Multimodal Transportation Network

An efficient, accessible, and safe multimodal transportation network moves people and goods through the community. In addition to their utilitarian function of moving vehicles, streets can also provide spaces for people to exercise, gather, and conduct business. Burlingame’s streets serve many functions, including:

• Allowing people to move about town
• Providing access to businesses, homes, schools, parks, and public spaces
• Supporting adjacent land uses and developments
• Providing safe, attractive areas that encourage personal interactions
• Promoting human and environmental health by making it easier and safer to travel by transit, by bicycle, or on foot

Public rights-of-way (roadways, sidewalks, trails, and paths) cover a significant part of any community, generally occupying 20 to 30 percent of a community’s total land area. The layout and use of these areas influence many aspects of the physical environment, including how people move, how people and goods get to homes and businesses, and how frequently people walk, bike, and exercise outdoors. Street and pathway designs also affect the safety and independence of people in the community, especially vulnerable populations such as children, persons with disabilities, and the elderly. A well-planned and well-designed mobility network is a means to realize the community’s goals for improved health, economic growth, quality of life, and fiscal soundness.

With these goals in mind, Burlingame aims to develop a complete multimodal transportation network (Complete Streets network). This network will be designed to encourage people to use non-automobile modes for as many trips as possible, as high use of these alternative modes enables the system to move more people with less delay, cost, and environmental impacts. However, tradeoffs need to be made within each mode to allow safe access for all other modes. Streets are where walking, bicycling, transit, private vehicles, and freight come together to provide mobility to their respective users.

Street Classifications

Streets and sidewalks are public spaces that serve many functions: mobility corridors, connections to businesses, places for interaction among neighbors, and even facilities for managing stormwater control. Above all, the primary function is mobility, and different street types accommodate different means of moving about. The City of Burlingame’s street classification system is shown in Figure M-1. It provides a framework for street design and mobility that supports all of these functions and meets the City’s needs for 21st century transportation options.

The street classification system establishes and promotes the suitability of streets to accommodate various travel modes and land uses. In particular, this system is sensitive to local context, land use, built form, and mobility priorities. Each of the classifications aligns with Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) categories, as shown in Table M-1. However, they encompass a more dynamic range of uses than those identified by FHWA. A detailed description of Burlingame’s street classifications and their corresponding FHWA category are shown in Table M-2.

Street uses are independent of their normal form and function, such as routes for emergency vehicles, streets adjacent to major transit stations or school zones, and bicycle priority streets. These uses do not necessarily dictate the specific design of a street but instead encourage design flexibility to better serve the specific purposes. For example, the local access streets that can best serve bicycles should be clearly identified so their roadway and intersection design emphasizes bicycle priority and comfortable access. Similarly, emergency routes may require width and design exceptions to accommodate movements of emergency vehicles; for example, where a roundabout is appropriate for a particular intersection, its edges may need to be rounded so that large fire trucks can roll over rather than have to swerve around them.

The following goal and policies provide a framework for ensuring that network changes and improvements over time are accomplished in such a way that reduces conflicts and congestion and promotes community health and sustainability.