The San Mateo County Transportation Authority is closing in on the final chapter of its countywide rethink of Highway 101, rolling out a South County multimodal strategy that would complete the 101 Corridor Connect program. The draft plan pulls together bike and pedestrian upgrades, station access improvements and cross-bay transit concepts into a focused set of priorities aimed at easing everyday commutes through Menlo Park, East Palo Alto, Redwood City and North Fair Oaks. TA members previewed the package in early February, and the authority is slated to consider formal adoption next month.
Board previewed a 20-project priority list
At a board meeting last Thursday, TA staff outlined the South County Multimodal Strategy - the third and final piece of 101 Corridor Connect - and highlighted 20 priority projects spread across Atherton, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, North Fair Oaks and Redwood City. Redwood City accounts for the bulk of the list with 16 projects. Roughly half of the portfolio focuses on bicycle-only improvements, several others combine bike and pedestrian upgrades, and the package also includes a Dumbarton corridor cross-bay bus route and Willow Road bike and pedestrian improvements. Landing on the priority list could help projects compete for grants, and staff walked the board through a proposed $4 million seed grant program to help cities kick-start smaller efforts, according to the San Mateo Daily Journal.
What 101 Corridor Connect covers
The TA’s Corridor Connect effort treats roughly a one-mile swath on either side of U.S. 101 from Brisbane to Menlo Park as a single planning zone, aiming to link transit, walking and biking improvements instead of treating the freeway in isolation. For South County, the TA has posted a full draft Multimodal Strategy for public review that details project scoring, station access work and a priority list meant to position local projects for state and federal grant opportunities. The TA’s public review page hosts the draft strategy and an archive of comments for anyone wanting to dig into the fine print.
Public feedback and project timing
The draft went out for winter public comment, and the online portal shows a steady flow of feedback urging faster, paint-and-bollard "quick-build" bike upgrades and stronger connections to Caltrain. Comments collected on the TA’s public review site flagged worries about project timelines, challenges in accessing funding and the need for consistent designs where city borders meet. According to materials presented to the board, that community input is expected to influence how the authority and local cities balance near-term pilots against longer-term capital projects.
Dumbarton corridor and local context
One item drawing particular attention is the Dumbarton corridor concept. The priority list keeps alive ideas for reusing the old rail right-of-way, currently framed in part as a bus connection to the historic Dumbarton rail bridge and as a trail segment in certain stretches. Regional planners and transit agencies have spent years studying cross-bay options in different forms, weighing rail reactivation, bus rapid transit and multiuse trail concepts as alternatives to simply adding more freeway capacity. For a deeper look at earlier Dumbarton work and the corridor’s long-running role in regional planning, see reporting by The Almanac.
Next steps and what to watch
If the board signs off on the South County plan at its March meeting, the move would complete the countywide 101 Corridor Connect framework and give local cities a clearer platform for chasing competitive funding. TA staff told the board that several projects are already at different funding stages and that adding them to the Corridor Connect priority list could help unlock grants and regional dollars. In the near term, riders and drivers should expect follow-up coordination between the TA and city staffs as they try to move shovel-ready elements - especially protected bike lanes and station access fixes - into quick-build pilots and grant applications this spring.
