San Mateo council directs staff to pursue partial Humboldt parking restoration and lighting after months of bike-lane debate

The San Mateo City Council asked staff Feb. 3 to pursue a structured engagement and funding plan to pilot a partial parking restoration on Humboldt Street while pursuing targeted street-light upgrades, after a months-long dispute over the North Central bike lanes.

City engineer-manager Jay Yu presented the post-installation review for the North Central Bike Lanes project, noting that the Humboldt segment removed about 170 parking spaces when the Class 2 bike lanes were installed. Yu said staff examined collision and usage counts, community feedback from a December 2024 workshop and several mitigation options, including leasing nearby lots, a residential parking permit program and various bike-boulevard designs.

"If we want to hit the targets of 20 to 25 miles per hour," Yu said of a bicycle-boulevard conversion, "it would require significant hardscape improvements," and he estimated capital costs as high as $3 million for a full conversion with comprehensive traffic-calming infrastructure.

The project timeline and staff presentation showed mixed results: 66 community surveys at a Dec. 4 workshop reported that Humboldt residents felt the facility had a negative impact largely because of parking loss, while other North…