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From inconsistent bike lanes to long stretches of sidewalk with no crosswalks, Rengstorff Avenue in Mountain View is in need of improvement on multiple fronts, according to local community members.
The city is currently in the midst of studying potential ways to enhance the comfort and safety of bicyclists and pedestrians using the busy corridor, which has a history of severe collisions. Since launching the project, dubbed the Rengstorff Avenue Complete Streets Study, in the latter half of last year, the city and its consulting firm – Kimley-Horn and Associates – have been gathering community input on potential changes.
Caltrans awarded Mountain View $352,000 to look into bicycle, pedestrian and “green street” improvements along a 1.7-mile stretch of Rengstorff Avenue, from El Camino Real north to Leghorn Street.
On a recent survey, the city received more than 1,000 responses, which will be used to “better understand where the community thinks improvements are needed along Rengstorff Avenue,” allowing staff to create tailored modifications, city spokesperson Lenka Wright wrote in an email.
This summer, the city expects to share findings from the street study and rough concepts for potential improvements, Assistant Public Works Director Allison Boyer told the Voice last month. In 2027, city staff and the consultants will start the design development process.
Just last week, the city hosted an event where local residents could walk or bike along Rengstorff with Kimely-Horn staff to share feedback on potential areas for change. Starting at the Mountain View Community Center, one group of participants went south toward El Camino Real, while another went north toward Middlefield Road.
Longtime Mountain View resident Andrew Yee was with the group headed north during the Feb. 27 event. To get to Middlefield, Yee and the other bicyclists had to cross the train tracks at the Central Expressway intersection, which he described as a “scary experience.”
“There were cars waiting there to turn right, and we were trying to go straight,” said Yee, who directs a nonprofit bicycle mechanic training program. “That just made even the most experienced cyclists among us feel pretty vulnerable.”
Terry Barton, who chairs Mountain View’s Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, used to bike on Rengstorff everyday to get to work. He also participated in last week’s community event, traveling with the group headed south toward El Camino. Instead of biking, his group decided to walk.
Walking down Rengstorff is “not by any means a pleasant pedestrian experience,” Barton told the Voice, citing the road’s heavy car traffic, lengthy stretches without crosswalks and lack of tree canopy. He also noticed gaps in the street’s bike lanes, as well as areas where parked cars take up a majority of the designated lanes. Barton noted that he was sharing his own experience and not speaking on behalf of BPAC.
The city is coordinating the bicycle and pedestrian improvements on Rengstorff with plans to make major upgrades to the railway crossing at Central Expressway.
The initiative to separate vehicle and train traffic has been in the works for more than two decades, but the project hit a snag in early 2024, when the city discovered the budget had jumped from $262 million to $325 million. Later that year, costs spiked again, hitting $453 million. Since then, staff have devised a plan to trim costs somewhat and hope to start construction in 2027.
The plan is to lower Rengstorff and Central so that cars pass under the train tracks, which would be kept at their existing elevation, according to a November report to the City Council.
Barton believes that this underpass will attract more car traffic to Rengstorff, because it “will make it easier to drive along.” With this in mind, he thinks it is essential for the city to collect feedback from pedestrians and cyclists.
The city is planning to conduct a second round of community outreach in August, in which staff will share how the first batch of input shaped proposed improvements and gather additional insights from local residents, Wright told the Voice.
Both Barton and Yee highlighted the work that’s been done in Mountain View to improve the experience of bicyclists on El Camino and California Street. Last year, protected bike lanes were added to portions of both roadways. The projects have been popular with some residents, but others have raised concerns about lost vehicle parking and difficulties for drivers.
“Although they are controversial in implementation, the protected bike lanes there definitely offer cyclists more safety,” Yee said. “It’s not perfect. I ride both of those streets quite often, but just having those bollards up and more signage and more space definitely … encourages me to ride those streets.”
Brianna Sosa contributed reporting to this article.
I am sure building 1000s of units on Rengstroff will do nothing to traffic. I have been told repeatedly there’s no need to worry about it since the apts wouldn’t have many parking spaces.
So, cost spiked $125 million in a single year.
Note that they didn’t interview ANY people who have to drive along Rengstorff daily? The traffic congestion is unbearable as it is. Same on California street. If you surveyed ALL of the residents who lived off these streets, I’ll bet the overwhelming majority would tell you what a nightmare the bike lanes and closure of road lanes/ parking spots has caused!
I’m all for cyclist safely, but cars clearly outnumber cyclists in this city.
The obvious improvement to Rengstorff Ave is to stop using so much of it inefficiently for long-term storage of personal vehicles. I’ve seen the same vehicles covered with tarps near Heritage Park for months or years at a time. As I understand the law, “A vehicle cannot be parked or left standing on any public street, highway, alley, or publicly owned parking lot for more than seventy-two consecutive hours.” I’m not saying we need Draconian enforcement that comes every 72 hours like clockwork on every residential street in the city, but we should certainly enforce flagrant violations on major thoroughfares like Rengstorff.
If we had a smaller number of actually utilized public parking spaces, we could consider going from two lanes of parking to parking on just one side, which would free up more than enough space for protected bike lanes.
I don’t know why people are assuming that the city wants to remove car lanes on Rengstorff. The California St project clearly said that was the goal. They’re not doing that here.
Whatever is done to improve bike and pedestrian safety, please do it differently than California St. When you constrict car traffic on an already busy road, drivers get frustrated and start taking MORE risks. That also doesn’t promote safety if that’s your goal. And please remember, not all of us can commute on bike or by foot. Some of us are elderly, some are trying to get kids to schools, some are going to 3 stores on weekends and can’t fit a family’s worth of groceries in a backpack.