Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition along with our partner VTA hosted our latest infrastructure ride along Tasman Dr. on February 28th. It was a wonderfully mixed group of 21 riders including city staff from Milpitas, San José, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee members, VTA staff, and Santa Clara County Department of Public Health staff.

Tasman Drive is an important opportunity to improve East-West cross city bicycle commuting as it stretches across Milpitas, San José, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale. We were anxious to learn more about the recommendations and challenges to implementing the Tasman Corridor Complete Streets Study, a joint VTA project with the Cities of Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose, and Milpitas. This 2017 study evaluates seven miles of Tasman Drive and Great Mall Parkway from Morse Avenue in Sunnyvale to Montague Expressway in Milpitas. The purpose of this multi-jurisdictional planning study is to identify opportunities along Tasman Drive and Great Mall Parkway to demonstrate and advance Complete Streets improvements.

SVBC in collaboration with Santa Clara County is doing a series of 13 educational infrastructure rides. This was the seventh ride in the series after previous rides in San Jose, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Santa Clara, Cupertino Los Gatos and Sunnyvale. The ride was an approximately 7-mile traverse from the Great Mall Light Rail Station to Fair Oaks Station in northern Sunnyvale, mostly along Tasman Dr. during which we stopped at five locations to discuss current bike facilities, proposed plans, potential ideas, and solutions.

City staff in Milpitas got us started by talking about plans for the Milpitas Great Mall area. After a short ride over 880 to the Coyote Creek Trail, San José staff discussed their plans for the next bicycle master plan Bike San José 2025 and plans for evaluating and purchasing street sweepers for protected bicycle ways on city streets. Our next stop was the important intersection of Tasman and First St. VTA staff talked about the challenges of planning how to make this busy intersection, where 100% of the VTA Light Rail trains crisscross, work better for people walking and bicycling.

Our fourth stop was near the ACE station in Northern Santa Clara. Here, the ‘Related Santa Clara’ project, opposite Levi’s Stadium, will be the largest single mixed use development project west of the Mississippi River. VTA staff gave us a quick overview of the multi-year and multi-phase plans to improve connections for this transit center and the Related Santa Clara project.

Tasman Dr. gets narrower as it enters Sunnyvale. The right-of-way is constrained between mobile home parks on both the north and south sides with the light rail line down the middle. Sunnyvale does not want to implement bike lanes here because it would require removing one of two travel lanes in both directions so the Tasman Corridor Complete Streets Study includes two alternate routes through Sunnyvale. We left Tasman Dr. at Patrick Henry Dr. to take what the Tasman Corridor Complete Streets Study calls the Northern Alternative.

Some of us finished our ride, but not the tour, in Sunnyvale at the Fair Oaks light rail station. Our next and final stop was the ‘under construction’ Milpitas Transit Center and BART station. We had an interesting ‘race’ eastward between those of us on light rail and the more energetic people who bicycled all the way there.

At the future station, VTA staff talked about this station and transit center being an important conduit for future commuters heading west. Commuters will want multiple choices about how to go further West or South from here by bus, light rail or bicycle, hence the need for the Tasman Corridor Complete Streets Study. Tasman Dr. could provide a great way for people bicycling to reach the Coyote Creek Trail, the Guadalupe River Trail, and the San Tomas Aquino Trail, which reach many locations further South.

Everyone enjoyed riding and learning about the potential for making Tasman an important Complete Street and cross city East-West connector. The ride fostered great discussions between all the stakeholders, sharing of new ideas, and observations, all while biking. Participants ended the ride better informed and inspired to push for an improved community, environment, and economy in Santa Clara County by getting more people to ride bikes for everyday use.

Once again, we thank all those who carved out time on a Friday morning February 28 for joining us on the ride. Special thanks to City of Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San José, Milpitas and VTA staff for all their planning, knowledge sharing, and time to make the ride a huge success!