San Mateo council keeps Humboldt bike lanes for now, orders lighting, parking and feasibility work

San Mateo — The City Council stopped short of removing the Humboldt Street protected bike lanes Tuesday, directing staff instead to pursue immediate safety and parking measures while studying longer-term changes.

Public Works engineer Jay Yu told the council the department’s analysis showed mixed community preferences across outreach formats and laid out five alternatives: keep the lanes, keep lanes with additional calming, move bike facilities to Idaho or Fremont as bike boulevards, remove lanes without a replacement, or invest in street‑lighting upgrades. Yu said staff’s objective was “to provide direction from city council on how to proceed with the Humboldt bike lanes alternative project.”

The meeting drew more than 80 organized and individual public speakers over nearly eight hours. Supporters of the existing lanes — including school staff and students, bike‑safety groups and many North Central residents — said Humboldt is a critical north–south corridor connecting schools and transit and that removing the lanes would endanger cyclists and students. Opponents, including neighborhood associations and many long‑time North Central residents, said losing more than 200 on‑street parking spaces has imposed daily hardships on seniors,…