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Station Area Master Plan – Transportation Context
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Street Typology
In order to link the multi-modal street design recommendations and suggested
considerations for further improvements included in Chapters 2 and 3 with all streets
located in the Station Area, this Plan categorizes the area’s streets into the following four
street types: Downtown Boulevard, Local Street, Arterial Street, and Transit Connector, as
shown on
Figure 1-23.Each of these street types includes areas on either side of the roadway that are designed
to accommodate the travel of pedestrians to and from the Transit Center and between the
many destinations in the Downtown, including to and from existing parking facilities. In
addition to walking, the pedestrian realm accommodates other pedestrian-related activities
and streetscape elements, such as café and other seating, window shopping along retail
frontages, bicycle parking, wayfinding signage, and street trees and landscaped planter
strips that buffer pedestrians on sidewalks from moving traffic. While Chapter 2 focuses in
greater detail on improvements in the pedestrian realm, Chapter 1 includes typical cross
sections for each street type that, among accommodations made for other modes, indicate
the space available for further pedestrian realm improvements along Downtown streets.
The cross sections distinguish between different areas within the pedestrian realm,
including the Frontage Area, Through Area, Furnishing Area, and the sidewalk-adjacent
Buffer Area (see Chapter 2 for a more detailed description of each of these pedestrian realm
areas).
Downtown Boulevard
– Monterey Road between Main and Dunne Avenues is the main
business corridor in Downtown and a primary pedestrian route. The abutting commercial
land uses, 12-foot wide sidewalks, landscaped median, and abundant street furniture create
a pedestrian-friendly main street or boulevard ambiance unique to Downtown. (See
Figure 1-24 for the existing cross-section.) In the future, the City of Morgan Hill may consider
converting the outside vehicle lanes into buffered bike lanes to achieve consistency with
the Bikeways, Trails, Parks and Recreation Master Plan. The cross-section of this alternative
is shown o
n Figure 1-25.Local Street
– First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Streets are two-lane roadways with residential
and small business frontages. They primarily provide access to their adjacent land uses for
vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians alike. (See
Figure 1-26.)Arterial Street
– Dunne Avenue, Main Avenue, and Butterfield Boulevard as well as the
portions of Monterey Road beyond Main and Dunne Avenues, are wider streets with faster