Plans advance for Silicon Valley’s first bicycle ‘superhighway’

The proposed Central Bikeway route from Penitencia Creek County Park in North San Jose to El Camino Real in Santa Clara. (VTA map)

Plans for construction of the Central Bikeway — a 10-mile stretch of protected bike lanes between San Jose and Santa Clara — are advancing, with a key vote scheduled before the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority next month.

VTA’s bicycle advisory committee this past week voted to recommend the transit agency’s board approve the basic design for the project, reports San José Spotlight. The VTA board will consider the Central Bikeway on May 4.

Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition supports construction of the route, says Sandhya Laddha, SVBC policy director.

“We look forward to the Central Bikeway project to play a great example of what a bicycle superhighway could look like, changing the experience of bicycling on our arterials,” Laddha told San José Spotlight.

“This is a really precedent-setting project,” VTA land-use planner Brent Pearse said during the meeting. “We’re going to use this when we work with cities (and) we’re going to use this when we work on future bike superhighways.”