Community Design + Architecture is leading a team of consultants to develop a Master Schematic Design Plan for the Palo Alto segment of El Camino Real, a designated state highway (S.R. 82) with a critical function as a regional and local north-south transportation corridor. Auto trips in this portion of El Camino Real average up to 50,000 daily during the week and the Corridor hosts several key bus routes for the region and the city.

The project is funded by the City of Palo Alto, which received a major grant from the Office for Community Planning of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). The project will explore how functional and aesthetic improvements can be made to El Cemino Real in order to achieve a better balance between the needs of the automobile, bicycles, pedestrians, and transit, while reinforcing and reflecting its importance as a “main street” within Palo Alto. The Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) also plans to introduce Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and upgraded bus stops along the Corridor.

The design process aims to employ Context Sensitive Design (CSD) and Flexibility in Highway Design – nationally supported approaches to highway design – to accommodate street beautification measures and improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists in the limited right-of-way (120’ typ.). This may require several deviations from current California highway design standards. For this reason, the planning and design effort involves high-level Caltrans decision-makers and will inform Caltrans’ own efforts to revise current standards to better reflect communities’ needs for a highway design practice that is more sensitive to the local context and community-specific goals. The Master Schematic Design Plan will lead to and include:

-- Major conceptual changes regarding the design of the street;

-- Design and transportation concepts for the segments and nodes that are defined by variations in use and function along it; and,

-- The design of the detail urban design, landscape, and multi-modal elements that will be needed to fully carry out the larger design concepts, including improvements to bicycle and pedestrian crossings, sidewalks, appropriate accommodations of street trees and other street furnishings.