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9 ATTACHMENT 4
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS REGARDING HUMBOLDT BIKE LANES ALTERNATIVES POST 12/10/25 SUSTAINABILITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE COMMISSION MEETING Background
City staff presented the Humboldt Bike Lanes Alternatives to the Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission on December 10, 2025, seeking feedback in advance of the upcoming City Council meeting on February 2, 2026.
Since the meeting, several questions have been raised by Council members and members of the public. For any questions not directly addressed by information in the Agenda Report, staff have consolidated those questions and corresponding responses below to provide clarity and ensure consistent information is available to the public and decision-makers.
Questions and Answers
1. It was mentioned in the 12/10/2025 commission meeting that City staff removed duplicate IP addresses from the Workshop 3 – Survey. What was the justification for this?
Answer: City staff removed duplicate IP addresses from the Workshop 3 Survey results to help ensure the integrity and accuracy of the public input process.
There have been multiple concerns raised from the public about potential attempts by individuals to submit duplicate or fraudulent responses to skew the data. Removing duplicates based on IP addresses is a standard practice in online surveys to prevent one person or entity from artificially inflating results, while still preserving legitimate unique submissions. This approach is consistent with the pre-paid mailed survey process, which limits responses to one per household. This step was taken transparently to maintain the reliability of the survey data presented to the Commission. However, in order to understand what the impact the duplicate IP addresses may have had on the findings, staff have also included, as Tables 3A and 4A of Attachment 3, the results without these surveys removed. The findings were similar before and after the screening of duplicate IP addresses.
2. What action items from the 12/10/2025 Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission meeting are staff following up on?
Answer: Staff are incorporating commission feedback into the agenda report and presentation to City Council in February 2026. At the February 2026 meeting, staff will be asking City Council for further direction given both community and commission feedback.
3.Has staff considered converting streets in North Central into one-way streets? How feasible would this be? What is the cost? What are the potential downstream impacts by converting one street to one way, against the broader area etc.? 1 2
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9 Answer: From the City’s outreach on both the North Central Complete Streets Plan (NCCSP) as well as our recent outreach effort, conversion of one-way streets is an idea of potential interest to the community for East-West direction (but not North-South direction) streets. Conversion of streets to one-way is feasible but is not a concept that can be studied lightly and not without significant cost. It would take a complex traffic and circulation study to evaluate the cost and potential downstream impacts to North Central and the surrounding neighborhoods. The cost to convert Humboldt to a one-way street could exceed $10 million to cover the cost of the traffic and circulation study, new traffic signals, revised signage and striping, and community outreach/engagement. As such, staff believes this option is financially infeasible.
4. There was a comment from one of the commissioners regarding asking elected officials at the state level to follow up and see if the DMV parking lot can be used for overnight parking. Are we following up with state representatives? oAnswer: Though we heard from one of the commissioners that they would like to pursue this further with state representatives, we have heard strong feedback from the community when vetting this further that the DMV parking lot is too far to walk from Humboldt Street and the 6AM exit timeframe is highly restrictive. DMV representatives have also been clear and responsive about their requirements for overnight parking, without the need to escalate to state representatives. These requirements are summarized in the Agenda Report to the SIC and the presentation:
Leases will be on a non-exclusive basis; agreements are negotiated at market rate and limit the types of use and hours of use. Staff often arrive around 6AM so vehicles will need to be out of the lot before 6AM.
Insurance as well as daily routine cleanup will be required.
Staff does not believe this meets the needs of the community and that further exploration is not warranted.
5. There is confusion regarding the feasibility of implementing a residential parking permit program in the North Central area. Can the City confirm its current official policy on residential parking permits, and if a permit parking program can be used in North Central?
Answer: City Council can direct staff to return with amendments to the existing permit parking program to meet the needs of North Central or create a new program. A permit parking program wouldn’t add parking capacity to North Central, but it would offer residents a “leg up” in finding parking amongst available spaces. Staff anticipate some additional vetting and community outreach would be necessary to confirm the extents and elements of the permit parking program. Please note that vehicles are not permitted to park in a bike lane, and the permit parking program would not affect this. Parking spaces would only be allocated from legal parking spaces.
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9 6.Would it be possible to get all the public comments made to City Council on this topic over the last 12 months?
Answer: Public comments submitted for the 2/3/25 City Council Meeting and 12/10/25 Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission Meeting are included as part of the agenda packets for these meetings (links are below). Any other public comments written over the past 12 months not included as part of these meetings will be included as an attachment to the agenda packet for the February 2026 City Council meeting.
7.Can you provide a list of all recorded meetings that have taken place from when the bike lane was voted on (i.e. previous council meetings), through to any discussions that have happened to the Council going forward? Answer: Links are provided below. The gray highlighted rows weren’t exclusively about the North Central Bike Lanes Project, but did include discussion of this project.
December 10,
2025
S&I Humbolt Bike Lanes
Alternatives – Update HTML Packet Link
July 9, 2025 S&I Bicycle and Pedestrian
Projects Update HTML Packet Link
February 3, 2025 Council
Meeting
North Central Bike Lanes
Project — Direction HTML Packet Link
March 20, 2023 Council
Meeting
Complete Streets Plan -
Introduction and Community
Engagement
HTML Packet Link
February 22,
2022
Council
Meeting
North Central Bike Lanes -
Update HTML Packet Link
February 9, 2022 S&I North Central Bike Lanes -
Update HTML Packet Link
April 6, 2020 Council
Meeting
2020 Bicycle Master Plan –
Adoption HTML Packet Link
For the agenda packets, use our public meeting portal at:
https://www.cityofsanmateo.org/3971/Agendas-Minutes-Public-Meeting-Portal For any Legislative Record, use this link: https://www.cityofsanmateo.org/4588/Search- Legislative-Records
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9 8. Has the City considered removing the sidewalks on Humboldt Street to create more space? Is there any state law that prohibits this? Answer: Removing sidewalk is financially infeasible. It will involve the demolition of the existing sidewalk, planter strip and relocation of the overhead utility poles.
This option is estimated to cost over $2.5M for construction and that is just for the 2nd Avenue to Indian Avenue and does not include utility relocation costs. No specific state law prohibits sidewalk removal in general; however, such actions must comply with applicable California codes (e.g., Americans with Disabilities Act requirements for accessible pathways, California Vehicle Code, and local complete streets policies). Given the substantial financial implications and the City's current budget constraints, staff does not recommend pursuing this approach.
9. Did the project team collect data on existing speeds on Humboldt? Fremont and Idaho?
As part of the Humboldt Bike Lanes Alternative project, the project team collected speed data on Humboldt Street, Idaho Street and Fremont Street to determine appropriate calming measures to reduce speeds on roadways to make it suitable for a bicycle boulevard. The existing speeds for the three roadways from Indian Avenue to 2nd Avenue are shown below:
i. Humboldt: 24 – 30mph
ii. Idaho Street: 23-25mph
iii. Fremont Street: 23-26mph
10. What’s the latest on partial restoration of parking? What would that look like? Answer: The direction provided by Council on February 3, 2025 was to explore, through a community vetting process, whether bike boulevards from Indian to 2nd Avenue on either Idaho or Fremont could provide equivalent safety and connectivity to the existing bike lanes. If implemented, this could restore approximately 100 parking spaces. There is no way to restore parking on Humboldt without removing the bike lanes on Humboldt Street.
11. Why didn’t we consider Amphlett Blvd for a Bike Lane? Did City Staff ever look at this as an option?
Answer: City Council direction from February 3, 2025, specifically focused exploration on Idaho Street and Fremont Street as potential bike boulevard alternatives. Staff prioritized these streets accordingly during community outreach efforts. During the first community workshop in June 2025, participants were invited to suggest additional roadways for consideration. While there was no broad consensus on alternatives, a few small groups and some survey respondents expressed interest in Amphlett Boulevard as a bike boulevard 1 2
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9 option. In response, staff conducted a high-level evaluation of Amphlett Boulevard's suitability for a bike boulevard. Key findings include:
oThe street is highly commercial, with frequent large-vehicle access from driveways.
oIt is farther from Humboldt Street (reducing direct connectivity). oIt serves as a designated truck route.
oAverage speeds from 2nd Avenue to Indian Avenue are approximately 36 mph, well above the recommended maximum of 20 mph for bike boulevards per guidelines from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).
Due to these factors—particularly the elevated vehicle speeds—staff determined that Amphlett Boulevard is not a viable route for a bike boulevard. Regarding dedicated bike lanes (rather than a bike boulevard), this would require removal of a significant number of on-street parking spaces (approximately 90), rendering it nonviable as an alternative to the Humboldt Street bike lanes.
12. How much would it cost to build a parking garage at MLK Center? Answer: A parking garage at MLK Center is not financially feasible given the City’s budget constraints. For context, the recently complete Kiku Parking Garage, which is an above-ground parking garage in downtown San Mateo, cost approximately $25M. Presuming a subsurface garage beneath the playing fields at the King Center, costs would likely be even greater.