Dear Walk-bike Cupertino and fellow Cupertino community members –
We wanted to follow up, as Lisa and I were able to participate at the Cupertino bike workshop on December 1st, and we were quite happy to see such a strong community support for pushing a bigger bike vision for Cupertino. The lack of well developed and protected east-west connections were identified by nearly all working groups, as well as making existing connections safer for bikers.
Additionally, we have an underused bike/ped bridge (Mary bridge), which could easily be integrated into becoming part of the Cupertino bike network. Of special note, the new Oaks development on the south side of the bridge, the new owners have proposed to incorporate a protected bike trail on their property.
Over the past few months, many have been narrowly focused on the Stevens Creek Trail, but we seem to be missing the bigger opportunity of making existing bike lanes and routes safer. Students of Homestead High, Cupertino Middle or DeAnza College use the Homestead, Mary and Stevens Creek Blvd section every day and hundreds of recreational cyclists use Foothill Expressway to get up into the hills weekend after weekend.
The Cupertino bike vision should serve a broad community from student to commuter, and not follow a single special interest group who is narrowly focused on Stevens Creek Trail (many are not even Cupertino residents), What really matters is, the bike network has to be safe, best separated (i.e. barrier) from traffic, and serve as many people as possible.
Connecting the Mary Bridge through the Oaks, together with a protected class IV trail on Stevens Creek Blvd (including a safe crossing over 85) should be a top priority for Cupertino. It would be a high impact and showcase project, and would also provide completion of the Stevens Creek Trail through Cupertino.
Thanks for your leadership, and please reach out if we can be of any help,
Lisa and Gerhard Eschelbeck