In January 2025, the city is kicking off a 13-month project to develop a new Cupertino Active Transportation Plan (ATP) in partnership with Alta Design. This new plan will guide the city’s efforts for the next few years to improve walking and cycling throughout the city with a focus on creating a network that is safe, easy to use, connected, equitable, sustainable, and enjoyable for all ages and abilities.
Our current 2016 Bicycle Transportation Plan and 2018 Pedestrian Transportation Plan are outdated and in dire need of replacement. With significant new housing and commercial developments already built or coming soon, the city traffic patterns will be very different over the next ten years. Some schools have closed, while traffic has gone up at some other schools. Vehicles on the road have become significantly taller, bigger, and heavier in the past ten years, resulting in more dangerous intersections and school zones. In addition, many state and federal grants require cities to have an updated Active Transportation Plan in order to award grants.
Walk Bike Cupertino has written in the past about the need for a new Active Transportation Plan and what elements should be included in a new plan.
The new Active Transportation Plan follows established best standards by combining plans for pedestrian and cycling improvements into one single document. This allows the city to more clearly identify and rank priorities across all transportation projects.
Timeline
The project is planned to be completed in 13 months with a final presentation to the City Council in January 2026.
Review Existing Data
Alta Design will review all the relevant plans adopted by the city in the past ten years and incorporate their learnings and recommendations into the new Active Transportation Plan, especially the recently adopted 2024 Vision Zero Plan. The team will also review relevant county and region level plans such as the 2024 Santa Clara County Active Transportation Plan (in progress) and the 2024 VTA Valley Transportation 2050 (in progress).
Analyze Existing Conditions
Alta Design will develop an interactive visual map of the city in collaboration with city staff and residents which will show existing conditions, collision data, levels of traffic stress for pedestrians and cyclists throughout the city, and both existing and possible traffic patterns.
Findings from this analysis will be summarized in a memo that will be shared with the community. This will also support the team’s work during the public outreach phases of the project and will form the basis for development of project recommendations.
Engage with the Community
The process to develop the Active Transportation Plan will include many opportunities for residents to provide input and participate in the discussion. There will be two major outreach phases.
The Alta team also plans to hold up to six (6) pop-up events at places such as public festivals, school events, or community-led bike/roll events.
Engage with the Bike Ped Commission and the City Council
Alta will have three meetings with the Bike Ped Commission throughout the process. One during each phase for needs assessment and to get their input on recommended projects and prioritizations, and the third one to review the final plan.
Once the Bike Ped Commission has approved the draft plan, it will go to the City Council for final approval. At each of these meetings, residents will have the opportunity to participate and comment.
Develop Project Recommendations
The Alta team will develop quantifiable goals and performance measures, establishing a clear and compelling vision for walking and biking in Cupertino.
The report will include a prioritized list of recommended infrastructure, policy, and educational projects to improve walking and biking in the city. Prioritization will be based on multiple factors including need, impact, cost, and feasibility. Using these criteria, projects will be grouped as short-term, medium-term, or long-term implementation.
The report will estimate costs for each project based on existing industry costs and comparable recent City projects, as well as provide suggested funding sources for project implementation, based on Alta Design’s industry knowledge.
Finalize the Active Transportation Plan
In the second half of 2025, the Alta team will draft the final report with input from staff and residents, before presenting it to the Bike Ped Commission and the City Council for final approval.
What You Can Do
We encourage everyone in the community to participate in the plan creation process as much as possible. The ATP will guide the development of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure and policy for the next ten years so it’s important that it reflect the needs of all residents. Walk Bike Cupertino will provide regular updates on key milestones and opportunities to get involved. Stay tuned and stay engaged!
We need the RoboTaxi lines for pickup and drop offs stations to prepare for the future instead of bike lanes that really not much people riding on roads.
Thank you, Theresa, for your input. WBC believes that all modes of travel should be safe and available for everyone, including those that wish to travel without environmental impacts and in an active manner. Primarily this is walking and biking.
Right now, there are many thousands of residents in Cupertino and beyond that wish to walk and bike and zero residents that are using unmanned taxis. It does not seem like swapping bike lanes for unmanned taxi lanes makes sense.
Further, special lanes for unmanned taxis such as Waymo have not been even considered yet in the small handful of big cities that have unmanned taxi pilot programs. We have seen special lanes for transit proposed locally on El Camino Real–high-speed bus lanes–but recent attempts to implement these have been unsuccessful.
Walk Bike Cupertino supports the need for all modes of transit, and for everyone to be safe on their journey. Bike lanes have been shown in hundreds of studies to improve safety for cyclists, and even improve safety for transit users and pedestrians by increasing the distance between the 2,000 lb cars moving at quick speeds and unprotected people. Preparing for the future means to consider where infrastructure is needed now and where it will be needed. Will Cupertino need designated lanes for another car on the road, regardless of who is driving (or not)? That’s unlikely. But we do need to address the current severe accidents and fatalities we see on our local roads. That’s what bike lanes do.
For more information on safety issues on our Cupertino roads, I recommend reading Cupertino’s Vision Zero Plan, approved unanimously by the City Council, including our current Mayor (Chao) and Vice Mayor (Moore). You can find it here: https://www.cupertino.gov/Your-City/Departments/Public-Works/Transportation-Mobility/Transportation-Plans-Studies/Vision-Zero-Action-Plan