Several Burlingame councilmembers voiced support for lowering speed limits around the city as the City Council discussed its Vision Zero plan, which is being designed with the goal of eliminating all serious and fatal traffic collisions and enhancing bike and pedestrian safety.
Data from 2020 to 2024 show that on average, 112 people a year are injured in a traffic collision in Burlingame, with nine serious injuries and one fatal collision — though numbers collected from the years within the COVID-19 pandemic, when far fewer people were on the roads, could be skewing that metric, Councilmember Donna Colson said.
That data also doesn’t take into account the three pedestrian fatalities that have occurred in the past year — most recently, 4-year-old Ayden Fang was struck and killed by a crossover SUV while he stood on a Burlingame sidewalk three weeks ago.
Earlier this year, on March 11, 61-year-old Arlene O’Campo was crossing the street at El Camino Real and Trousdale Drive when she was struck in a fatal hit-and-run crash. Nearly a year ago, on Sept. 12, Yolanda Villar was struck and killed by a vehicle making a left turn from North Delaware Street onto Peninsula Avenue at the Burlingame-San Mateo line.
Mayor Peter Stevenson said before the City Council’s Sept. 2 Vision Zero study session was only to discuss the plan itself, not Fang’s tragic death, though councilmembers and meeting attendees took a moment of silence in honor of Fang before proceeding with the meeting.
The council would seek the community’s insight on potential safety updates that could be made following the collision at a later date, once the police investigation into Fang’s death was resolved, he said.
“I know the city experienced a very tragic event here in the downtown area a little over three weeks ago. I know that’s on a lot of people’s minds. I think that’s important that gets discussed when it’s agendized,” Stevenson said.
Councilmembers heard from consultant group Fehr & Peers on collision hot spots and potential solutions throughout the city and were then asked what projects they’d like to see prioritized within the Vision Zero plan, with a majority expressing support for identifying zones throughout the city where speed limits could be lowered.
“It’s speed that really creates the problem. That’s where people react, that’s where collisions are more likely to be serious or fatal,” Vice Mayor Michael Brownrigg said.
Colson shared a recent experience at Burning Man, where cars, pedestrians and bikes were able to safely navigate the desert where the festival is held in harmony. Speed limits and courtesy made the event safe even with a diverse array of transportation options, she said.
“What it really comes down to is speed. Everyone on the Playa is very conscientious, they pay attention, they’re not looking at their cell phones — but the speed limit on the Playa is 5 miles an hour,” she said. “Everyone is so courteous and pays such attention, and there’s no accidents.”
Councilmembers also expressed support for prioritizing pedestrian and cyclist safety — two notoriously vulnerable groups of travelers. In Burlingame, while pedestrians and cyclists are involved in only 22% of collisions, they make up around 50% of serious injuries and fatalities.
“That’s the least protected traveler and we should always focus mostly where there’s a lot of either kids or pedestrians,” Brownrigg said.
Plans for Vision Zero include a particular focus on school areas, where pedestrians and children often congregate, as well as downtown commercial zones and corridors with a history of collision and injury.
In Burlingame, El Camino Real is a noted hot spot for collisions resulting in serious injury, though the road is outside of the Vision Zero scope because it’s owned by Caltrans, which is planning a major reconstruction effort and safety upgrades in coming years.
Upgrades are also already planned for collision hot spots like Rollins Road and California Drive.
Fehr & Peers is planning to finalize a safety plan for the city by fall of this year, consultants said, and will also incorporate community suggestions — which prioritized safety for pedestrians and cyclists at crossings, slowing vehicle speed and enforcement and education.
(5) comments
Combining cars and bikes will lead to death. The idea is not smart and no amount of thoughts and prayers is doing to change that. This is part of the war on cars and it has gone way too far in Burlingame.
Exactly,
- no "avid driver" likes sharing the road with bicycles.
- no bicyclist likes sharing the road with cars.
- no pedestrian likes sharing the road with cars or bicycles at any speed.
Such a "burning man" idea might sound great in the "Orgy Dome", but shouldn't be mentioned in a "Vision Zero" discussion.
And of course Vision Zero is requiring exactly the opposite of "sharing the road" - Vision Zero requires using engineering solution to 'Separate Speed and Power' .
Burlingame needs better sidewalks, more real bike lanes, and safer intersections with better signaling.
I am not usually on the same page as easygerd, but now that we have a proliferation of cyclists, we need to adjust and refocus on the road designs that were designed for autos and for pedestrians. We cannot ignore them, specifically when we also trying to reduce our carbon footprint. It actually floors me that the well-funded and oblivious climate action groups are not showing up at these meetings. Probably because they park their subsidized EV and hybrid cars in the Library garage and have never been able to connect the dots. As the father of two very active cyclists I can relate several horror stories that my sons, both highly educated UC graduates, have had to contend with. And here the city councils and our local Sacramento representatives babble about issues that most of us don't give a hoot about. Just peruse the latest Belmont opinion poll that was released and one will find out that the instructed surveyors are tone-deaf. For some reason, bicycles for may are still considered a toy and not viewed as a viable means of transportation.
Thanks Dirk ... I think we are more often on the same page than you think.
For example this point:
"It actually floors me that the well-funded and oblivious climate action groups are not showing up at these meetings."
The answer is ASTROTURFING.
Let's take the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) - you would think they are front and center in these discussion in Burlingame, San Mateo or Redwood City. But they are not. They say they "stay out of politics", BUT are actively pushing the new transit tax and praising every bad real estate project. (so much for staying out of politics)
But in 2016 SVBC made the decision to sell out. They were "bought" out by Silicon Valley YIMBY companies (some are on this page: https://singersf.com/our-clients/):
Since 2016 they have a large group of SALARIED leadership, that has done less and less ever since. Their job is "Firewall Advocacy" - they shield these politicians from pesky real advocates by keeping them busy with "bicycle parties", "bike parking at the 49ers", or "ECR ride outs" - now that Caltrans started to smarten up.
In fact, I have seen SVBC's 'director of policy' and their corporate lawyer come into Redwood City and San Carlos constantly sabotaging local efforts.
The problem with SALARIED leadership at volunteer groups is that people that take money can be BOUGHT. At this point I would only trust groups with unpaid, volunteer leadership.
Virtue Signalling all the Way!
"Vision Zero" is already an outdated philosophy - at least here in America it has been used as a marketing tool and not as an engineering and road safety methodology.
Burlingame will be wasting a lot of bicycle funding on Vision Zero and then decide NOT to implement bike lanes.
We know that because just recently 3 people died on Burlingame streets and the city never took responsibility for their part in those deaths nor did they suggest any improvements.
But as this article points out, there was the usual "thoughts and prayers" from the council and then a call to none-action.
The council proved just very recently with their Truesdale Ave project that they don't care about vulnerable road users or Vision Zero at all.
Truesdale is their major - in fact their only - east2west connector. Which means it is also absolutely needed for a bicycle network to connect California Ave, El Camino all the way up to the bike path next to I-280.
And despite the fact that a speeding, drunk, distracted driver killed a person on Truesdale Ave, and despite the fact that this is also an important Safe-Routes-To-School project the council made all kinds of false claims to NOT install a bike lane on this very important Vision Zero and Safe-Routes-To-School project.
as I said:
Virtue Signalling all the Way!
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