On April 4 between 7:00am and 7:40am, Cupertino High School was audited for issues related to bicycling, walking and traffic safety at the school and in the surrounding neighborhood.  Parent volunteers, Cupertino High staff, City of Cupertino staff and Alta Planning, a design/engineering firm, took detailed notes on specific issues at 12 intersections used by students and their parents for commuting to school.

For example, it was noted at the Stevens Creek/Finch intersection that bikes that are traveling east along Stevens Creek generally ride on the sidewalk—as the bike lane is full of cars turning right—and then use the curb cut in the crosswalk to rejoin the roadway at the Finch turn.  This causes conflicts and sight line issues with both cars turning right onto Finch from the west as well as cars turning left onto Finch from the east. (Of course, riding on the sidewalk by anyone over the age of 12 without an accompanying child is against Cupertino City law as well.)

This was just one of many issues that were noted during the audit and will be considered in future plans for Cupertino’s street and sidewalk infrastructure.  This auditing work is in conjunction with other work on mapping the routes that students take to school, to improve safety and traffic conditions around local schools.

Other audits will be continued at all the local Cupertino elementary, middle and high schools, and have already been completed at Homestead High, Cupertino High, and Stevens Creek Elementary. They are organized by the City of Cupertino’s Safe Routes to Schools (SRTS) program, which is a working group of parents, school staff and city staff. Chelsea Biklen, SRTS Coordinator for the City of Cupertino, is able to provide data on these audits for residents that would like to have detailed information.