Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition

This BAC functions as a glorified committee to rubber stamp the TDA-3 requirements when the project lists are ready to submit. There is no council member as required by MTC and no bike plan except for some verbage in the circulation element of the General Plan. The meetings are only called when TDA-3 projects come up.

1- The Ralston 101 Pedestrian Bike Bridge has $2.2M in funding and holds a $5M -$6M gap based on today's lower construction costs. Belmont will submit a project request to the Obama Stimulus Plan. The project is ready to go within 120 days of receiving funding.

On Sunday November 16, I led a group of six other riders around Menlo Park and Atherton. Some of the highlights of the tour:
The presumed site for a future undercrossing of the Caltrain tracks between Ravenswood and San Francisquito Creek.
The Alma Street bike bridge.
Willow Road, where the bike lanes are actually wide enough to avoid the door zone.
The Willow-101 interchange. Very bad now, but slated for redesign, and an opportunity to make it more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly.

Seasons Greetings!

The big news this time is the possibility of major improvements to bike accommodation on Mary Avenue. The city has begun to move ahead with a long-planned car bridge from the north end of Mary over 101 and 237 into Moffett Park, in order to handle traffic for existing and future office developments. The bridge will have good bike access when completed in a decade or so, if the project is not stopped by opposition from nearby residents. The really exciting part, however, is that the environmental report prepared by our Traffic Engineering staff included a favorable assessment of the feasibility of implementing a 4-to-3 lane conversion, with the addition of bike lanes, on Mary south of Evelyn! In their motion to approve the bridge project, the City Council also directed staff to seek funding for the lane reconfiguration. It may be possible for this to be done independently of the bridge, and therefore considerably faster. If you’d like to see it happen, send your words of encouragement to bpacci [dot] sunnyvale [dot] ca [dot] us.

A white "ghost bike" and twin plaques honoring cyclists Kristi Gough and Matt Peterson were dedicated on a beautiful October Saturday morning after a memorial ride up Stevens Canyon Road. The two cyclists were killed, and another seriously injured, in a head on collision there in March with an oncoming Sheriff's Deputy's cruiser that crossed the double yellow line.

San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail

The first undercrossing closures along the trail this season took place on Friday, October 31st, between Old Mountain View Alviso Rd. and Highway 101. Precipitation for that day was only 0.03 inch, but heavier rainfall had been forecast for Saturday. The practice of the Street Dept., which is responsible for locking and unlocking the undercrossing gates, has been to lock certain gates on Friday if heavy rain is forecast for the weekend. In this case, the rainfall for Saturday, November 1, was 0.52 inch, which was a new record for that date. Rainfall totals for Sunday and Monday were 0.08 and 0.10 inch respectively so that the gates were probably open by Monday morning.

The undercrossings north of Scott Blvd. are the most likely ones to be closed during rainy weather because they are at lower elevations and are also affected by tides. Some of the bridge structures require that the trail descend further into the creek channel to maintain sufficient clearance. In some cases, reopening may be delayed until debris deposited by floodwater is removed from the trail surface.

CSC-BAC

The next meeting of the City of Santa Clara Bicycle Advisory Committee is scheduled for January 28, 2009, in the Inspection Division Conference Room at City Hall, 1500 Warburton Ave.

Submitted by John Sullivan.

Albertson Parkway

A construction contract was awarded for removal of an existing pathway, and replacement with a new paved trail, landscaping with bio-retention basins and interpretive signage. A pre-construction meeting has been conducted. Work begins on the trail project in the Santa Teresa Foothills Neighborhood on November 14. All work is scheduled to be complete by June 12, 2009. The short 0.5 mile trail system leads to Santa Teresa County Park and provides a nice walking route within the neighborhood.