SVBC Bike Summit: Interview with Safe Mountain View's Cherie Walkowiak

Notes

Aug 10

The Silicon Valley Bike Summit is tomorrow, and we are expecting a record number of attendees for this sixth edition of the Summit, one of the region’s largest gathering of active transportation leaders and organizers from government, law enforcement, non-profit, and the public.We are excited to have Cherie Walkowiak, a founding Member of Safe Mountain View, as a panelist for the afternoon discussion, People Powered Placemaking.A mother of two elementary school kids and an environmentalist at heart, Cherie is passionate about ensuring a livable world for future generations. As a founding member of Safe Mountain View, she is determined to make her city safe enough to get around without a car, so people have a choice in how they travel. In addition to street advocacy, Cherie founded an organization called Carbon Free Mountain View (CFMV), with a mission to bring 100% carbon free electricity to Mountain View by 2020. In part due to CFMV’s work, a new energy provider called Silicon Valley Clean Energy will be providing much of Santa Clara County with carbon free electricity three years before her original goal!We sat down with Cherie recently to learn a little bit more about her work, and what she is looking forward to sharing and learning at the Summit.Question: What distinguishes Safe Mountain View from other community groups in Mountain View?CW: Safe Mountain View's mission is an interconnected network of walkways and bikeways that empower families to get anywhere in Mountain View and beyond without a car. Our mission is to promote road designs safe enough for children to bike and walk as their everyday mode of transportation.There are many groups in Mountain View whose mission and vision overlap with ours:

There is the Mountain View Local Team of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. Like us, they advocate for safe bike routes and encourage members to advocate at city hall. And like us, they organize fun rides. What distinguishes us is the particularly child-centric focus we bring to any discussion. Road designs that are safe enough for the average SVBC rider are not necessarily safe enough for kids. We bring the perspective of what is needed on the road if the user is riding a box bike loaded up with groceries and children, or if the rider is a child, who is less stable and aware of his surroundings than his adult counterpart. Also, we are not exclusively focused on bikeways. Access for someone pushing a stroller or riding in a wheelchair also motivates us. Finally, the difference in the bike rides we lead lies in the theme: unofficial pub-crawl or ladies' tea vs.family picnic with free ice cream.
Great Streets Mountain View is so similar we sometimes call ourselves sister groups. We formed around the same time, around similar issues. We both advocate for people-centric complete streets. Again, Safe Mountain View has a more child-centric perspective, and we have stayed active since our inception in 2013. Great Streets has become inactive in the past year due to a lack of funding for staff to keep the organization going. I am concerned Safe Mountain View might find itself in a similar position soon.
Safe Moves is child-centric like we are. Their approach to keeping kids safe is to educate them how to use the road. Our approach is to make sure the roads safe for them to use. We're attacking the same problem from two different, complimentary angles.
I also see Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail as very similar to us. They focus on the extensions of both the Stevens Creek and Permanente Creek Trails. Their work is to build support as each new segment is being considered. This is important because each potential new segment tends to be met with resistance from neighborhoods, but each extension has proven to be an asset to the community once it is build, and property values around the trails always go up. So their support is crucial to counteract the fear. We are doing the same thing, but on the road rather than next to the creek. Together, we are building an incredible network.
Finally, the Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning is doing great work following the city's developments and encouraging the city to make sure they keep sustainability in mind.

What's great about all these groups is that we bring different perspectives to any discussion, and we tend to all work together. We have developed systems to keep each other informed and support each other in our various efforts. We don't always agree on every point, but we do try to find common ground and present what we do agree on to our city council, so we come across as a unified voice.Question: Describe the "Cycletopia" pop-up protected bikeway. Why is it important to have people try using a cycletrack?CW: One of my missions in life is to educate people about kid-safe road designs. It's one thing to tell someone about this great new thing called a protected bike lane, and showing them a photo gets the point across much easier, but experiencing something is always the best way to learn about it. Since there are not a lot of protected bikeways yet in the area, being able to create a beautiful, pop-up demonstration one for people to try out anywhere is an incredible tool. It's big so it grabs the attention of people going by who you wouldn't normally get a chance to talk to and educate. Our theory is that once people start to learn about protected bikeways, they will want permanent ones! With enough community support, we hope they spread like wildfire.We call our pop-up bikeway Cycletopia because we feel that cycling would be utopic if we could ride anywhere they need to go in a network of beautiful, safe, protected bike lanes and other, complimentary designs.Question: The Silicon Valley Bike Summit takes place on the Mountain View campus, in Microsoft's North Bayshore district. How will you bike there? How would you LIKE to bike there? CW: I will get there like I get everywhere else in Mountain View - on my cargo bike. I have an Xtracycle Radish. I'll be joining SVBC's bike pool and riding up the Stevens Creek Trail to the Microsoft campus. I can think of no better way to get to the Bike Summit than on a beautiful trail surrounded by bright, friendly cyclists.If Mountain View could make one significant change to become safer for families and children, what would it be?CW: It would install an interconnected network of bikeways and walkways that connect neighborhoods to schools, shops, entertainment, and workplaces. In particular, we feel that any road with a posted speed limit of 30 mph or greater needs physical separation which extends through the intersection rather than disappearing before the corner. Cars going this speed and greater will cause serious injuries to a cyclist in the event of a crash. Protected bike lanes on roads in front of schools would also do wonders to keep our students safe from heavy, harried school traffic.The good news is that Mountain View is on its way! Last year our city council adopted a Bike Transportation Plan Update which includes a new policy which prefers protected bike lanes on any new or redeveloped road with a posted speed limit of 30 mph or greater. Google built Mountain View's first protected bike lane on Shorebird Way last summer. Next year Mountain View will build its next one in front of Graham Middle School. In the next few years, we'll see more on Shoreline Boulevard and in North Bayshore. From there, we hope to see them spread throughout the city.What do you hope to get out of the Summit?CW: I'm looking forward to networking for career development. The best possible thing I could hope to get out of the Summit would be to connect with people who would like to help keep Safe Mountain View going. I'm looking forward to spending the day with old friends and making new ones at the Summit. I am also excited to hear details about what I think might be a new protected intersection in Menlo Park. And I hope to get cookies. I love cookies. Especially if they have nuts.