The San Mateo County Transportation Authority (SMCTA) invests millions of dollars in projects designed to make it safer and easier for people to move throughout San Mateo County. But understanding the impact of those investments sometimes means getting out from behind a desk and experiencing the transportation network firsthand.
That is exactly what SMCTA staff did this summer during an 8-mile bicycle tour through East Palo Alto.
The July 14 ride brought together SMCTA and East Palo Alto staff along with community members and a city council member to visit completed projects, see improvements underway and explore locations where future investments could help close important gaps in the city’s active transportation network.
For the SMCTA, the afternoon offered something maps, project applications and funding reports cannot always provide: the opportunity to experience how individual transportation investments connect — or sometimes do not connect — once people are actually walking and biking through a community.
Seeing the impact of investment
The tour began with a recent improvement that demonstrates what can happen when agencies work together to solve a longstanding transportation challenge.
At the Ravenswood Preserve, riders visited a new pedestrian gate providing nearby residents with more direct access to the preserve and surrounding trail network. Previously, residents near the preserve faced a significant detour despite living just a short distance away.
From there, the group traveled through a mix of completed projects and areas slated for improvements, including portions of East Bayshore Road, where upcoming sidewalk and storm drainage work will address pedestrian access and safety.
The ride also highlighted how investments in one location can contribute to a much larger network. Along San Francisquito Creek, for example, completed flood protection work has also created improved bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Future phases are expected to provide additional opportunities to strengthen those connections.
Experiencing these projects by bicycle gave SMCTA staff a street-level view of what transportation funding can accomplish — and why connections between individual investments matter.
“Getting out into the communities we serve gives us a perspective that we can’t always get from plans, maps or funding applications,” said SMCTA Chief Officer Peter Skinner. “When we experience these projects firsthand, we can see what’s working, where connections are still needed and what local agencies encounter when they deliver improvements.”
Skinner says those lessons help his team think more broadly about how investments can support a safer and better-connected transportation network across San Mateo County.
Understanding what it takes to deliver a project
The tour also provided a closer look at something that can be difficult to see once a project is finished: the complexity involved in delivering transportation improvements.
On Addison Avenue, city staff discussed improvements that required navigating existing underground infrastructure, including sewer and water lines. Those conflicts can influence project design, cost and construction and demonstrate why even seemingly straightforward improvements such as sidewalks or drainage upgrades can require extensive coordination.
That perspective matters for an agency responsible for funding transportation projects throughout the county.
Seeing those challenges in person helps provide additional context for the realities local jurisdictions face as they move projects from an idea to design and, ultimately, construction.
Experiencing the gaps between projects
Just as important as seeing completed improvements was experiencing places where the transportation network remains incomplete.
Along Runnymede Street, riders encountered a busy corridor without continuous sidewalks. Near the Highway 101 pedestrian and bicycle overcrossing, the group saw how a high-quality piece of infrastructure can still be difficult to reach when the surrounding streets lack comfortable bicycle and pedestrian connections.
Those experiences illustrate an important lesson in transportation planning: A project does not exist in isolation.
A new sidewalk, trail, bicycle facility or overcrossing can provide significant benefits, but its value increases when people can safely and conveniently reach it from the surrounding community.
Traveling the route by bicycle allowed staff to experience those transitions firsthand — moving from comfortable facilities to challenging stretches and back again. That perspective can help the SMCTA better understand how individual projects fit within the larger transportation system.
Taking lessons back to the SMCTA
The SMCTA's role extends across San Mateo County. Through voter-approved Measure A and Measure W transportation programs, the agency helps fund projects ranging from local streets and highways to bicycle and pedestrian improvements and other transportation priorities.
Determining how to make those investments effectively requires more than looking at individual projects on paper. It also requires understanding the communities those projects serve, the challenges local agencies encounter in delivering them and how one investment connects with another.
Field visits such as the East Palo Alto ride provide another way for staff to build that understanding.
They offer an opportunity to see completed projects after funding decisions have been made, hear directly from the people involved in delivering and using them, and identify lessons that can inform conversations about future transportation needs.
The ride also underscored that completing one project rarely means the work is finished. Transportation networks are built piece by piece, and each improvement can reveal the importance of the next connection.
For the SMCTA, getting out into the communities it serves helps connect transportation funding with the places and people behind those investments.
And sometimes, the best way to understand where transportation dollars have taken us — and where they may need to take us next — is to experience the journey from the street.
Share this article: