The Base Plan for Embarcadero has six major components:

1. The reduction of the street from two through travel lanes in each direction to one through lane in each direction with appropriate left-turn pockets at intersections, with the exception of maintaining the four-lane section in proximity to Middlefield due to capacity constraints
2. The replacement of traffic signals at St. Francis, Newell and Waverley with roundabouts (leaving the existing signals at Middlefield, Louis, Greer and Bryant)
3. Construction of a roundabout on Embarcadero Road at West Bayshore as a gateway feature.
4. The provision of marked bicycle lanes in each direction for the full length of the street, except in the blocks immediately adjacent to Middlefield,
5. The construction of a raised median in the center of the street; and,
6. Maintenance of the existing parking between St. Francis and Alma.

The proposed Base Plan has two phases. Phase 1 would be a one-year trial of the plan, using temporary materials. Phase 2 would make the trial installation permanent.

Where did the proposal to redesign Embarcadero Road come from?
The goal of redesigning Embarcadero Road is set forth in the Comprehensive Plan - Palo Alto's transportation and land use "constitution". The Comprehensive Plan was developed from 1993 to 1996 in a public process involving over 20 public meetings, four weekend workshops, newsletters and comment forms delivered to all Palo Alto households, a telephone survey administered to a random sample of 400 Palo Alto households, and the input of a 38-member Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee. The Plan was unanimously approved by the City Council in 1998.

The following excerpts from the Comprehensive Plan's Transportation Element set forth the City's overall goal for residential streets and for residential arterial streets, like Embarcadero Road, in particular:

• Goal T-5: A Transportation System with Minimal Impacts on Residential Neighborhoods.
• POLICY T-30:
  • Reduce the impacts of through-traffic on residential areas by designating certain streets as residential arterials.
• PROGRAM T-41:
  • The following roadways are designated as residential arterials. Treat these streets with landscaping, medians, and other visual improvements to distinguish them as residential streets, in order to reduce traffic speeds.
    • Middlefield Road (between San Francisquito Creek and San Antonio Road)
    • University Avenue (between San Francisquito Creek and Middlefield Road)
    •  Embarcadero Road (between Alma Street and West Bayshore Road)
    • Charleston/Arastradero Roads (between Miranda Avenue and Fabian Way)
• PROGRAM T-42:
  • Use landscaping and other improvements to establish clear "gateways" at the points where University Avenue and Embarcadero Road transition from freeways to neighborhoods.

In 1998, Council authorized creation of a feasibility study and conceptual plan for calming traffic on Embarcadero Road. An extensive public process was used to develop the proposed design for Embarcadero. An advisory group of 22 members, including citizens; board and commission members; and City staff from the Fire, Police and Public Works departments, counseled Transportation Division staff and the consultant team throughout the process. The project was managed by City Traffic Engineer Ashok Aggarwal. A half-day hands-on design workshop, attended by some 65 citizens, was used to create the initial design concepts. A second public meeting was then held to present two detailed alternatives to the community, answer questions and hear public comment. Each member of the audience received a post-it dot to be attached to his or her preferred scheme. A third category, called "minimal change", was made available for those who were not in favor of either of the two proposed design alternatives. The final tally of preferences was:

• Alternative #1, Central Turn Lane:      2.5 dots
• Alternative #2, Tree-lined Median:      43.5 dots
• Minimal Change:                                   5 dots

After additional review by City staff and the advisory group, Alternative #2 was revised and developed into both a Base Plan (for near-term changes to Embarcadero) and a Master Plan (for changes which could be carried out in the longer term, perhaps in conjunction with other infrastructure improvements). The Base Plan and the Master Plan were approved by the Planning and Transportation Commission on November 8, 2000, and have not yet been scheduled for review by Council.

What does "traffic calming" mean?
The Institute of Transportation Engineers defines traffic calming as ".the combination of mainly physical measures that reduce the negative effects of motor vehicle use, after driver behavior and improve conditions for non-motorized street users." Palo Alto's Comprehensive Plan defines "traffic calming" in general as "projects that make permanent, physical changes to streets to slow traffic and/or reduce volumes, thus improving their safety and addressing residents' concerns." However, on residential arterials like Embarcadero, the Comprehensive Plan adds the stipulation that traffic calming "must be done economically and without appreciably reducing traffic capacity or diverting traffic onto local neighborhood streets." In short, a successful traffic-calming project on Embarcadero Road must slow down speeders, without appreciably diverting traffic to local streets.

What is a "modern roundabout"?

Four key features define a modern roundabout:

1. Size: Compared to most older traffic circles, roundabouts are small. Usually, a roundabout can be retrofitted within the space used by an existing traffic signal or stop-controlled intersection, with little or no additional right-of-way required.
2. Yield-on-Entry Rule: At each approach to a roundabout, yield signs (never stop signs or traffic lights) require entering drivers to yield to drivers already in the circle.
3. Splitter Islands: At each entrance, triangular 'splitter islands' prevent drivers from going around the circle the wrong way, and simultaneously provide a safe refuge for crossing pedestrians.
4. Low speed: Vehicle speeds are physically constrained to 10 to 20 mph by a geometry that requires drivers to slow and turn.

At modern roundabouts, motorists enter by selecting a gap in the circulating traffic. Their only decision is whether or not the approaching gap is larger enough for them to enter the roundabout safely. If no circulating vehicles are present, drivers can adjust their speed and enter without stopping. This simple decision-making process, at low speed, is the major reason for the quick acceptance of roundabouts by drivers around the world and in this country.

Don't roundabouts need to be huge, like Dupont Circle in Washington D.C.?
Not at all! All four proposed Embarcadero roundabouts will fit into existing intersections in existing public rights of way. Modern roundabouts, such as are proposed for Embarcadero Road are far smaller than old rotary designs (like Dupont Circle or many others in New England, Europe and elsewhere). The old, large, high-speed traffic circle designs have a well-deserved reputation for driver confusion, congestion and high accident rates. In these old circles drivers typically circulate at 30 to 35 mph. Entering drivers approach at speed, and must cross exiting traffic in making a high-speed merge. With such high speeds, drivers need large gaps to be able to enter safely: this limits capacity severely. By contrast, modern roundabouts, with small diameters and carefully designed entry angles, provide a slow speed environment where drivers can and do select very small gaps, often as low as one second. It is this ability to make use of every small gap, and allow vehicles to enter simultaneously from multiple approaches, that gives roundabouts their demonstrated capacity advantages.

Don't we already have roundabouts in Palo Alto, for example at Addison & Bryant?
No. Palo Alto's three circular intersections (at Addison & Bryant, Lytton & Fulton, and Park Ave. & Park Blvd.) are what transportation planners often call 'residential traffic circles' or 'neighborhood traffic circles'. These existing circles have stop signs at some approaches, and no stop at all for other approaches. By contrast, a modern roundabout, by definition, must have yield signs at all approaches. Also, Palo Alto's existing circle lacks the splitter islands which modern roundabouts use to both prevent "short-cut" left turns and help pedestrian cross. Studies from cities like Seattle (which has over 1000 neighborhood traffic circles) have found that neighborhood traffic circles work well to reduce speeding and improve safety. However, they lack one important capability of modern roundabouts: the ability to move large volumes of traffic with little delay.

Modern roundabouts may be fine for the disciplined Dutch or the staid British, but what about impatient Californians?
Californians are navigating modern roundabouts safely and easily in numerous communities. In the Bay Area, they include Cupertino, the Hayward hills, Orinda, Petaluma (just outside Petaluma High School) and San Ramon. More widely, recently built California roundabouts include Arcata (four roundabouts), Carlsbad, Davis (five), El Cajon, Escalon (two), Long Beach, Modesto (four), Ojai, Santa Barbara (two), Truckee, and Visalia. Many more are in the planning or design stages.

Won't removing travel lanes cause major back-ups?
Traffic will flow somewhat better than it does now. Our traffic computer model analysis estimates that the re-design of Embarcadero with roundabouts at five locations (W. Bayshore, St. Francis, Greer, Newell, and Waverley) will reduce vehicle delay (i.e. time waiting at intersections for lights to turn green) by 40%. We will also have left turn pockets (short, protected turning lanes) interspersed as breaks in the center median at the intersections without roundabouts, so that left-turning cars may move out of the travel lane. Together, these measures address the two largest causes of  traffic back-ups on Embarcadero:

1. Cars waiting for lights to change
2. Cars waiting for the car ahead to make a left turn

Many people are surprised that Embarcadero can continue to carry existing volumes of traffic if the number of through travel lanes is reduced from four to two.  In fact, the capacity of a street is generally limited not by the number of lanes between intersections, but by the capacity of the major intersections. Flowing freely, a single travel lane can carry 1900 vehicles per hour. But when interrupted by a traffic signal, the capacity of a lane typically falls to 600-800 vehicles per hour.  Thus it is the capacity of a road's major intersections that dictates the number of vehicles that can easily be accommodated. Drivers heading eastbound on Embarcadero from El Camino Real toward the 101 Freeway often experience this phenomenon firsthand: the first time that their journey is delayed is usually not at the Alma Street tunnel, where the roadway narrows to one lane eastbound, but at the Middlefield Road traffic light, even though the traffic light provides both two through lanes and a left-turn lane for eastbound drivers.

Overall, the design will change a 'hurry-up-and-wait' traffic pattern to a slow-but-steady pace. With less time spent sitting and waiting at lights, and more time in motion, traffic will continue to flow well.

You say that this plan will reduce congestion, but if cars will be going so much slower, how can it be less congested?
Embarcadero currently has a 'hurry-up-and-wait' traffic pattern. Drivers wait for long periods at a red light, then rush to the next red light. Peak speeds (the top speeds reached between signals) are quite high, but the average speed (which includes time spent driving between signals, and time stopped waiting at signals) is quite low. With the new design, there will be a slower but steadier pace.

Peak speeds on Embarcadero have been measured by radar speed surveys, and compared to the 25 mph speed limit. These show 15 percent of the drivers, or approximately 4000 cars per day, drive at peak speeds of 38 mph or faster. With the new design, we estimate that this '85th percentile speed' (the speed which 15 percent of drivers exceed) will fall by 6 mph.  Between the major intersections, the reduction of through lanes, the addition of bicycle lanes, and the addition of the median will act to slow down speeders and reckless drivers who weave from lane to lane.

However, average speeds, which are what count for determining travel time from point A to point B, won't change much at all. The reason there won't be more congestion is that the roundabouts will in aggregate reduce intersection delay time (time cars are stopped and waiting) at rush hour by 40% compared to current conditions. At off-peak hours, drivers and cyclists at a roundabout usually need not come to a full stop at all: they instead slow and roll through the roundabout at 10 to 15 mph. This ability to combine greater efficiency (more vehicles through per time period) and reduced speeding is what make modern roundabouts so promising.

Won't traffic spill over onto side streets like Channing and North California?
Traffic shift from an arterial usually occurs under two conditions: if travel time lengthens on a route; or if 'stop delays' (the time spent stopped waiting at a signal, stop sign or roundabout) increase, so that drivers feel increasingly frustrated. On Embarcadero, neither of these conditions will occur, and drivers will have no incentive to shift off onto side streets.

Traffic flow on Embarcadero will change from "hurry-up-and-wait" to a pattern with lower top speeds, but a much more even pace. Drivers will spend less time waiting for signals to change, and more time in motion. Overall, drive times (which are a function of average speed) will be about the same. For motorists who currently drive at or close to the speed limit, travel times will improve, because of reduced delays at the intersections with roundabouts. The minority who are serious speeders will have to slow down, but because they will also experience less time sitting at red lights, their overall travel time will also be little changed.

Because travel times for most drivers will be improved or little changed (and because the most frustrating type of delay - time spent stopped and waiting at signals - will be reduced), drivers will have little incentive to shift to another route, and traffic diversion to other streets is not expected.

What is the benefit of doing these things?
Transportation staff has estimated - conservatively - a reduction of from 7 to 13 reported traffic accidents per year (not all accidents are reported); a reduction of 4 to 6 miles per hour in the 85% percentile speeds (the speed at which 85% of motorists are travelling at or below); increased convenience and safety for bicyclists and pedestrians; and improved aesthetics. Speed reductions are important since approximately 4,000 vehicles per day travel Embarcadero Road at 13 or more miles per hour above the speed limit.

Why not just put up more traffic signals?
Modern roundabouts in both the United States and other countries have achieved a 50 to 90 percent reduction in collisions compared with intersections using traffic signals.  Studies have found a particularly significant reduction (up to 90%) in the number of crashes that result in death or disability, in good part because roundabouts eliminate the high-speed, severe angle crashes (such as T-bone and head-on crashes) which occur at traffic signals. In addition, the high capacity of the roundabouts is what makes it possible to remove lanes between intersections. This allows for the addition of bicycle lanes, with the additional safety and bicycle ridership that will result; and for the addition of the raised median. Raised medians ease pedestrian crossings, and provide significant safety benefits as well: suburban arterials with raised medians typically have crash rates 50 percent lower than undivided arterials.

Why not just have more police enforcement?
Police enforcement cannot be provided consistently enough to permanently reduce speeds on Palo Alto streets. While tickets for speeding, running red lights or failing to yield to pedestrians may be expensive, officers can write relatively few in a day and the City receives only a small portion of the revenue from each ticket. It is therefore not possible for the City to recover more than a small portion of a traffic officer's annual salary from fining speeders. In addition, judges will often dismiss tickets, because of failure to provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt, in cases where a driver is paced by an patrol officer and found to be traveling up to 10 mph per hour above the speed limit. By contrast, a one-time investment in redesigning a street can provide permanent, 24-hour a day reductions in speeding and crashes.

Moreover, many crashes and fatalities are caused not by deliberate misdeeds, but by mistakes and confusion. Safer street designs can help prevent these. For any given level of enforcement, an arterial roadway with bike lanes and a raised median will remain significantly safer than an undivided arterial without bike lanes; an intersection controlled by a roundabout will remain 50 to 90 percent safer than a signalized intersection.

How will the changes affect access to resident's driveways?
There are over 100 private residential driveways along Embarcadero Road, and one complaint of the residents has been the potential for collisions as they are entering or leaving the driveways.  Slowing the traffic and providing curb-adjacent bike or parking lanes, as is proposed, would help minimize such collisions.  Nonetheless, while the frequency and seriousness of such collisions would be reduced, the community should be aware of two other issues related to driveway access.  First, the more continuous flow of traffic induced by the reduction of traffic lanes from four lanes to two will reduce the number of gaps in traffic, and thus drivers entering the street will have to wait longer to find a suitable opening.  Second, the proposed median will preclude the making of left turns into most of the driveways along the street, thus constraining residents either to make U-turns at minor intersections and roundabouts, or to modify their approach patterns when returning to their homes.  In general, this will increase traffic safety on the street.  Where medians have been installed under similar conditions most residents have generally found that the inconvenience of making modifications to their approach patterns, or making U-turns at the roundabouts, was more than offset by the increased safety and amenity of the planted median.

How will side street traffic (at streets without roundabouts or signals) be able to enter Embarcadero Road?
As with entries from driveways on Embarcadero, the more continuous flow of traffic induced by the reduction of traffic lanes from four lanes to two will reduce the number of gaps in traffic, and thus drivers entering the street will have to wait longer to find a suitable opening. However, large gaps will still be created by the lights remaining in place at El Camino, Bryant, Greer, Middlefield, and Louis. With slower moving traffic, entering drivers will also be able to take advantage of smaller gaps in the traffic flow.

What about left turns in and out of Newell, and at other proposed roundabouts?
Left turns in and out of Newell will be easy. The roundabouts are simple to navigate and require less waiting than do traffic signals. Remember that once a driver has entered a roundabout (whether he is making a left turn, a right turn, or even a U-turn) he has the right of way over other drivers trying to enter. With a roundabout, a driver making a left-turn from Embarcadero into Newell, for example, will have the right-of-way over drivers coming the other direction on Embarcadero. When that driver turns left onto Newell, he also creates gap in the flow of on-coming traffic on Embarcadero, allowing drivers on Newell to enter the roundabout and take their turn.

Roundabouts are actually particularly effective in situations with high left-turn volumes. Unlike that of signalized intersections, roundabout efficiency increases with higher left-turn volumes: left-turning vehicles break up the through traffic to let side-street traffic enter the roundabout. In addition, in the particular case of Newell, the traffic signals which will remain in place on either side of Newell (at Middlefield and Louis) will add additional time and space gaps (since cars at each of these intersections will need to wait periodically for red signals to turn green, giving Newell drivers plenty of time to enter and exit Embarcadero).

Won't the backup at the Middlefield light cause gridlock at the Newell or Waverley roundabouts?
No, there will be adequate lane space between Newell and Middlefield and between Middlefield and Waverley to "store" cars while they wait for the light to change at Middlefield. This is the primary reason why the plan recommends retaining a four-lane section, plus left-turn pockets, on the approaches to this major intersection.

What will happen on Stanford football game days?
For Stanford game day traffic, typically occurring on five Saturdays yearly, City staff will work with peers at Stanford to create a good game day traffic management plan. This would include encouragement for fans to use alternative roadways such as Page Mill and Oregon Expressways, which have excess capacity on Saturdays. Public transit use (including Caltrain, VTA, and Samtrans), "early bird" and "late stayer" incentives, would also be encouraged. Palo Alto Police would continue the practice of converting Embarcadero to one-way operation from Middlefield to El Camino for peak times on game days. City staff will also evaluate adding additional "green time" at traffic signals for Embarcadero traffic on game days.

Will there be enough room for fire trucks to pass through?
There will be enough room for a fire truck to pass on Embarcadero with a parked car or a car pulled over to the side. Maneuvering room for fire trucks will be created as follows:

1. From Alma to Byron, the base plan would provide 6.5 foot wide bike lanes and an 11 foot wide travel lane in each direction. (Most cars don't need more than 6 feet of width in which to park and fire trucks do not occupy the full 10.5 or 11-foot lane width.)
2. The east and west approaches to Middlefield (from Byron to Fulton) will retain four lanes.
3. From Fulton east to Bayshore, the typical width provides 7.5 foot parking lanes, plus 5-foot bike lanes and a 10.5 foot travel lane in each direction.
4. In addition, there would be left-turn pockets and breaks in the raised median at most intersections. A similar arterial roadway nearby is Fremont Avenue in Los Altos, where a wide center-turn lane was converted to a landscaped raised median.
5. As an extra precaution, the raised median can be designed to have a "lip" or "apron" that would be mountable for fire trucks to allow even more lateral clearance space.
6. If a two-way center left turn lane is chosen rather than a raised center median, that whole lane could be used for extra passing space. However, this option would mean a significant reduction in traffic safety.

Will pedestrians be safer? How will they cross the street at the roundabouts?
Properly designed roundabouts provide large safety benefits for pedestrians, when compared to intersections controlled by either stop signs or traffic signals. For example, a Dutch study of 181 intersections that were converted to roundabouts found an 89 percent reduction in casualties (fatalities and injuries). Other studies have also found major improvements in pedestrian safety. This reduction in crashes occurs because roundabouts provide three key features that pedestrians need for a safe crossing: simple decision-making, short crossing distances, and low traffic speeds.

Decision-making is simple because pedestrians cross one direction of traffic at a time, traveling from curb to splitter island, then from splitter island to curb. Vehicle speeds are kept low by the physical constraints of the roundabout. On one side, pedestrians cross behind drivers who are waiting to enter the roundabout. On the other, drivers exiting the roundabout at low speed have room to pause outside the circle, while pedestrians cross the 13 feet from splitter island to curb. By contrast, crossing Embarcadero at a signal (for example, at Newell), pedestrians face conflicts from both right-turning and left-turning drivers who also have a green light, and also are at risk from drivers making a right-turn on red. All of these drivers at signals are simultaneously searching for gaps in traffic. Because roundabouts reduce the large number of conflicts found at signals, they are able to provide safety improvements.

The four signals that will be kept between Alma and 101 will also provide additional time and space gaps for pedestrians to cross at the Embarcadero roundabouts, since these signals induce gaps while cars wait at each of them for the lights to change.

Will the roundabouts be safe for schoolchildren?
Numerous communities in California, including Davis, Escalon, Petaluma and Modesto, have installed roundabouts specifically to improve safety around schools. The article "Coming Around To Safety", published in the Modesto Bee on March 2, 1999, describes Modesto's experience with two new roundabouts outside an elementary school. It is available on-line at http://www2.modbee.com/pagearc/A31364.htm, and is also reproduced in the Embarcadero Draft Final Report on the project website. Another evaluation of the experience with a roundabout intersection by a school comes from Montpelier, Vermont. That article is available on-line at:http://www-uftrc.ce.ufl.edu/wwwround/emergence.htm

Will bicycling be safer?
Slower automobile speeds, dedicated bicycle lanes (except near Middlefield) and one lane roundabouts at intersections will make cycling Embarcadero much safer and more convenient than at present. In addition, fewer cyclists will need to use the sidewalks and risk being hit by drivers pulling out of or entering driveways and cross streets. At the roundabouts, cyclists will be able pedal through at about the same speed, or faster than, motor vehicle drivers. As at signals, novice cyclists may also cross pedestrian-style, using the pedestrian crosswalks. Again, studies in the U.S. and worldwide confirm bicycle safety improvements at properly designed modern roundabouts when compared to signal or stop controlled intersections. The reasons include lower - and thus safer - motor vehicle operating speeds and fewer points of conflict at intersections.

How will you know if the trial is a success or a failure?
To be a success, the 1-year trial of the Embarcadero Road base plan must show that a permanent installation would meet all of the objectives set forth for the Embarcadero Plan in the Comprehensive Plan and by the Council. These are to:

1. Reduce speeding
2. Improve safety, including for pedestrians and bicyclists
3. Improve aesthetics

Two additional important parameters for the plan were:

1. Preserve the arterial (through route) function of Embarcadero
2. Avoid appreciable shifts of traffic onto side streets.

The trial installation should demonstrate that all of these objectives have been achieved, with the exception of aesthetic improvement. The 1-year trial installation, using temporary curbing to form the raised median and roundabouts, is unlikely to beautiful: aesthetic improvements provided by landscaping these features will have to wait until the trial has successfully demonstrated that basic functional objectives for safety and traffic capacity have been met. 

To judge whether the objectives are being met, a detailed before-and-after evaluation study will be undertaken by the Transportation Division. Statistics collected will include detailed traffic counts on both Embarcadero and possible diversion routes (such as Channing and North California); vehicle speed surveys; and crash statistics. Following discussion of the evaluation report and Council direction, staff would proceed to either: (1) in the case of a success, make any adjustments deemed necessary and make the base plan permanent; or (2) in the case of a failure, remove the trial installation.