Many Plans Just Sit on a Shelf. Not This One.

Jan 28

When San Jose updated its General Plan seven years ago, it made a very big and bold decision. That decision was to grow the percent of trips taken by bike from the current 1% to 15% by the year 2040.I was an appointed member of the General Plan Task Force and I remember that battle as a few of us worked hard to get this target adopted. Opponents to the goal argued it was too high, that it didn’t make sense to have goals they thought could not be achieved. In the end we won and the 15% goal was adopted.As a result, that goal has kicked the City’s efforts to get more folks riding bikes into high gear. Green paint at intersections, buffered bike lanes, bike lane implementation in conjunction with pavement maintenance and now the City’s Better Bikeway Network…these are all just a few ways that the City is pedaling at high speed towards achieving the General Plan’s 15% goal.On Saturday, 30 SVBC supporters were joined by Councilmembers Raul Peralez and Dev Davis plus Valley Transportation General Manager Nuria Fernandez to learn about all the new things the City is doing to achieve this goal. This was the third ride in a series of SVBC organized city infrastructure rides, the first of which took place in Los Gatos and Menlo Park/Palo Alto.Lead by Department of Transportation staff John Brazil and Jessica Zenk, riders were treated to a behind the scenes look at bike infrastructure Downtown as well as the nitty gritty challenges of getting these projects built.The tour touched on:

The challenges of creating better bike access on Julian going under the tracks.
The City’s first contra flow protected bike lane on St. John.
Fourth Street’s parking protected bike lane as well as the future for San Fernando.
The back-in angled parking protected bike lane on Second street. Wow!
The Lincoln Avenue Road Diet
And the brand new bike lanes on Park, including a robust discussion about the bike lane that’s hanging out in the middle of the street right after Sunol.

San Jose residents are blessed to have strong policy goals that have set the direction, a City Council that is solidly committed to achieving those goals, and smart, empowered staff that wake up every day eager to make San Jose a great place to live, work and play.We’re planning the next infrastructure tour in Cupertino so stay tuned.