Sunnyvale needs your voice to create a better bicycle plan
The Sunnyvale City council is voting on its Active Transportation Plan on August 25. This plan defines the roadmap for improving biking, walking, and safer routes to schools for the next ten years. This is your once-in-a-decade opportunity to create a great plan for Sunnyvale.While the plan proposes much better infrastructure than Sunnyvale has currently, SVBC feels it falls short of what is needed in Sunnyvale to achieve its goals including reducing fatalities and serious injuries by 50% by 2030 and getting a much higher percentage of local trips completed by walking, riding a bike, e-bike or e-scooter.Here is our comment letter to the city. To keep moving toward a bike friendly Sunnyvale we ask you to please share and forward on this message to your friends and neighbors.
Make a difference
To ensure Sunnyvale includes the important safety improvements we hold so dear, the City Council needs to hear from folks like you who live or work in Sunnyvale.WHEN: Tuesday, August 25, 7 pmMeeting online link: https://sunnyvale-ca-gov.zoom.us/j/96111580540Meeting call-in telephone number: 833-548-0276 | Meeting ID: 961 1158 0540You can read the agenda here. The 'Adoption of the Active Transportation Plan' is the second item on the agenda. The reports related to it are here. Here are some talking points you can use to write to the city to make the plan better. Please pick one or two. Personal appeals are much impactful than cut and pasting the entire list. You can email the city council at council@sunnyvale.ca.gov. The sooner you send a message, the more likely it is to be read. Submit written comments to the City Council at least 4 hours prior to the meeting.
Recommend Sunnyvale set a 10% bicycle mode share goal by 2030. This plan sets a low target for increasing bicycle mode share to only 5% by 2030. It is critical for the planet, the health, happiness and safety of Sunnyvale residents that Sunnyvale set a much higher target. Other nearby cities have shown that it is possible for cities in the Bay Area to achieve much higher bicycle mode shares when they work toward it.
Encourage City of Sunnyvale to include at least 50 miles of class I and Class IV infrastructure to create a more complete low stress bike network so more people choose to ride a bike more often. Safety is the number one reason people choose not to bike. Class IV protected bikeways and Class I bike paths have been shown to increase safety for everyone. The current proposal of 37 miles of new or improved class I and IV bike infrastructure is a great improvement over the current situation, but we feel it will not be sufficient to cover a city as large as Sunnyvale.
Encourage Sunnyvale budget to invest at least $50 M over the next 10 years, or $5M per year for implementation, adjusting for inflation going forward. The plan estimates it would cost between $21M to $49 M to implement the recommended bicycle infrastructure improvements.
Sunnyvale need to prioritize getting safety improvements on the ground quickly with “quick build” projects. “Quick build” projects often cost only 5-10% of the cost of fully built improvements and make great pilot and demonstration projects. They are low cost, simpler designs, and therefore quicker to get in use. They allow cities to not only test out improvements and get feedback before spending years planning final designs and finding funding. They can make an immediate benefit in street safety and mode share.
Encourage Sunnyvale to develop short-term, meaning two-or three-year measurable action plans to achieve the goals of this longer term plan. Plans are at this level are not easy for cities to implement. Sunnyvale is following this method for its Climate Action Plan. We encourage the adoption of the same methodology for achieving the objectives of the Vision Zero plan, and all three plans in the Active transportation plan. We encourage Sunnyvale to evaluate the ‘Grow Cycling’ toolkit by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy as a way to create a short-term action plan.
The Active Transportation Plan clearly states that one of its goal is to create a complete low stress bicycle network so everyone from age 8-80 feels it is safe to ride to school or the senior center or their neighborhood park.. We need you to encourage Sunnyvale to upgrade the plan with respect to location and quality of bicycle infrastructure to achieve that objective.If you want to know more about the Sunnyvale ATP and why we made these recommendations, you can read more at our blog. SVBC’s Network Priority Tool – New tool for making bike plansPlease do not hesitate to reach out with questions to SVBC’s Santa Clara County Advocate, John Cordes