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A county leader is speaking out about the disproportionate number of pedestrian deaths along El Camino Real in Atherton following an investigation by NBC Bay Area, which revealed that Atherton’s pedestrian death rate is three times higher than some neighboring cities.
In a July 25 letter, San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa urged the state Department of Transportation “to prioritize the town of Atherton’s Adelante Selby Spanish Immersion School Safe Route to Schools project,” in light of NBC’s report, which found that between 2011 and 2020, Atherton had a disproportionately high pedestrian death rate per 100,000 residents.
Data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration analyzed by NBC found that Atherton had 4.34 deaths per 100,000 residents. The statewide average was just 2.59, and the rate in neighboring Menlo Park is even lower at 1.23.
“Currently, most of the 730 students attending Adelante Selby Spanish Immersion School live in the North Fair Oaks community of San Mateo County and are required to cross (El Camino Real) at Selby Lane to get to school,” Canepa wrote in the letter. “El Camino Real (SR 82) is a major north/south arterial corridor serving the various communities along the Peninsula and is a major barrier to pedestrian mobility, according to Atherton’s One Bay Area Grant 3 application.”
Canepa called on Caltrans to prioritize this $3.1 million grant project.
“This is an equity project that should be approved immediately to spare future deaths along the corridor,” Canepa wrote.
This is a very busy part of El Camino that passes through a very small community (~ 6,900 residents). The “statistics” & title are misleading. It is NOT Atherton’s High Rate of Pedestrian Deaths – it is El Camino’s.