The New Stop Signs at Four Corners Were Drawn Around the Walk to Alice's

At Four Corners, a lot of the traffic is on foot. A crosswalk on Skyline Boulevard links the Mountain Terrace parking lot to Alice's Restaurant. Riders park and gather at Skywood Trading Post, and people walk along Skyline to stand in line at Alice's. Since October 5, all of that walking happens around an intersection where traffic from every direction has to stop.

Caltrans put all-way stop control into effect at State Route 35 and State Route 84 that afternoon, according to the Town of Woodside's project alert. The stop signs get the attention. Most of the rest of the project is built around the short walk between the parking lots and the three businesses that make this junction a weekend stop.

Three Businesses Share the Intersection

Four Corners has worked as a gathering place for much longer than it has had a safety project. The three businesses around it shape how people move through it.

• Alice's Restaurant, 17288 Skyline Boulevard. The restaurant's own history traces the building to a general store for the logging industry. It became a restaurant in the 1950s, and Alice Taylor bought and renamed it in the 1960s. Brothers Andy and Jamie Kerr bought it, along with the service station and gift shop, the previous August, according to a January 2003 Almanac profile. It's open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.
• Skywood Trading Post, on Skyline. A family-owned gas, grocery and deli business that the Khalaf family founded in 1972 and has run through three generations, according to its website.
• The Mountain Terrace, 17285 Skyline Boulevard, across the road from Alice's. Before it became a wedding and event venue it was the Skywood Chateau. The Kerr brothers were among its partners when it opened under the new name. The Mountain Terrace now books weddings, corporate events and social events.

Parking ties the three together, and much of it belongs to the state. According to an August Almanac story on the weekend crowd, Alice's leases more than 65 parking spaces from Caltrans for its patrons. The same story describes riders parking at Skywood and people walking along Skyline to stand in line at Alice's. Cars arrive at one corner and their drivers end up at another, so the intersection works as a pedestrian space as much as a junction.

Caltrans Started With the Curb Before the Stop Signs

The first changes this year were about where people park and where they cross. The stop signs came later.

The Almanac's September report identified the north crosswalk as the one that connects the Mountain Terrace parking lot to Alice's. The flashing beacon still to come is going on that same crossing, on SR-35 just north of the intersection. That crossing was enhanced in August, and it's next in line for the beacon.

Caltrans Turned Down a Second Crosswalk

The north crosswalk was built up while another proposed crossing was turned down.

At a Woodside town hall in late October 2025, residents asked Caltrans for a new crosswalk between Alice's parking lot and the traffic island used for overflow parking, The Almanac reported. Caltrans said a new crossing would require costly improvements, including ADA-compliant landings. The plan Caltrans presented that night went the other way. It called for removing an existing crosswalk that officials described as leading nowhere, improving the north crosswalk with a flashing beacon, and adding stop signs at the exits from Alice's lot.

The same Almanac story reported other proposals. Lifelong Woodside resident Steve Lubin asked for a new crosswalk and a lower speed limit. Andy Kerr suggested a limit of 25 mph or less, along with speed bumps. Some residents at that meeting supported a four-way stop. Others warned it could lengthen queues on the highways and push traffic onto rural roads.

That plan calls for fewer crossings with more protection at each one. It sends people on foot to the north crosswalk and has drivers stop at every approach to the intersection.

A Traffic Signal Is Still Possible

The all-way stop isn't necessarily the final design. When Caltrans first described the four-way stop, some community members said they would prefer a traffic light. Jamie Kerr of Alice's was one of them, according to The Almanac. Kerr also sits on the South Coast Traffic Advisory Panel with Supervisor Ray Mueller.

The request for lights came up again on October 20 at the "Skyline Safety Solutions" town hall at The Mountain Terrace. More than 100 people attended in person and about 200 more watched online. Amjad Naseer, Caltrans' acting deputy for traffic operations, said the improvements are incremental. If findings over the next few months show a signal is needed, Caltrans will install one. Doanh Nguyen, acting director of Caltrans District 4, was more cautious, as The Almanac reported:

"Signals themselves may not be the best solution either and also introduces maintenance issues with sustainability and power."

Lester Lee of Caltrans said the agency hopes the four-way stop and added enforcement will slow drivers at Four Corners. Caltrans plans to come back early next year for an engineering and traffic study of how the changes are working. That means this winter's weekends at Alice's, Skywood and The Mountain Terrace will be part of what the study measures.

Enforcement and Wider Highway Work

Enforcement is the other half of the plan. On October 20, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved a $125,000 grant for the Town of Woodside to fund additional CHP officers on weekends. When Mueller announced it at a September Town Council study session, he said the money would come from Measure K, the countywide half-cent sales tax. It would put one officer on highways 84, 35 and 9 on Saturdays and Sundays for a year. CHP Capt. Patrick Etchebarne told the town hall that CHP now issues an average of 1.5 citations a day on these highways, seven times its enforcement activity in 2025.

Caltrans laid out the wider corridor work in three stages:

1. About the next six months: a road safety audit, vegetation management, new traffic and speed limit signs, fresh striping and turnout maintenance.
2. Six to 18 months: evaluating speed enforcement cameras and possible speed limit reductions, turnout signage, and location reference signs for emergency response. Caltrans will also assess high-friction pavement surfaces to prevent skidding.
3. Two years or more: pedestrian crossings, plus access controls at the Clouds Rest Vista Point and the Sempervirens parking lot.

Speed cameras are the slowest of these. Assemblymember Marc Berman told The Almanac that, based on other California cities, it can take three to four years from approval to working cameras. The state Legislature has to approve them, local jurisdictions have to fund them, and a road safety audit has to come first.

Planning a Trip Up the Hill This Season

For the rest of the season, a few practical points apply. Construction at Four Corners is scheduled through spring 2027. The Town's alert says drivers may run into one-way traffic control, equipment staging, minor delays and reduced parking at points along the project corridor, and all work depends on the weather. Reduced parking matters at an intersection where so much of the parking is leased from Caltrans. Caltrans' QuickMap shows real-time conditions before you leave.

Upper Old La Honda Road is another route up to Skyline. The Town has it scheduled to close from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during work hours through Friday, December 11, while crews install guardrails and clear the road, according to the Town's Old La Honda alert.

Every car approaching Four Corners from any direction now has to stop at the line. The north crosswalk from The Mountain Terrace lot is the one Caltrans is building up, and it's where the flashing beacon is going.

Bob Kamangar has spent decades on the Mid-Peninsula watching how one road decision can change the way a place is used. If you'd like to talk through how the Skyline corridor work could affect a property in the hills above Woodside, Bob Kamangar would be glad to help. Let's Connect.