Monterey Road is a major
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
thoroughfare that runs from
Gilroy north to
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...
, in
Santa Clara County
Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together f ...
. It follows the historic route of
El Camino Real and is an old alignment of
U.S. Route 101.
Route description
![85 101 Monterey Rd Bernal Rd night aerial](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/85_101_Monterey_Rd_Bernal_Rd_night_aerial.jpg)
Monterey Road begins in the southern outskirts of Gilroy, running parallel west of US 101. It runs through Downtown Gilroy and intersects with
SR 152. The road then heads northwest through the towns of
San Martin and
Morgan Hill
Morgan Hill is a city in Santa Clara County, California, at the southern tip of Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Morgan Hill is an affluent residential community, the seat of several high-tech companies, and a dining, entertainmen ...
. Much of this segment runs parallel to the
Union Pacific Coast Line. Monterey Road north of Morgan Hill is an outdated and rugged road; it has little changed since US 101 was realigned.
The road then heads into the suburbs of San Jose intersecting
SR 85 with no direct access to SR 85. After intersecting
County Route G10 (CR G10), Monterey Road then heads northwest away from US 101 towards
Downtown San Jose
Downtown San Jose is the central business district of San Jose, California. Downtown is one of the largest tech clusters in Silicon Valley, as well as the cultural and political center of San Jose.
History
The town was first settled in 1777. T ...
. This section from CR G10 to its northern terminus was
SR 82 until 2013 when a length of SR 82 was relinquished to the City of San Jose, intersecting
CR G21 (Capitol Expressway). Shortly before entering Downtown San Jose, Monterey Road ends at
CR G8 (Alma Avenue) and continues northwest as First Street.
History
The road was established as a stage coach route circa 1856, and paralleled a railroad line built in the late 1860s.
It was part of the main road connecting San Jose to
Monterey
Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bot ...
,
and incorporated parts of the historic route of
El Camino Real connecting California's missions.
The towns of Gilroy and
Morgan Hill
Morgan Hill is a city in Santa Clara County, California, at the southern tip of Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Morgan Hill is an affluent residential community, the seat of several high-tech companies, and a dining, entertainmen ...
sprang up as coach stops along it.
In one incident in July 1873, notorious highwayman
Tiburcio Vásquez
Tiburcio Vásquez (April 11, 1835 – March 19, 1875) was a Californio ''bandido'' who was active in California from 1854 to 1874. The Vasquez Rocks, north of Los Angeles, were one of his many hideouts and are named after him.
Early life
T ...
robbed Twenty-One Mile House, a hostel named for its location 21 miles from San Jose along the road, in what is now Morgan Hill.
![Keesling's Shade Trees Plaque](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Keesling%27s_Shade_Trees_Plaque.jpg)
The
Northern California black walnut trees seen along this highway were planted by horticulturist Horace G. Keesling of San Jose. While passing this way by camp wagon on a summer day in 1900, Keesling could find no road-side tree offering shade to relieve his sweltering family and horses, and he resolved to "plant shade" at his own costs. This resulted in a 30-mile row of trees on each side of Monterey road from San Jose to Gilroy, a project that Keesling, assisted by his son Hayes Keesling, finished in 1911. Except for stretches where urban growth and modern highway construction have required removal, these trees still provide the shade that Horace wanted. There is a plaque that is hard to access located on the west side of Monterey Highway (next to the train tracks) in San Jose.
0.5 (one-half) mile south of Capitol Expressway, or 0.34 mile south of Senter Road, or 0.16 mile north of Skyway Drive.
The road became part of the state highway system in the early 1900s and, eventually, it became incorporated into
U.S. Route 101 (US 101).
By the 1970s, as an expressway with only three lanes (for both directions combined)
and high volumes of traffic, it had so many traffic accidents that it became known as "blood alley".
In 1973, the section from Monterey Road's southern terminus to Cochrane Road in Morgan Hill was realigned to a 6-lane
freeway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
to the east, and in 1984, US 101 was realigned to a freeway to the east from Cochrane Road to
County Route G10 (CR G10). These two realignments restored Monterey Road as a separate road again.
Monterey Road continues to exist as a six-lane
arterial road
An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector r ...
within San Jose and as a four-lane highway continuing to Gilroy,
and is used as an alternative route to the freeway for commuters.
Monterey Road north of CR G10 was once part of
State Route 82 (SR 82), a route that was once US 101 before US 101 was realigned to the
Bayshore Highway
The Bayshore Freeway is a part of U.S. Route 101 (US 101) in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It runs along the west shore of the San Francisco Bay, connecting San Jose with San Francisco. Within the city of San Fr ...
(now the Bayshore Freeway) to the east in the 1940s.
In 2013, a section of SR 82 was relinquished and given to the city of
San Jose.
Future
The City of San Jose plans to reconstruct the segment of Monterey Road from Keyes Street to Metcalf Road as a
boulevard
A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway.
Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls.
In American usage, boulevards may ...
with
bus lanes,
protected bike lanes, sidewalks, and crosswalks at intersections. On February 28, 2023, it received a $ grant from the
United States Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States a ...
's Reconnecting Communities Pilot program, which is funded by the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and originally in the House as the INVEST in America ActH.R. 3684, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 117th United States Congress ...
, to conduct a design study.
Safety
According to City of San Jose data, more traffic fatalities have occurred along Monterey Road than on any other street in San Jose. There were four traffic fatalities between 2017 and 2021 and 42 deaths and severe injuries between 2019 and March 2022. The high rate of accidents is blamed on the lack of a median between the road's six lanes of traffic, which encourages vehicles to go as fast as . There are no sidewalks and few crossings at major intersections, even though it runs directly alongside
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
tracks that serve
Caltrain
Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as fa ...
and are planned to serve
California High-Speed Rail
California High-Speed Rail (also known as CAHSR or CHSR) is a publicly funded high-speed rail system currently under construction in California in the United States. Planning for the project began in 1996, when the California Legislature and Gover ...
in the future.
Major intersections
References
{{Reflist, 30em
Transportation in San Jose, California
Streets in Santa Clara County, California
Streets in San Jose, California
U.S. Route 101