The Stevens Creek Trail is being extended from Mountain View southward to Sunnyvale.
This marks the first time that the Stevens Creek Trail will come to Sunnyvale, allowing easy access for residents in south Sunnyvale and Los Altos, and Cupertino residents via Homestead Road.
The Trail will connect today’s southernmost trailhead at Heatherstone Way in Mountain View to Fremont Avenue at Highway 85 in Sunnyvale.
In March, the Sunnyvale City Council ratified a plan that includes a Remington Avenue bridge over Highway 85 to Mountain View High School and multiple landings at Fremont Avenue (see map). The safety of the Fremont landings was a subject of much discussion at the Sunnyvale City Council meeting. With concerted advocacy from the Friends of Stevens Creek, Bike Sunnyvale, and Walk-Bike Cupertino, the Council agreed to most of the safety suggestions.
Map of proposed Stevens Creek Trail in Sunnyvale (Click on image for larger view)
Northwest corner of Fremont Ave. access
For trail access on the northwest corner of the Fremont-Hwy 85 intersection, Council decided to investigate a possible routing of the trail along the west side of Stanford Clinic’s property to end at a signalized intersection for safe crossing of Fremont. This trail access is shown on the map by the leftmost yellow line along the creek. If the creekside access isn’t feasible, the City will fall back on their original plan of a ramp-side access shown by the rightmost yellow line on the map.
Southeast corner of Fremont Ave. access
For the southeast corner, Council decided to look into an overcrossing of Fremont so that trail users can have a car-free way to cross Fremont. On the map, this trail access is shown by the blue line.
Originally, the City of Sunnyvale did not propose any landing on the southeast corner, and did not propose a creekside alignment (just a highway off-ramp alignment) on the northwest corner, so these decisions were a big win for trail safety and enjoyment of trail users.
Reaching the SCT from northeast of Fremont Ave. presents some challenges (Click on image for larger view)
Northeast corner of Fremont Ave. access
At the northeast corner, conditions are such that it’s dangerous for trail users to get on and off the trail (see photo). There’s a blind curve on Bernardo, a right-turn only lane on Bernardo and Fremont encouraging cars to rush onto the Hwy 85 on-ramp, and little space to land the trail. Despite these dangers, Council decided to proceed with a landing there, shown on the map by the red line. Staff promised that they will consider these safety enhancements: scramble phase, squaring off the corner, no right turn on red, and removing the right-turn only lanes on Fremont and Bernardo.
Timing
The concept of the Stevens Creek Trail began over 60 years ago. Today, over half of the trail is complete. Eventually, the Trail will connect the Bay Trail along the bay shore to the Bay Area Ridge Trail in the Santa Cruz Mountains. This latest development is a celebratory step forward for all the people who use the trail, young and old alike, for purposes of recreation, commuting, and other car-free transportation.
How you can get involved
Map of current Stevens Creek Trail in Cupertino and Sunnyvale (Click on image for larger view). For a full map of the trail, click here.
This map and larger map are both courtesy of Friends of Stevens Creek Trail, https://www.stevenscreektrail.org/and VTA, https://www.vta.org/
