Contra Costa Public Works and SRVUSD Open Protected Bike Lanes and Covered Bike Corral at Rancho Romero Elementary

Contra Costa County Public Works traffic engineers and San Ramon Valley Unified School District facilities staff completed a Safe Routes to School bicycle and pedestrian safety upgrade on Saturday morning along Hemme Avenue and Danville Boulevard serving Rancho Romero Elementary School at 180 Hemme Avenue in Alamo. Developed in partnership with the Rancho Romero PTA and Street Smarts San Ramon Valley, the $195,000 autumn corridor improvement installs 2,200 linear feet of buffered five-foot bicycle lanes, high-friction green conflict-zone thermoplastic markings across driveway aprons, and flexible delineator posts separating young cyclists from morning drop-off vehicle queues.

Inside the school's north campus courtyard adjacent to the Hemme Avenue crosswalk, ironworkers erected a 900-square-foot powder-coated steel shade canopy sheltering forty stainless-steel "U-rack" hoops capable of locking eighty student bicycles and kick scooters out of winter rain. Previously, overflow bicycles on sunny Fridays had to be locked along perimeter chain-link fences, slowing afternoon dismissal foot traffic.

At the intersection of Hemme Avenue and Danville Boulevard, county signal technicians recalibrated the pedestrian push-button timing to implement a four-second Leading Pedestrian Interval (LPI), giving crossing guards, walking school buses, and student cyclists a dedicated head start in the crosswalk before turning vehicles receive a green arrow. Solar speed-feedback radar signs were also mounted in both directions on Hemme Avenue to reinforce the 25-mph school zone limit.

Funding for the $195,000 project came from Contra Costa Transportation Authority Measure J Safe Routes to School allocations and Alamo Area of Benefit traffic mitigation fees endorsed by the Alamo Municipal Advisory Council. Families can register students for the November "Roll to Romero" bike-train Fridays or download safe cycling route maps on the Street Smarts San Ramon Valley Portal.