Editor's note: Tim Oey of the Friends of Stevens Creek Trail authored the following action alert regarding a crucial upcoming vote on the future of the trail. Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition wrote a letter in support of the Citizens' Working Group recommendation. We encourage you to join us at the Cupertino City Council meeting on Tuesday, June 21, or write in as Tim requests below.

Last Thursday, June 2, the VTA Board of Directors unanimously voted to approve a staff recommendation to place a transportation sales tax on the November. This happy result came after years of work with the community and interested groups like the business, labor, and environmental communities. Many SVBC members wrote emails to the VTA Board, participated in workshops, and showed up Thursday night to speak. Thank you for your support!

On the evening of June 2, the VTA Board of Directors will vote on whether or not to put a 1/2-cent, 30-year transportation sales tax on the November ballot in Santa Clara County. SVBC will be there to support the measure.

Congratulations to Palo Alto, whose City Council voted on May 9 to approve $1.4 million in funding as well as concept plans and environmental analyses to advance the ambitious Bike Boulevard prioritization of their 2012 Bike and Pedestrian Master Plan.

Bike Month has seen a lot of action so far this month, not just fun events and activities like Bike to Work Day, but also important decisions being made at the city council level.In Menlo Park, the May 3 City Council meeting had two key bicycle issues on the agenda. The first was the Oak Grove Bike Boulevard. A proposal by the city’s Bicycle Commission to prioritize bicycle access on an east-west corridor linking downtown, El Camino, the train station, and several schools was supported by City Council. Council directed staff to begin scoping a study, which will include traffic counts and volumes, parking removal, and other factors.

The Envision Silicon Valley process is moving along and, gauging from the feedback at a recent VTA Board of Directors workshop, a ballot-ready transportation sales tax measure is shaping up. On Friday, April 22, the Board gathered to hear presentations from VTA staff and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, as well as take comment from the public on the proposed measure. SVBC attended and spoke to the importance of the Complete Streets requirements included in the Local Roads, Expressways, and Highway Interchanges categories.

Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of attending a pop-up two-way cycletrack, or separated bikeway, demonstration on Park Boulevard, put on by City of Palo Alto and Fehr & Peers consultants.Pop-up bikeways and other temporary projects, like parklets, are sweeping the nation as tools used by local cities and advocates to demonstrate how a potential project could work, gain direct feedback from people biking and walking, and generate support for new, innovative designs. They also help to educate people on how to use a separated bikeway - still a relatively new concept in California - and create excitement as people experience them firsthand.

I recently joined a field trip set up by Safe Mountain View to Davis, California to check out that city’s awesome bike network and specifically its new protected intersection.The City of Davis has long been a leading force in bike-friendliness, ranked Platinum by League of American Bicyclists and boasting approximately 21% bike mode share by people over 16 commuting to work. What makes Davis so special?