U.S. 101 - Bayshore Freeway/South Valley Freeway

U.S. 101 is major north-south highway that spans the three Pacific coast states, Oregon, Washington and California. U.S. 101 south starts at Interstate 5 in Olympia, Washington and heads north as it circles the Olympic Peninsula. U.S 101 ends at Interstate 5 in downtown Los Angeles. U.S. 101 is mostly freeway or expressway through California but narrows to 2 lanes in Oregon and Washington.

U.S. 101 enters Santa Clara County at the Palo Alto city limits as an 8-lane freeway and continues as a freeway through most of the county. South of Gilroy, U.S. 101 becomes a 4-lane expressway before crossing into San Benito county. U.S. 101 was recently widened to 8 lanes between Cochrane Road (Exit 367) and Bernal Road (Exit 377A).


Exit 377A Exit Number Installed
Exit 377A Exit Number Not Installed

Exit 402
South

Oregon Expwy is the odd-ball in the expressway system because it is only 4-lanes wide and has a 35 MPH speed limit. The other expressways have 45-50 MPH limits and are generally 6 to 8 lanes wide.

Exit 400C
South

San Antonio Road is a major road through downtown Los Altos and portions of Palo Alto and Mountain View.

Exit 400B
South

San Antonio Road north heads to a few companies located east of the freeway and a frontage road that borders the bayside wetlands.

Exit 400A
South

Rengstorff Avenue serves the residential and retail areas of north Mountain View. This is also the exit for Amphitheater Pkwy which becomes an access road for the Shoreline Amphitheater.

Exit 399
South

Shoreline Blvd is the second U.S. 101 exit for the amphitheater and is the most direct route into Shoreline Amphitheater. southbound Shoreline heads into downtown Mountain View.


Exit 398B
South

Highway 85/Stevens Creek Freeway is a 26-mile freeway that serves the western and southern part of the valley which includes the cities of Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Campbell, Saratoga and San Jose. This is also an excellent bypass around downtown San Jose.

When this interchange was rebuilt, a carpool-to-carpool ramp was included in the project to eliminate carpoolers having to dive across 4 lanes of traffic to get to Hwy 85.

Exit 398A
South

This is the exit for the Moffett Field main entrance and NASA/AMES. Moffett Blvd connects the airfield to downtown Mountain View.

Exit 397
South

Ellis Street is an auxillary entrance to Moffett Federal Airfield. This entrance is only open during the week for limited hours.

Exit 396B
South

Highway 237/Mtn View-Alviso Freeway connects Mountain View and Sunnyvale to Milpitas and north San Jose. Hwy 237 between El Camino Real and Interstate 880 is a freeway and is a major commute route. East of Interstate 880, it becomes Calaveras Blvd.

Exit 396A
South

Mathilda Avenue is the main road through the downtown Sunnyvale shopping district.

Exit 395B
South

Fair Oaks Avenue south serves the residential and industrial areas of central Sunnyvale.

Exit 395A
South

Fair Oaks Avenue north connects the residential areas south of U.S. 101 to the companies located north of Hwy 237 and bounded by Mathilda Avenue and Caribbean Drive.

Exit 394
South

Lawrence Expwy is part of the county's expressway system and is a major commuter route running through west-central San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.

Exit 393
South

As the exit suggests, this is the exit for the Great America theme park where certain rides are visible from the freeway. Bowers Avenue heads south into residential areaa of Santa Clara.

There are plans to build a new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers next to Great America and if that happens, this exit will become a major point of access for the new stadium.

Exit 392
South

San Tomas and Montague Expwy are both parts of the county's expressway system. Montague serves the companies located in north San Jose and heads all the way to Milpitas. San Tomas passes through Santa Clara, San Jose and Campbell.

Exit 391B
South

De La Cruz Blvd connects downtown Santa Clara to the companies located in north San Jose. De La Cruz borders the Mineta San Jose Int'l Airport.

Exit 391A
South

Trimble Road passes through a mostly industrial area of north San Jose. During commute times, this road gets very crowded.

Exit 390
South

Highway 87/Guadalupe Pkwy was recently upgraded from a 4-lane expressway into a 6-lane freeway. Use Hwy 87 to Skyport Drive to access the Mineta San Jose International Airport.

Exit 389
South

First Street connects downtown San Jose to the companies located in north San Jose. A VTA light rail line runs in the median.

Brokaw Road becomes an access road into the airport.

Exit 388C
South

Heading south, Intertstate 880 becomes State Route 17 at Interstate 280. This hgihway links San Jose to Santa Cruz.

Exit 388B
South

Interstate 880 links San Jose to Oakland via Fremont, Hayward and San Leandro. Interstate 880 has received many upgrades and improvements but this busy highway still has a significant amount of congesting during the commute.

Exit 388A
South

13th Street provides access to a mostly industrial area just north of downtown San Jose. Oakland Road goes all the way to Milpitas.