Call to Action - Caribbean Drive in Sunnyvale (Update)
On Tuesday, May 8, Sunnyvale City Council will vote on a design proposal for Caribbean Drive west of Borregas Avenue. After carefully weighing the options, SVBC supports the Other Alternative Evaluated, as it would convert the existing bike lane and outer traffic lane into a Class IV protected bikeway: a high-quality bicycle facility separated physically from motor and pedestrian traffic.
If you live or work in Sunnyvale and envision the City becoming more bike-friendly, we ask that you reach out to City Council for its support in adopting the “Other Alternative Evaluated.”
For email instructions, talking points, and draft letter, please visit our previous Action Alert, here.
Read on to get the latest on community developments and updates from the latest BPAC meeting:
On April 19, Sunnyvale’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) voted to recommend none of the alternatives to City Council for the Caribbean Drive and Bay Trail Access Project – for which Council will vote on a design proposal this Tuesday, May 8.
In discussing the merits of each design alternative on Caribbean Drive, a number of comments were raised by the public and the BPAC: 1) an adequate buffer space that ensures safety of vehicle passengers to exit/unload on Caribbean Drive once parking is relocated from Carl Drive; 2) traffic calming measures and reducing speed on Caribbean from the current 45 mph to 30 or 35 mph; 3) separate facilities for motorist, bicyclist, and pedestrian traffic.
As we mentioned previously, SVBC supports the Other Alternative Evaluated because it would convert the existing bike lane and outer traffic lane to a one-way Class IV bike lane, physically separated from on-street parking and motorists by a 3-foot-wide buffer and bio-retention planters, respectively.
The City’s Preferred Alternative would, however, remove the existing bike lane and outer traffic lane and replace them with an 8-foot-wide buffer to ease parallel parking movements. This alternative exposes bicyclists to fast moving vehicle traffic and potential conflict from parallel-parked cars that merge into the traffic lanes.