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For years, Mountain View has been working on a roadmap to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety throughout the city. That plan got the stamp of approval from the City Council last month after final tweaks to create more “green” and welcoming spaces for walkers, bikers and rollers.
At a Sept. 22 meeting, the City Council unanimously backed a staff recommendation to adopt a new Active Transportation Plan. The nearly 200-page document lays out a strategy of policies, programs and projects to make it easier to get around Mountain View without a car.
“[It] focuses on people-powered modes of transportation,” Public Works Director Jennifer Eng said at the council meeting.
City staff identified 20 “priority projects” to be implemented over the next decade with some of those already underway. They include road improvement projects on California Street, Middlefield Road, Miramonte Avenue and Rengstorff Avenue. The city also recently received funding for a future Evelyn Avenue road study, Eng said.
Council members expressed general support for the plan, including the list of priority projects. However, they pushed city staff to incorporate a more explicit focus on “green complete streets” – at the urging of local environmental groups, including the Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning, GreenSpacesMV and Bike Walk MVLA.
“The first thing we should think about when we’re going to make improvements is, ‘How are we going to green these streets?’” Council member Pat Showalter said. “There’s so many positive things that come from doing that – the stormwater, the shade, the [greenhouse gas] reduction, all that stuff.”
Eng indicated that the city could incorporate several community recommendations into the plan, including making trees, shade and landscaping a part of projects early on in the design process. Based on public input, Eng also noted that it was possible to establish performance targets to help determine whether the active transportation plan was working over time.
Other community suggestions were also given the greenlight, including eliminating “part-time” bike lanes, which currently exist on Middlefield Road. The bike lanes become parking spaces at certain designated times.
However, Eng recommended that the council not support a recommendation from advocacy groups to establish 10 feet as the default width for inner travel lanes on multilane streets.
“It is, I believe, overly prescriptive to tell staff to use 10-foot lanes all over the city when we haven’t looked at the different street typologies and the different street classifications to see really where we can achieve a difference,” she said.
Eng also advised nixing an idea from community members to establish a “walkability and accessibility” program that would encourage social and economic activities in public spaces. The proposed program would focus on older adults, people with disabilities and families with children, according to a letter submitted by local advocates.
“We’re currently not resourced to create a brand new program as part of this plan,” Eng said in response to the request, adding that it would necessitate certain trade-offs.
Council members went along with Eng’s recommendations, including not incorporating the request for 10 foot lanes and not adding a walkability and accessibility program.
Council members weigh in on plan
While the City Council ultimately supported the staff recommendations, some raised concerns that the plan did not account for the needs of the entire community.
Council member John McAlister read a statement at the meeting that stressed his desire to see a “thoughtful integration” of active transportation initiatives without exacerbating vehicle congestion or limiting street parking.
“Expanding bike lanes, widening sidewalks, and building pedestrian plazas frequently require relocating existing street space,” he said. “Unmanaged congestion and lost parking can generate pushback from residents and local businesses.”
Council member Lucas Ramirez pushed back on some of McAlister’s characterizations of active transportation initiatives, noting that motorists dominate roads at the moment.
“If I’m riding my bike and there’s a car, the car is going to defeat me,” he said. “That’s why we invest so heavily in bicycle/pedestrian facilities, improving safety. That’s why we have this plan to begin with.”
During the public comments, Joan Brodovsky, a 90-year-old Mountain View resident, noted that there was not much discussion in the plan about services for older adults or those with mobility constraints, except for a brief mention of the city’s community shuttles.
“Everything else is about how younger people can get around walking or on a bike,” Brodovsky said. “Well, that’s not very useful for me.”
Ramirez agreed that more could have been done to include the perspectives of older adults and people with disabilities. He added that the plan also felt less robust than other initiatives, like the Parks and Recreation or Biodiversity and Urban Forestry plans adopted earlier this year.
“I don’t think we quite hit the mark,” he said. “But fortunately, it’s a plan and it can be amended.”
