DATE: December 15, 2025
TO: Mayor and Members of the Foster City Council
VIA: Stefan Chatwin, City Manager
Marlene Subhashini, Assistant City Manager
FROM: Andrew Brozyna, Public Works Director
Laura Galli, Engineering Manager
Francine Magno, Senior Civil Engineer
Claire McWilliams, Assistant Engineer
DEPARTMENT: Public Works
SUBJECT: BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN MASTER PLAN PROJECT
UPDATE
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council, by Minute Order, receive and accept this status update on the Foster City Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan (BPMP) and provide general policy direction on the preliminary plan goals, policies, and prioritization methodology.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The BPMP Project (“Project”) is the City’s first unified effort to create a comprehensive plan to improve the way people walk, bike, and roll throughout Foster City. In March 2025, Fehr and Peers was selected to develop the BPMP through a qualification-based selection process.
The Project kicked off in April 2025 and established the present conditions, challenges, and opportunities of Foster City’s existing bicycle and pedestrian network. Based on data gathered from the public through various outreach events and community feedback, a proposed network was developed to serve all ages and abilities and connect users to high use destinations. The Project has advanced to the Goal & Policy
Development and Recommendations & Implementation Strategy tasks, where the Project team has begun to outline how to achieve the goals of the plan through both infrastructure improvement projects and potential policies and programs. Over the next few months, the priority projects, implementation matrix, and goals and policies will be further refined then shared for public feedback in the draft BPMP before being brought back to the City Council. The project team will provide a presentation of the project activities to-date and upcoming project milestones.
BACKGROUND/ANALYSIS
The BPMP was created in response to the July 2023 San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury report entitled “Bike Safety in San Mateo County,” which recommended “each city, town, and unincorporated county should update or generate a new Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan if their current plan is older than five years.” In November 2023, staff applied for grant funding in the amount of $80,000 from the City/County Association of Governments (C/CAG) and was approved to receive an allocation of TDA funds for the BPMP Project in August 2024, offsetting half of the City’s currently budgeted funds.
On November 4, 2024, the City Council adopted City Resolution No. 2024-116, approving the Request for Proposal (RFP) for the BPMP and authorizing staff to begin consultant selection. On March 3, 2025, the Council awarded the contract to Fehr and Peers, a transportation engineering and planning firm, which has a strong familiarity with Foster City due to their work in the past on various projects and studies.
Fehr and Peers initially prepared a work plan that provided an overview of the objectives of the BPMP, a meeting and presentation schedule that targeted key stakeholders including City staff, City Council, the Traffic Review Committee and other public meetings to encourage community participation, and established communication channels with other departments, local and regional bicycle/pedestrian committees, and the general public.
Public outreach is an important component of the City’s BPMP and concurrent with several tasks in the scope of work. Outreach aims to include the community throughout the plan development process, ensuring that the Final BPMP will be based on community priorities, opinions, and feedback. To guide public engagement, the public engagement plan outlined touchpoints for collaboration and feedback with the public citywide including the City Council and the Traffic Review Committee (TRC). The TRC acts as the project’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, as required by the grant from C/CAG, and will ultimately endorse the plan for adoption by City Council. Public outreach occurs over all three phases of the project.
Phase 1: Existing Conditions
Data Collection
Fehr and Peers conducted a detailed review of previous City studies, the General Plan, and other relevant City, local, and regional documents to outline the current state of the bicycle and pedestrian network within Foster City, including challenges and opportunities for the City. Outreach performed during this phase collected feedback related to existing needs and barriers to walking and biking.
Key takeaways from the existing conditions data are listed below:
Pedestrian collisions often occur near key community destinations (parks, commercial areas, etc.)
Bicycle collisions occur primarily at intersections and on arterials Foster City has nearly 30 miles of existing bicycle facilities The highest stress and highest connectivity roadways and intersections are typically located on the boulevards within Foster City
Infrastructure Needs and Demands
Incorporating information from the data collection review process and public outreach activities, Fehr and Peers performed various analyses to better understand network demands, connectivity gaps, and relative comfort and safety for pedestrians and cyclists. The analyses considered multiple factors such as speed limits, collision data, existing crossing controls, connectivity to key destinations within the City, and level of stress (LTS). LTS is the level of stress experienced by users based on vehicle volumes, speed limits, and existing infrastructure protections.
These inputs led to the identification of high stress and high connectivity roadways and intersections. The identification of these areas is important to the project as these are the biggest obstacles which prohibit bicycle and pedestrian network users from getting to everyday destinations on wheels or on foot. If the City improved these areas, more users could rely on the bicycle and pedestrian networks, instead of cars, as a means to get around Foster City. Phase 1 was completed in July 2025.
Phase 2: Draft Projects and Programs
Phase 2 is ongoing and started in September 2025. This phase includes the development of recommended bicycle and pedestrian network improvements that ultimately result in specific prioritized projects to implement. The first deliverables for Phase 2 were the proposed future bicycle and pedestrian network maps (see Attachment 1). These networks are a culmination of both qualitative (public feedback) and quantitative (safety considerations and connectivity) analysis and input, incorporating findings from Phase 1 and applying industry best practices. The maps identify recommended improvements for bicycle facilities and pedestrian crossings or intersections, building on the high stress/high connectivity pedestrian and bicycle facilities identified in Phase 1. For more information on the different types of bicycle facilities, see Attachment 2. Public feedback (including Citywide public, the School District, the Parks and Recreation committee, and the TRC) for both the pedestrian and bicycle proposed future networks was solicited as part of Phase 2 engagement. An overview of the proposed future bicycle and pedestrian network maps will be provided to the City Council as part of the presentation.
Phase 2 also includes a scoring approach that translates the project goals into tangible project priorities. This approach helps staff evaluate and rank projects that are identified in the proposed future networks, improving the bicycle and pedestrian system. The presentation will provide additional detail on the scoring system, including the inputs used to rank project priorities. More information on the prioritization methodology will be included in the presentation.
The finalized future network and prioritization methodology will inform the list of projects and implementation suggestions in the Draft BPMP.
A summary table of public engagement is below and represents a total of 7,000+ community members reached across Phases 1 and 2:
Date Phase Outreach Type Location / Platform Topic
4/21/2025 Phase 1 TRC Meeting Council Chambers
Conference Room
Internal Kickoff/Project Briefing
5/29/2025 Phase 1 TRC Meeting Council Chambers
Conference Room
Phase 1 Kickoff
6/11/2025 -
7/18/2025
Phase 1 Online Survey Social Pinpoint Existing Conditions:
Opportunities and Needs
6/12/2025 Phase 1 In-person
Event
Family Movie Night,
Leo J. Ryan Park
Existing Conditions:
Opportunities and Needs
6/13/2025 Phase 1 Distributed
Flyers
PJCC, Starbucks, The
Vibe, Foster City PD,
City Hall, FC Library,
etc.
Link to project website
6/13/2025 Phase 1 Messaging FC Marquee Link to project website 6/23/2025 Phase 1 Email Blast Email to Mailing List Phase 1 Survey Reminder 6/30/2025 Phase 1 Flyers Levee Kiosks Link to project website 7/3/2025 Phase 1 Social Media Facebook Phase 1 Survey Reminder 7/10/2025 Phase 1 Social Media Facebook Phase 1 Survey Reminder 7/16/2025 Phase 1 Email Blast Email to Mailing List Phase 1 Survey Reminder 7/18/2025 Phase 1 Social Media Facebook Phase 1 Survey Reminder 8/14/2025 Phase 2 Social Media Instagram Mayoral Minute 9/11/2025 Phase 2 TRC Meeting Council Chambers
Conference Room
Phase 2 Event Reminder
9/11/2025 Phase 2 Messaging FC Marquee Link to project website 9/17/2025 Phase 2 Email Blast Email to Mailing List Phase 2 Event Reminder 9/17/2025 Phase 2 Social Media Facebook Phase 2 Survey Reminder 9/18/2025 -
10/20/2025
Phase 2 Online Survey Social Pinpoint Draft Pedestrian and Bicycle Networks
9/21/2025 Phase 2 In-person
Event
Boothbay Park Draft Pedestrian and Bicycle
Networks
9/22/2025 Phase 2 Email Blast Email to Mailing List Phase 2 Survey Reminder 9/25/2025 Phase 2 TRC Meeting Council Chambers
Conference Room
Draft Pedestrian and Bicycle
Networks
10/2/2025 Phase 2 Press Release Online Phase 2 Survey Reminder 10/7/2025 Phase 2 PRC Meeting Council Chambers
Conference Room
Project Update and Draft
Networks
10/7/2025 Phase 2 Social Media Facebook Phase 2 Survey Reminder 10/13/2025 Phase 2 Social Media Facebook Phase 2 Survey Reminder 10/15/2025 Phase 2 IDEC Meeting Council Chambers
Conference Room
Goals and Policies
10/16/2025 Phase 2 Virtual Event Online Focus Group
(PTAs)
Safe Routes to School and Draft
Networks
11/20/2025 Phase 2 TRC Meeting Council Chambers
Conference Room
Goals and Policies and Project
Prioritization
12/15/2025 Phase 2 City Council
Meeting
Council Chambers Goals and Policies and Project
Prioritization
Phase 3: Draft Plan
Over the next several months, the pedestrian and bicyclist networks will be finalized, and an Implementation Plan will be developed to advance the improvements outlined in Phase 2. Alongside the Implementation Plan, the high-level vision for the plan will be refined through feedback on its potential goals and policies.
Draft BPMP Goals and Policies
As the draft bicycle and pedestrian networks were developed, the project team worked in parallel to draft goals and policies for consideration by City Council. While the draft bicycle and pedestrian networks provide general guidance for the physical infrastructure improvements of the bicycle and pedestrian networks, the goals and policies shape the long-term vision of possible policy and programmatic changes to complement the proposed physical improvements.
These draft goals and policies were developed based on public feedback, industry best practices, and considered previous studies, City policy, and existing practices. The goals and policies are comprised of three overarching goals - Safety, Connectivity, and Compatibility. Each goal is supported by policies, which are supported by strategies designed to achieve that goal. Please see Attachment 3 for a complete list of draft BPMP goals, policies, and strategies for discussion.
Following the development of the final bicycle and pedestrian networks, goals and policies, and implementation plan, the final step in Phase 3 will be to gather public feedback on the draft BPMP plan. Staff anticipate bringing the plan for a public hearing and adoption in Spring 2026.
California Environmental Quality Act
This agenda item is not subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Public Resources Code Section 21000, et seq. and the CEQA Guidelines (14 Cal. Code Regs. §§ 15000 et. seq.), including without limitation, Public Resources Code section 21065 and California Code of Regulations 15378 as this is not a "project" that may cause a direct, or reasonably foreseeable indirect, physical change in the environment.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact associated with this report.
CITY COUNCIL VISION, MISSION, AND VALUE/PRIORITY AREA
Infrastructure and Facilities; Innovation and Sustainability ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1 – Draft Bicycle and Pedestrian Network Maps Attachment 2 – Bicycle Facility Types
Attachment 3 – Draft BPMP Goals and Policies