Pierno, a resident of the surrounding community who drives through the intersection on a daily basis, said that although he favors certain parts of the project, he objects to the elimination of right-turn lanes.

The current plans do, in fact, call for the elimination of right-turn lanes west onto Stanford Ave and south onto El Camino, effectively resulting in increased delays for motorists who frequent these lanes.

But Shahla Yazdy, a transportation engineer and project manager of the development, points out that since 2003, “the goal of the project has been to make El Camino safer for all modes of travel.”

The Master Schematic Design study, which was carried out in conjunction with local communities, found that the combination of high pedestrian traffic and the sharp turn radius of the right-turn lanes made the crossing at Stanford Ave and El Camino particularly unsafe and thus ideal for improvement. The project also has the support of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), who, Yazdy explains, “would not approve a project that would significantly impact drivers on their roads.”

Pierno, who attended the December community meeting on the proposed plans, is also concerned with the rate at which the project is being implemented. “It’s on a fast track,” he said, “And I just don’t think that there has been enough public input.”

The plan first got off the ground financially when it received a $1.3 million grant from California’s Bicycle Transportation Account (BTA) in 2006. But if the final design plans aren’t submitted by February, the monies for the construction of the project will expire.

“It really is a great opportunity,” Yazdy said. “We got lucky with this grant. It would be too bad not to take advantage of this funding.”