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Mountain View is seeking community input to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety along a busy segment of Miramonte Avenue, a thoroughfare that has seen many traffic collisions over the past decade.
Earlier this summer, the city launched a survey asking for feedback on possible changes to Miramonte Avenue between El Camino Real and Castro Street. The city is considering adding protected bicycle lanes, reducing the number of driving lanes and removing some on-street parking, according to the survey.
But the project is much bigger in scope, with the survey asking about only one of three segments that the city is planning to modify. In total, the Miramonte improvement project covers roughly 1.5 miles of Miramonte Avenue from El Camino Real to Alegre Avenue at the Los Altos border.
Currently, Miramonte Avenue is largely a four-lane street with two vehicle travel lanes in each direction. Near the Los Altos border, the road narrows to one vehicle lane in each direction. There are also bicycle lanes and on-street parking in both directions along much of the corridor, which are sometimes combined.
The corridor is surrounded by homes, churches, offices and commercial retail and is a major access point to Cuesta Park and schools, including Graham Middle School, Saint Francis High School, St. Joseph School and Bubb Elementary School.
The proximity to so many schools is part of the reason for the road improvements. From 2013 to 2023, there were 50 traffic collisions on Miramonte, according to a report presented to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee in December.
One traffic collision involved a motorist that struck a Graham Middle School student at the Hans Avenue intersection. Another involved three teenagers in a vehicle that collided into a tree near Sonia Way.
Phase one: Cuesta Drive to Castro Street
Since 2019, the city has been planning to make road improvements along a half-mile segment of Miramonte Avenue between Cuesta Drive and Castro Street. Construction is now expected to begin in December, city spokesperson Lenka Wright said.
The project’s scope was fairly straightforward when it was proposed six years ago, according to a report presented to the City Council last June. The city planned to repave the corridor, install accessible curb ramps, add green bicycle lanes and conduct some repair work.
Then, the project was put on hold for several years to allow for the installation of underground water and sewer lines. During that time, the city expanded the project’s scope, giving more attention to pedestrian and bicycle safety.
The Miramonte street improvements now include a “road diet” that reduces four vehicle lanes to three lanes, with one lane in each direction and a two-way center left-turn lane. It has buffered bicycle lanes on both sides of the street, including a two-way separated bicycle lane on the east side of Miramonte Avenue between Hans Avenue and Castro Street, adjacent to Graham Middle School.
The city also plans to add a pedestrian-activated flashing beacon at a crosswalk at Hans Avenue, as well as curb extensions and a storm drain modification.
Other road improvements include repaving and restriping lane markings, installing accessible curb ramps and conducting repair work.
Construction for this segment is expected to cost approximately $5.9 million, Wright said.
Phase two: El Camino Real to Castro Street and Cuesta Drive to Alegre Avenue
The second phase of the Miramonte improvement project is split into two parts, a half-mile segment between El Camino Real and Castro Street and another half-mile segment between Cuesta Drive and Alegre Avenue.
The city is exploring conceptual designs for both segments of Miramonte, starting with the portion between El Camino Real and Castro Street.
The community survey shows that the city is proposing to add protected bicycle lanes on both sides of the street by reducing vehicle lanes to one in each direction and removing street parking in certain areas. On some blocks, the city is proposing to put in street parking that protects bicycle lanes from vehicle traffic. It also plans to repave the road.
The city has allocated $205,000 for the study phase of the road improvements between El Camino Real and Castro Street. Once the study is finalized, the city will allocate funding to implement the project, Wright said in an email.
The city plans to present the conceptual designs for review at the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee meeting on Aug. 27 and the Council Transportation Committee on Sept. 2, Wright said.
Construction is expected to begin in 2026 or 2027, according to the city website.
There is no conceptual design or timeline yet for the third segment of road improvements on Miramonte Avenue between Cuesta Drive and Alegre Avenue.
“(It) will be considered in the future when balancing other projects and paving needs throughout the city,” Wright said.
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I am not sure if I am supposed to laugh or cry about the linked report on Phase A. It says that the project would be complete in Spring of 2025, but they haven’t even started yet….
Another road diet?! I think we need a city council diet.
How many cars a day cross El Camino at the Miramonte-El Camino intersection? Having only 1 lane there seems like it would create a long back-up on the Miramonte side to cross El Camino (with frustrated drivers opting to cut through neighborhoods instead), and a log jam coming from the other side, as 2-3 lanes of Shoreline get merged into 1 lane on the other side of El Camino (along with southbound cars turning right from El Camino onto Miramonte).
Doesn’t feel like a safe and judicious place for a road diet. Road diets have become a knee-jerk response, but may not be a good fit everywhere. But for sure, move forward with other safety improvements. And let’s improve public transportation in our area to entice more drivers to take alternate means.
Please do something about bike theft and bike parking. I try the new lanes, they are good. And if I could use an eBike which I can park at the destination and don’t be afraid of it being stolen, I would use the bike in most cases, it wouldn’t be much slower than by car. So far, almost no people on bike lanes.
So glad the city is finally taking on the harder projects like this one – and proud of them. The middle of the stretch between Castro and ECR by Sonia has houses and the school/church right up to the road, so there has been no room for bike lanes or parking, leaving the only solution to be a road diet. And without addressing this, the bike network is incomplete and getting around this is circuitous.
I am pretty sure that the queuing area for the light at El Camino will still be mostly as it is with multiple lanes to get lots of cars through on each of those short green lights you waited 150 seconds for (yes, I sit there waiting, too). But put those concerns into the survey to have your voice heard.
And, I agree totally with the concern about bike theft and the time it takes to lock up a bike adding to the trip time. Getting the BikeLink lockers at some key destinations would be awesome – same APP as at Caltrain – inexpensive and easy to use.