Wins over the years
2022 was a year of transition. We emerged from some of the most difficult days of the pandemic, and underwent change, but gathered speed.
We sharpened our focus on community impact, completing out first-ever strategic plan, with a mission to build healthier and more just communities by making bicycling safe and accessible for everyone.
We powered some of our most successful bicycling events, including our premier annual Bike to to Work and Wherever Days, which brings thousands of people to the benefits of bicycling, and our annual Silicon Valley Bike Summit, Silicon Valley’s largest gathering of active transportation leaders and organizers from government, the private sector, non-profits, and the general public.
We saw our network of hundreds of “biketivist” activists press for needed safe-roads improvement across the 35 cities and entities that make up Silicon Valley.
Together, the local teams conducted over 20 campaigns in the year. Some wins include:
Sunnyvale: Hosted Safe Streets Save Lives event which included close to 200 people, urging the city to prioritize safe streets recommendations. Separately, the City Council voted unanimously in favor of the Sunnyvale Avenue Caltrain underpass to be bike-pedestrian only, rather than also including vehicles.
San Mateo: Approval and installation of the North Central Bike Lanes project, which adds bike lanes on key east-west and north-south routes that have seen 11 percent of all bike-related collisions in the city in the past five years.
Redwood City: Protected Bike Lanes on a stretch of El Camino Real to be constructed in 2023.
San Jose abolished parking minimums.
Los Altos: Approved installation of buffered bike lanes on El Camino Real.
Santa Clara: accepted the Pruneridge Complete Streets Plan with a car lane reduction and a buffered bike lane, consistent with the bike lanes on either end of the two-mile gap.
In addition, SVBC wrote over 50 support letters endorsing bike-pedestrian projects across the two counties. SVBC staff was also on the evaluation panel for the One Bay Area Grants (OBAG), City/County Association of Governments Active Transportation Program(C/CAG ATP) grant, Stakeholder advisory group for the North Fair Oaks Railway Crossing Study and C/CAG's micromobility study in San Mateo County.
SVBC also ran a full schedule of social rides, service, and education; including delivering food to those in need, e-bike education, adult and family cycling, safety and maintenance education.
Fifty-two volunteers delivered 874 farm-grown veggie boxes — nearly 9,000 pounds of food — to low-income households on the Eastside of San Jose through our program partnership with Veggielution, Eastside Connect.
Taught 179 people about e-bikes, and had 313 participate in our adult education programming.
Hosted 13 bike rides and rode with 229 people over 121 miles on our monthly ride series.
Through our Bike Parking program, parked 4,935 bikes at venues from major sports events and concerts to local activities.
Ride down memory lane! Explore the advocacy work SVBC has supported and led in Silicon Valley over the past decades. These wins were made possible with the support of bike advocates like you. If you’re feeling inspired to push for more wins, donate using the button below.
2021
A look back at 2021
Local Teams: You all know that SVBC lobbies for safe streets with and through you. With your help, SVBC now has 10 healthy city-based teams of people who love biking. These are people who meet monthly to learn, scheme, and then convince their city councils to build safer streets for people who ride and want to ride.
One of SVBC’s biggest accomplishments this year is the result of investing in the human infrastructure of the bike movement. That’s you, the people who come together, organize themselves, and show up at city council meetings.
Education: Teaching folks to ride and ride safely is a key part of getting more folks riding for everyday use. This past year, SVBC hosted virtual workshops, rodeos for kids, commute workshops, family biking workshops and more.
Some numbers:
18 online classes for adults
31 online classes for kids
16 family and youth rodeos
1,200 participants
Eastside Connect: With funding from theOpen Space Authority, Veggielution invited SVBC to deliver farmboxes, monthly, by bike. The program launched in early 2021 and since then, with volunteers like you, 100 volunteers have delivered 480 farmboxes. That’s 1,920 pounds of food, almost 1 ton!
Bike Parking: Bike parking is back! Finally, we get to park your bike at Niners games, Stanford events and more as the program starts to ramp up again. This past year, there were 16 bike parking events where SVBC parked 3,788 bikes. (For context, in 2019, we had 39 bike parking events and parked 6,100 bikes. We’ll get back to those numbers!) New this year is a concerted effort to use bike parking events to attract new folks to get involved with SVBC.
Bike to Wherever Day/Month: We used to call it Bike to Work Day but Covid changed all that, and for the better. Now it’s bike to wherever! Funded by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, this is the one time of year where we work hard to get new people to try riding a bike and make the experience so fun, they keep doing it. This past year SVBC organized 94 energizer stations with 3,200 people pledging to ride.
Partnerships: Each year we have more and more capacity to establish and grow partnerships with sibling nonprofits. Latinos United for a New America, Veggielution, Tropicana Lanai Neighborhood Association, Mexican Heritage Plaza, Live in Peace, Keep Coyote Beautiful are just a few.
Check out the latest news here
2019-2021
2020
After SVBC worked with Daly City to adopt a Vision Zero resolution in 2015 and shared the Vision Zero Toolkit, the city included SVBC in a yearlong process to develop its Vision Zero plan, which creates a path to implementation to work toward a zero fatality future.
2019
SVBC launches the infrastructure ride program to build agency staff expertise on bike projects and showcase city bike infrastructure. These city-led rides provide peer-to-peer learning opportunities for decision-makers to experience firsthand and take back to their cities. Eight rides were hosted in the first year in Los Gatos, San Jose, Fremont, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Morgan Hill, and Mountain View.
SVBC organizes residents and allies to ensure that the Santa Clara Bike plan includes 20 miles of protected bikeways and 77 miles total of bike lanes.
SVBC organizes residents and allies to ensure that the Santa Clara Bicycle Master Plan Update includes protected bikeways on El Camino Real.
2018
SVBC works with the TEAMC coalition to ensure that San Mateo County’s Measure W includes 5% for bike/ped projects as well as complete streets requirements for all funding categories. After grassroots organizing, the measure passes by a slim margin.
After years of SVBC advocacy for protected bikeways in SJ, including study trips and bike tours demonstrating the benefits, the San Jose Better Bikeways project creates a connected network of protected bikeways downtown.
2017
After sustained advocacy from SVBC and its members targeting San Mateo County Public Works, Westbound Sand Hill Road bike lanes at hwy 280 get green treatment.
Working closely with VTA, SVBC ensures that Measure B funding will use Complete Streets guidelines to ensure safe biking and walking facilities are considered with all projects.
2016
After the fatal collision of a cyclist at the Page Mill/280 intersection, SVBC works closely with the County of Santa Clara, Supervisor Joe Simitian, and surrounding jurisdictions to design and fund an interim fix and prepare for a permanent fix to the problem.
SVBC fights for and wins inclusion of important bike elements including $250M for bike/ped projects as part of the Measure B sales tax measure passed in Santa Clara County.
2015
After years of lobbying by SVBC and our sister coalition in San Francisco, we score a big win when the Caltrain Board of Directors agrees to increase bike capacity on future, electrified trains and dedicate funding for bike parking improvements.
SVBC’s Vision Zero Toolkit is released which serves as a guide to San Jose when they adopt Vision Zero and launch a new Bike Plan the same year. SVBC presented the Toolkit at over fifty meetings of City Councils, Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committees, Planning Committees, and more to educate decision makers about the initiative to end traffic fatalities and major injuries.
SVBC works with the City of San Jose to launch the area’s first open streets program, VivaCalle SJ, shutting down a six-mile stretch of streets allowing 35,000+ Bicyclists and Pedestrians to Take Back San Jose’s Streets every year.
SVBC launches a training program for BPAC members to ensure that they have the skills and knowledge necessary to advance a pro-bike agenda.
Mountain View City Council unanimously approves an estimated $81 million improvement plan for El Camino Real featuring protected bicycle lanes, wider sidewalks, and three new crosswalks with signals.
SVBC creates the political pressure needed to bring various jurisdictions together and finally create a permanent fix for the dangerous Pagemill/280 intersection.
SVBC and allied organizations convince SamTrans to retain the option of a multi-use trail as part of the Dumbarton Corridor Study.
SVBC works with local advocates to get protected bikeways as part of the El Camino Real Plan for Redwood City
SVBC organizes bicyclists and residents to support the Middlefield road diet and bike lanes in North Fair Oaks, in unincorporated San Mateo County. This is an important gap in a north-south bikeway and important for local access to businesses.
VBC and regional partners advocate for a regional low-income membership option for the region’s bike share system: Bike Share 4 All program. Funding includes additional outreach in low-income communities and workshops at affordable housing developments.
Sunnyvale and Daly City pass Vision Zero policies after SVBC shares the value of Vision Zero through presentations and recommendations through the Vision Zero Toolkit.
After a year-long pilot project, spirited public debate, and the most detailed analysis of any transportation project in San Jose’s history, SVBC wins a crucial victory when the Lincoln Avenue Road Diet in the Willow Glen neighborhood is finally made permanent in June.
2013
Bay Area Bike Share launched after years of work by SVBC and partners like Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). The program was funded by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
2014
SVBC works with local advocates to convince Mountain View to include protected bikeways in its El Camino Real plan.
2012
Green Bike Lanes on Alpine Road at 280.
SVBC announced Vision Zero as a priority in 2011 and has since seen the adoption of policies in San Jose, Sunnyvale, San Mateo, Daly City, and other cities.
Stevens Creek Trail start.
2011
Bike Summit is hosted for the first time and has only grown.
2006
SVBC announces the new Guadalupe Corridor Campaign to establish and sustain a paved corridor between the Bay Trail and the Ridge Trail.
2005
Guadalupe River Trail begins construction in segments.
San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail opens
2004
Four Bike Lane projects completed in San Jose – Tasman Drive, River Oaks Parkway, Headquarters Drive, and Holger Way.
New Bay Shoreline Path opened from Oyster Point near Brisbane all the way to Shoreline Park in Mountain View. The path is east of 101, meaning bicyclists no longer have to cross 101 to commute.
2002
Stevens Creek Trail reaches just short of the El Camino and Segment 2, which will lead upstream and bridge over to the part of Mountain View cut off by Fwy 85, has its ground broken. San Tomas Aquino/Saratoga Creek Trail construction is underway in Santa Clara.
Mary Avenue Bicycle Footbridge over 280 is approved in Cupertino thanks to a strong push by SVBC member and Cupertino Councilmember, Don Burnett.
SVBC receives 501c3 designation.
2001
In Menlo Park, the Alameda Streetscape Task Force redesigned a section of Alameda de las Pulgas from two lanes in each direction to one lane with a middle turning lane and bike lanes.
1997
NASA Ames Bike Path opened.
1995
CalTrain is being expanded from 12 to 24 bicycles per train.
1993
SCVBA Achieved non-profit status.
Weekend Bicycle trains begin on Caltrain.
Helmet bill heads to CA Senate.
1980
Bicycles now allowed on Foothill Expressway (previously were prohibited) thanks to SCVBA efforts.
1974
Santa Clara Valley Bicycle Association was formed.