San Mateo Traffic Proposal - Potential Impact On Burlingame Residents

Since last year the City of San Mateo has been investigating modifications to the US101/Poplar/Amphlett Interchange. In November, 2003 Hexagon Transportation Consultants, Inc. delivered a draft Transportation Study of 101/Poplar Interchange? to San Mateo which outlined three improvement options, identified as Scenario 1, Scenario 2, and Scenario 3. The study recommended implementation of Scenario 3 which calls for a barricade down the middle of Poplar Ave. from 101 to Humboldt and closure of southbound Amphlett Blvd. under the Peninsula Ave. overpass.

It is the closure of southbound Amphlett at Peninsula Ave. that will have an adverse impact on citizens of Burlingame. This closure would divert all southbound Amphlette traffic onto southbound Humboldt Ave. further north, near Rollins Road in Burlingame. This diversion of traffic onto a residential street would result in unacceptable increases in traffic volume with resulting decreases in existing safety levels and real estate property values.

If you have any questions about or concerns with this project's potential negative impact on Burlingame citizens please contact:

San Mateo Senior Engineer Gary Heap (650) 522-7307
Email: [email protected]

- Written by Lloyd Mahaffy

Comments

[Jenn]

Thanks for bringing this to the publics attention. FYI: A revised draft of these plans is currently being worked on in response to public comments to Caltrans. The original draft is still available by request from Mr. Heaps.

[al]

This seems like a crazy idea. What exactly are they trying to accomplish with this? Can anyone tell us without regurgitating the whole report?

[Jenn]

The draft offers several options to change the patterns around the Poplar entrance and exit. Admittedly, it is an extremely dangerous area where accidents are a common affair. The drawback, of course, is that by constructing a median strip along Poplar, and restricting southbound traffic on Amphlett at Peninsula, traffic is displaced to Humboldt, and there would be more congestion. It is definitely not an easy problem to solve.