Silicon Valley Companies Making Your Ride Safer, Easier

SVBC’s overarching, central goal is to see that 10% of trips are taken by bike by 2025. Despite a few exceptional cities in our area, currently San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties are at about 1-2%.Yes, it’s a daunting task; you can even call us mad. We remain positive though, especially because the bike community is able to count on the support of Silicon Valley companies who  believe in our mission of creating a healthy community, environment, and economy through bicycling.We’d like to highlight some of the bike-friendly projects that our partners in the business sector were involved with in 2016, and are working towards in 2017, motivating not only their employees to hop on a bike, but also improving the bike facilities in the communities around their campuses, for all residents to enjoy.Valley Fair Becoming More Bike FriendlyWestfield Valley Fair is one of the largest, most popular malls in the region, and it may soon call itself the most bike-friendly as well.After consulting with SVBC during the construction of their new parking garage, Westfield Valley Fair management installed free bike lockers and a repair station, which led local bike blogger and advocate Cycleicious to call them, “the best bike parking I’ve seen at an American shopping mall.”We are also planning with Westfield Valley Fair to repeat last year’s Bike to Shop Day event. The event, which will take place in May, will offer group rides from all directions to the mall, free bike valet, and special delivery options for folks who arrive by bike.Google Invests $2.9 Million to Resurface Bay TrailJust in time for National Bike Month last year, cyclists and other trail users were able to enjoy the resurfacing of four miles of the San Francisco Bay Trail between Mountain View and Sunnyvale, a project that Google designed and funded (see photo above).A comfortable riding experience encourages more people to replace their everyday trips with biking, one big reason why the project was awarded with the Infrastructure Project of the Year at our 2016 Silicon Valley Bike Summit.“We’re always trying to get more people aware of the resources of the Bay, and we’re also trying to supplement the transportation network. This was a great opportunity to get more people biking and experiencing the Bay,” said Jeral Poskey, Transportation Planner for Google.Adobe’s Riding Group Gets Employees and Their Families on BikesLast March, Adobe launched a Sunday Ride to get more of their employees on a bike Our Executive Director, Shiloh, attended that first ride, and was happy to see that close to 70 people showed up for the inaugural ride, from serious racers to families with kids.Now? As SVBC Member and Adobe employee Steve Dakin reports, "The Adobe Bay Area Cycling Club is growing and planning an even bigger year than last year. Rides will include monthly Friday afternoon rides leaving from the Adobe San Jose campus, weekend mountain bike rides, a velodrome group riding session, bike commuting and spin classes and quarterly "epic" rides."As Shiloh mentioned in her blog, “…what [the Adobe] ride emphasized was the significant role of a person’s place of employment.  If companies decide to put resources into the goal of increasing bicycling, the changes needed to address climate change and our obesity epidemic would be adopted more quickly.”A Safer, Less Daunting Page Mill/Highway 280 IntersectionThe death of a cyclist on our roads is devastating, and nothing can ever remedy the loss of a life. All we can do is work to make sure that it never happens again.When Jeffrey Donnelley was killed in November 2015 while riding his bicycle on the Page Mill/Highway 280 intersection near Palo Alto, his former colleagues at KLA/Tencor took a stand to make sure that the intersection did not claim any more lives. Their editorial, published in the Silicon Valley Business Journal, played a crucial role in bringing stakeholders together to create a safer re-design of the intersection now, rather than later.Free Shuttle Bus Encourages Car-free Travel in Mountain ViewIn an effort to reduce traffic and encourage more employees to travel to work car-free in and around Mountain View, companies including Microsoft, Intuit, Linkedin, Microsoft, and Symantec came together in 2014 to create MVgo, a free shuttle service open to the public that connects the various tech companies to the Downtown Mountain View Caltrain station.The shuttle buses are wheelchair-accessible and are equipped with bike racks, allowing people to arrive to the Caltrain station via train or bicycle.Protected Bike Path Connects Neighborhood to Trail in Menlo ParkAs part of its campus expansion in Menlo Park, Facebook invested in the development of a protected bike and pedestrian path along Chilco Street, an important route in Menlo Park’s Belle Haven neighborhood. The path, which includes a pedestrian/bicycle bridge over Bayfront Expressway, provides a safe, more direct connection from the Belle Haven neighborhood to the Bay Trail. Most of the project’s costs were paid by Facebook.Thank you to all the businesses and companies out there that are actively promoting the bike for everyday use! Are you interested in getting your business involved in projects like the above? Bike to Work Day is coming up May 11, and is an excellent way to start. Contact Marissa Aviña, SVBC’s Events Manager, to get more information.