At the July Cupertino City Council meeting, the Mayor and Councilmembers approved funding for several 2019-20 Bicycle and Pedestrian projects. These include $242K additional for the McClellan Class IV protected bike lanes; $65K additional for Wayfinding signage; $1.3M additional for sidewalks on Byrne and Orange, and funding for a new project, the Linda Vista Trail. These new funds are in addition to projects that have some funding already allocated for their feasibility, design and/or construction phases.
The additional funds are now part of Cupertino’s CIP (Capitol Improvement Program) budget. Earlier this spring, the items in the CIP for the rest of the city budget were approved, however, Vice-Mayor Liang Chao requested in April that all Bike/Ped projects be removed from the full CIP budget so that the Council could have a complete separate review of them.
The Bike/Ped projects CIP agenda item in July was a long, contentious session, with Vice-Mayor Chao arguing strongly for not funding construction of the Linda Vista Trail nor spending any funds on the Carmen Bridge project or the Regnart Creek Trail. She repeatedly expressed significant frustration with how bicycle and pedestrian projects are prioritized in Cupertino. Vice-Mayor Chao stated that the city should focus on on-street Bike Boulevards and discontinue work on off-street multi-use walking and biking paths. Mayor Scharf and Councilmembers Sinks and Paul countered with statements that there is no situation of “either/or” where they city must choose to either fund bike boulevards or off-street multi-use projects, the city can fund both.
Below shows the new projects in the CIP budget that were approved at that meeting by a unanimous (5-0) council vote. For a full update on all projects (updated as of June 2019) from the City of Cupertino, please click here.
This information in this post is solely the opinion of the author as a resident of Cupertino and Walk-Bike Cupertino, and is not intended to reflect the opinions of any other organization or entity, including the City of Cupertino or its commissions.