I think this is the first time anyone has tried to equate ECR to 57th St. There are more points of interest on one block of 57th then there are on 30 miles of ECR. Unless you think drive-thru Arbys are points of interest.
I lived in New York for most of my life, I know nothing is comparable to it directly. Assuming we aren't considering San Francisco as part of the valley, what other road comes even close to being such a vital thoroughfare in the bay? And back to the topic of conversation, wouldn't it be more important for a road spread over 30 miles to have public transportation than a New York City block that spans only 2? Last time I checked there's an east-west bus on 57th every 4 minutes.
Downtown Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Stanford University, and Stanford Shopping Center along El Camino Real aren't points of interest? What about Redwood City, San Carlos, or Hillsdale?
[I stayed there for a week or so once, and as best I could tell, it consisted entirely of office parks and strip malls connected to housing developments by enormous roads, everything well lathered with parking lots. We walked around as best we could, but there seemed nothing beautiful or nice there... just endless vistas of office parks and pavement...]
