Route 237 begins at a junction of Grant Road with El Camino Real (SR 82) in Mountain View, as a four lane divided highway. Most traffic comes from
California State Route 85. Westbound traffic can connect to Route 85 southbound, but the eastbound traffic connection to Route 85 northbound is labeled as an exit for U.S. 101. Route 237 intersects with
Highway 101 at the southern corner of
Moffett Field. After this intersection, a carpool lane is added, for a total of three lanes in either direction. It remains like this until the east end of the freeway at
Interstate 880, where most eastbound traffic is directed to northbound I-880. The route then becomes a city street (an
arterial road), Calaveras Boulevard, in Milpitas, terminating at
Interstate 680. Starting from half a mile after the highway's western terminus, and ending at the I-880 intersection, Route 237 is named the
Southbay Freeway. It is mostly constructed to
Interstate standards, although there are no current plans to make it an
Interstate highway. Route 237 is known for a number of companies that define
Silicon Valley's technological landscape. Many major software and hardware manufacturers have their headquarters along 237. Some of these manufacturers include
Lockheed-Martin,
Brocade Communications Systems,
Nortel Networks,
Cisco Systems,
Yahoo!,
Juniper Networks,
TiVo,
Ariba and
NetApp. SR 237 is part of the
California Freeway and Expressway System, and is part of the
National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the
Federal Highway Administration.
Highway 237 Bikeway The Highway 237 Bikeway is a pedestrian and bicycle path that parallels State Route 237. The majority of the path is separated from vehicular traffic, however, two sections comprising a total of follow an on-street alignment adjacent the freeway. This bikeway serves as an important connector in the network of trails in
San Jose and
Santa Clara County. It intersects with the
Guadalupe River Trail, which provides access to
Downtown San Jose. It also connects to the
Bay Trail, the
San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail, and the
Coyote Creek Trail.
Express lanes The SR 237 Express Lanes, the
high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes along Route 237 in both directions between Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale and I-880 in Milpitas, opened on March 20, 2012, east of North First Street and on November 22, 2019, up to Mathilda Avenue. Instead of terminating exactly at the I-880 interchange, the Express Lanes continue along an connector ramp to I-880, so that eastbound Express Lane users merge directly into the I-880 northbound HOV lane (which itself becomes an Express Lane), and I-880 southbound Express Lane users can directly enter Route 237's westbound Express Lane. , the HOT lanes' hours of operation is weekdays between 5:00 am and 8:00 pm; they are otherwise free and open to all vehicles at other times. Two-person carpools are charged 50 percent of the posted toll. Carpools with 3 or more people and motorcycles are not charged. All tolls are collected using an
open road tolling system, and therefore there are no toll booths to receive cash. Each vehicle using the HOT lanes is required to carry a
FasTrak Flex transponder with its switch set to indicate the number of the vehicle's occupants (1, 2, or 3+). Solo drivers may also use the FasTrak standard tag without the switch. Drivers without any FasTrak tag will be assessed a toll violation regardless of whether they qualified for free. ==History==