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The city of East Palo Alto is looking to transform University Avenue, add new bike lanes, create landscaped barriers and improve public transportation as part of its new Grand Corridor Project, which is set to roll out this summer.
University Avenue is the main artery that runs through East Palo Alto, connecting it to the Bayfront Expressway, U.S. Highway 101 and various city amenities. But as Silicon Valley grew in popularity, so did the number of commuters who rely on the street as a shortcut. The University Avenue Grand Corridor Project aims to mitigate that by slowing down traffic, making road conditions safer for pedestrians and catering the design to resident desires.
“The basis of this project really is within your General Plan – the first page of that document, under vision and guiding principles, identifies the importance of transforming University Avenue from a cut-through corridor into a beautiful mixed-use boulevard,” city consultant Jessie Maran said at a March 3 meeting.
The project is fully funded through a San Mateo County Transportation Authority grant, and city staff began working with consultants and residents in fall 2025. Last week, the City Council gave direction to staff, opting for a design model that prioritizes traffic flow from Donohoe Street to Kavanaugh Drive.
Consultants presented two options, both with the same landscaped barriers to block off pedestrian and bike routes, improved bus stops, more clearly designated crosswalks, wider continuous sidewalks and additional public art and seating areas.
Vision A would cut the number of vehicular lanes in half, creating one narrow lane in each direction and reserving the remaining two lanes for emergency vehicles and buses. Vision B would leave the lanes in their current configuration, with two in each direction.
Through various community forums, residents expressed interest in more gathering areas, reduced traffic speed, safer crossings and distinct bike lanes. Local police and firefighters also told consultants that the commuter traffic down University Avenue interfered with emergency response.
Vision A directly caters to those residents who want to discourage commuters from cutting through East Palo Alto. It aims to reduce collisions and create more opportunities for city identity.
“It’s no longer perceived as the shortcut,” Maran said about Vision A. “It’s perceived as a community corridor and destination.”
Mayor Webster Lincoln, Vice Mayor Ruben Abrica and Council member Carlos Romero expressed some interest in this option, but were apprehensive about how residents would transition to the noticeably slower traffic.
“I’m pretty sure everybody on this council would either lose their election or be recalled immediately if we were to cut the lanes by 50% and create perpetual congestion,” Council member Mark Dinan said.
Consultants assured the council that traffic conditions would improve over time as commuters began taking other routes and traffic signals were updated through the corridor project. The transportation authority would also consider adding more bus routes down the street with improved public transit conditions.
The City of Palo Alto implemented the traffic concept down Middlefield Road through a one year pilot, before making the changes permanent due to resident satisfaction and collisions reduced by 56%, Maran said. There were 96 reported accidents on University Avenue from 2020 to 2024, with a quarter involving pedestrians and bikers, according to consultants.
Council members were not immediately swayed, and decided to choose Vision B, even as they expressed interest in testing out the idea in the future.
“I like this concept of going to one-lane but is it palatable for our community?” Romero said.
Vision B will still allow staff to make major changes in resident safety, according to staff and consultants. Specifically, staff conceptualized wider, rounded curbs to protect turning bicyclists and pedestrians, raised crosswalks, possible street art to designate bike lanes and cafe seating.
City staff plan to present a finalized design in the summer.
“Following this meeting, we really plan to hit the ground running with the design,” said senior city engineer Batool Zaro.
So is this article here to tell residents that the already bad weekday traffic on University and Willow will get worse while the city tries to implement these measures?
Dear council members in East Palo Alto, as an East Palo Alto homeowner, can you work with Caltrans to limit, or eliminate cut through traffic on University and Willow before starting such projects? Thank you
One more thing for the East Palo Alto council, in your efforts to beautify the city, could you do something about all the garbage located on the the East Palo Alto corner of Newbridge and Willow? Somebody dumped out all of the garbage out of the Caltrans garbage and “recycling” (it was always stuffed with garbage) bins a few weeks ago. Since then, since the garbage is just sitting there, people are dumping even more garbage on top of the already huge pile of garbage . Could you have someone fix the bins and pick up the garbage?