San Mateo staff advance protected bike lanes on South Delaware Street after robust public debate

City of San Mateo public works staff presented a near-final design for the Delaware Street Safe Routes to School project at the May 5 City Council meeting and sought council feedback before filing final plans and returning later this year for construction authorization.

The presentation by Sang Hee Cho, an associate engineer in the city’s traffic engineering group, described a corridor-level plan that would install 0.7 miles of protected (Class 4) bike lanes from Bermuda Drive to East 20th Avenue and 0.3 miles of bike-boulevard treatments from East 20th to Pacific Boulevard. The design includes protected intersections, high-visibility crosswalks, bike-dedicated signal phases at key intersections, curb ramps to meet ADA requirements and pavement repairs along the corridor. Cho said the project is funded in part by the State Active Transportation Program and that staff plans to bid the work this year for fall/winter construction.

Cho said the project’s primary goal is to create “a safe, low-stress environment for bikes and pedestrians,” while retaining as much on‑street parking as possible and making targeted vehicle‑traffic compromises where necessary. The plan would remove one southbound travel lane for a roughly 900‑foot segment between Bermuda and Saratoga and is estimated to cost about…