Plan calls for a walkable, rideable Sunnyvale

City aims to get 10% of commuters, residents out of cars by 2030, and safer routes to schools

SUNNYVALE >> In the next 10 years, Sunnyvale expects to have more bicycle lanes, better sidewalks and safer routes for children to get to school.

At least, that’s the plan as unanimously approved late last month by the Sunnyvale City Council.

The city spent more than a year updating its active transportation plan after it received a $338,000 sustainable communities grant from Caltrans and pitched in some of its own money.

City staffers took biking and walking tours, audited the ways children walked to 21 schools, met with focus groups and school districts, and sought public input at a community workshop and in an online survey.

The plan aims to get 10% of commuters and residents in Sunnyvale out of their cars and pedaling or walking for daily tasks, including work, by 2030. About 1.5% do that now. “The goal of the plan is that we want to create a connected, comfortable, safe and convenient network for all ages and abilities,” Dennis Ng, the city’s transportation and traffic manager, said Thursday.

“So anybody from an 8-year-old to an 80-year-old person would feel comfortable using this network that we’re going to create, and then it gives everybody a choice if you want to walk or bike to get to someplace rather than get into a car.”

In his report to the council, Ng recommended getting 5% of commuters and residents to ride bicycles or walk in 10 years. But the council set the loftier goal of 10%.

If the plan’s goal is met, city officials hope bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities and severe injuries will be cut in half over the next nine years. There were 61 such fatalities and severe injuries in Sunnyvale from 2014 to 2018, according to Ng’s report.

Bicycle lanes will be enhanced with buffers such as vertical posts, concrete medians and highly visible paint. Sidewalk upgrades, highly visible crosswalks and signage are among the pedestrian and routes-to-school improvements envisioned in the report.

The projected cost for the bike upgrades, including the addition of nearly 90 miles to an existing network, ranges from $23.5 million to $99.5 million, according to the report. The price for safer routes to school improvements ranges from $17.8 million to $97.1 million. The wide range reflects “quick-build” improvements such as paint and vertical delineators on the lower end to concrete and landscaping on the higher end.

The report focused on corridors such as heavily traveled Tasman Drive, El Camino Real, Fremont Avenue and Hollenbeck Avenue, as well as downtown, the SNAIL neighborhood, Braly and Washington parks, and De Anza Boulevard.

Some speakers told council members at the meeting that the plan doesn’t go far enough in connecting the bicycle network, and others said more neighborhood outreach should have been done for the report.

Some noted that a stretch along Tasman Drive is particularly bad for bicyclists.

The city received about 90 emails from the public, including one that said the plan seems “grossly insufficient” compared with what’s provided in nearby cities such as Palo Alto,

Mountain View, Santa Clara and San Jose.

Another emailer applauded the effort, saying, “I appreciate that we’re making progress to make it safer for bicycles and pedestrians. I bike to work every day in Sunnyvale. I know many colleagues who used to bike into work, but had close calls (usually with cars) and stopped commuting by bike. Providing better and safer infrastructure is of benefit to all of us.”

Ng said the plan will be used as a roadmap for city officials.

“As new development happens around the city, we can go out and apply for grants from multiple agencies now,” Ng said.

“We can also work towards quickly implementing some (aspects of the plan) as part of our normal maintenance. As we’re resurfacing the roadway, we can just simply narrow

some lanes and put in some things.”

Before the 7-0 vote, Councilman Glenn Hendricks told his colleagues, “I believe the biggest challenge that we’re going to have going forward is actually identifying and prioritizing the initial set of projects that we’re going to work on. I support the adoption of the plan as a go-forward point. I don’t want to say it’s a starting point. That will take out all the work we’ve done for the last couple of decades.”

Mayor Larry Klein called the plan comprehensive and aspirational.

“I’m a big cycling enthusiast,” he said. “I have been working for a more walkable Sunnyvale for years. I am really happy with what this plan has put in place. The next step is prioritization and then funding.”