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SMCTA outlines '101 Corridor Connect' priorities for Brisbane and a $4 million mini‑grant program
Summary
Patrick Gilster of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority briefed Brisbane’s Complete Streets Safety Committee on the US‑101 Corridor Connect program, described multimodal priorities that affect Brisbane and announced a $4 million mini‑grant program to jump‑start corridor planning, with application limits up to $750,000 and up to $1 million for multi‑city corridor projects.
Patrick Gilster, director of planning and fund management at the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, told Brisbane’s Complete Streets Safety Committee on April 1 that the agency’s 101 Corridor Connect program aims to make walking, biking and transit access safer and more convenient along the US‑101 corridor.
Gilster said the program bundles countywide multimodal strategies with a narrower Active101 grant‑funded effort that focuses on improvements within a quarter‑mile of the freeway. "So you're all our first stop on this tour," he told the committee, describing a countywide planning process that scored roughly 100–150 candidate projects down to a top‑20 priority list for each subregion.
Why it matters: SMCTA framed the program as a way to position larger corridor projects for state and regional funding. Gilster said the multimodal work looks beyond freeway mainline fixes to local walking, biking and transit connections that could reduce vehicle miles traveled and improve access for disadvantaged communities.
Key details: Gilster cited the program’s engagement and technical scoring and listed Brisbane priority corridors that include the Geneva Avenue interchange, Bayshore/Bayshore Boulevard and Sierra Point Parkway. The SMCTA presentation said building the agency’s proposed Active101 priority network would increase grocery‑store access by 82 percent, school access by 21 percent and senior‑care access by 19 percent in the study area; it also projected a lifetime VMT reduction of about 12,700,000 vehicle miles and a 4,300 metric‑ton reduction in greenhouse gases, and said about 138,000 additional residents in disadvantaged communities would gain better access to a 10‑minute walk or bike of transit or services.
Grant program: Gilster announced the Transportation Authority board has allocated $4,000,000 to a new "mini grant" program to jump‑start project planning and conceptual design. He said individual applications could request up to $750,000 and that paired, cross‑jurisdiction corridor submissions could request up to $1,000,000. "Different from many of our programs, we are not requiring a local match," Gilster said; the grants will cover planning, conceptual designs and community engagement and may include staff time.
Timeline and next steps: SMCTA plans committee and council briefings in May, expects to release the call for projects in June, aims to make funding decisions in August and to conduct site walks in the fall. Gilster encouraged city staff to discuss potential applications with SMCTA before the formal launch.
Questions from committee members focused on whether the program funds operating‑level changes such as increased Caltrain or BART service. Gilster said the mini‑grant is intended for capital planning near US‑101 and does not fund ongoing operating costs, though SMCTA provides some regional operating support to Caltrain and BART.
Contact and outreach: Gilster directed committees to SMCTA’s online materials and said staff can filter engagement data by ZIP code if possible; he also flagged a new community‑based organization engagement bench that the agency will pay to support outreach.
What’s next: SMCTA will return to local bodies as it launches the grant program this summer; Brisbane staff and interested council members were encouraged to begin identifying candidate corridors and to consider joint applications with neighboring jurisdictions.
