As presented to the Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee at their 9/30/2015 meeting: 
http://laserfiche.mountainview.gov/WebLink/0/doc/177904/Electronic.aspx

Recommendations from Council when it was brought before them on July 7th:

• Include a policy around using protected or buffered bike lanes by default on fast streets - in 35 mph zones and higher.
• Extend the feasibility study for the Permanente Creek Trail Extension to look at going all the way to Castro School.  Currently the study would stop at Central Expressway.
• Add maps to the Plan that show bike routes of our neighboring cities of Palo Alto, Los Altos and Sunnyvale.

The Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning (MVCSP) would like to express support for an initiative established by the Mountain View High School Environmental Club, under the direction of club president Ray Uyeda, to establish new bicycle lanes adjacent to the school on Truman and Bryant Streets. Truman and Bryant are the primary streets for accessing the school, but there are no bike lanes. And, currently, one bike lane exists on Bryant between Grant Road and Truman. We believe that the appropriate review process should include the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC), the Council Transportation Committee (CTC), and the City Council. We also encourage councilmembers and staff to assist the students and the school as they explore options for adding the lanes requested through the initiative (for example, regarding funding through the Transportation Development ACT (TDA), Capital Improvement Program (CIP), Safe Routes to School, or with assistance from local businesses, such as Google.

We believe that this is an important initiative not only because it increases the number of bicycle lanes in the city, but also because the lanes will improve safety for students bicycling to and from school. It should be noted that, while bicycling numbers are on the rise among MVHS students, participation during the recent Carbon Free Commute Day (CFCC) could indicate dissatisfaction with the biking experience around campus as student enter their later years of high school.

Further, because improving bicycle and pedestrian mobility in Mountain View is one of three top priorities for City Council this fiscal year, the time is right to move the initiative forward.

Finally, we believe that supporting projects undertaken by students encourages youth participation in civic activities; essential, given that the youth represent the future of our community.

In the words of Ray's MVHS group: "People under 20 are more likely to use alternative transportation - Let's help them to find a better way to travel short distances."

At the BPAC meeting on April 8th (see Calendar for details), updates and revisions to the Pedestrian Master Plan will be taken up. Any CSP members with an interest in improvments to the pedestrian experience and pedestrian safety should consider attending and commenting.

Pedestrian Master Plan approved and adopted last night by Council . Now more work to be undertaken through the BPAC and Council Transportation Committee. Stay tuned!

Please send any letters of support to BPAC chair, Bruce England. Here's what BPAC is asking the CTC to do:

Comments for City of Mountain View Council Transportation Committee Meeting
May 18, 2011

The new 2010 Highway Capacity Manual (a publication of the Transportation Research Board (TRB)) now contains a tool to measure bicycle, pedestrian and transit Level of Service in addition to motor vehicles.

The City of Mountain View Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) held a special meeting on May 9th to discuss adding bike lanes on San Antonio Road as part of the Center project, and here is a synopsis of what came out of that meeting:

·         We unanimously (with the possible exception Lauren Angelo, who was unable to attend) feel very strongly that bike lanes *must* be included as part of (or along with) the San Antonio Center project plans.

·         For our part (in what we feedback re this issue to the City through the CTC), we feel that the "why" should be emphasized over the "how" (which we chose to leave, as much as possible, open to interpretation by traffic and project planners (the more options they have, the more likely we'll achieve the goal of seeing the lanes added.

The whys include:

·         Even though the existing bike plan doesn't call out the need for bike lanes at that locations, no San Antonio project was in the works at the time, so any omission can be considered merely an oversight. Meanwhile, current thinking and trends now tend in the direction of placing bike lanes in any appropriate and necessary locations.

·         Even though the existing general plan doesn't emphasize multi-modal transit accommodation, the draft mobility section for the updated general plan does, and the "Complete Streets" direction now mandated by the State is called out specifically.

·         The draft Pedestrian Master Plan should include (and is expected to include) the need to separate bike traffic from pedestrian traffic as much as possible.

·         Bike lanes on San Antonio extend bike routes south of El Camino into Los Altos, and create a bike-transit "hub" enabling ease of travel between Mountain View, Los Altos, and Palo Alto bike routes.

·         Mixing two-direction, multi-modal traffic on sidewalks, especially when planter strips are included (thus making it far more difficult for bicyclists to yield to pedestrians as needed) sets up dangerous situations that shouldn't be acceptable in current planning.

·         The nearest north/south bike routes are at Charleston and Rengstorff, neither of which are very near to San Antonio.

·         The Environmental Sustainability Task Force final report recommended prioritizing bike and pedestrian modes of travel (see in particular page 120 in the attached final report segment).

The hows include: Narrowing the median space, narrowing the traffic lanes, eliminating planter strips, and narrowing the sidewalks to allow for (estimated) six-foot bike lanes (noting that bike lane width is dictated, at least in part, by the posted speed limit for vehicular traffic).

Also:

·         We would like to see the bike-lane solution extend between Miller and California, but we do not want a lack of a solution there to compromise setting the proper precedent by completing work between Miller and El Camino.

·         We would like to see infrastructure within the center also provide bike-friendly amenities (including, for example, bike parking structures), which can also enhance the center's aesthetics. We noted that bike riders entering the center are not necessarily going to the center, but might be passing through to other end points, such as Showers and California, the Greenway bike route, transit hubs, etc.