Both the City of Cupertino Safe Routes to School (SR2S) and Walk Bike Cupertino track active transportation for public school students in Cupertino. SR2S polls students in all grades by having teachers report out how many students self-reported that they walked or cycled to school on a specific fall day each year. Walk Bike Cupertino tracks high school bike usage by tallying the number of bikes and scooters parked at each High School on the same day each month throughout the school year.
With these two sets of data points, we can see the trends of how many students are walking and biking to our local public schools. Each type of school (Elementary, Middle, and High School) is different in the mix of students that walk, bike, or are driven to school, so we will be discussing them separately in a three-part series. This month we’ll take a close look at the FUHSD High School data.
Safe Routes to School Fall 2024 Travel Tally
The Safe Routes to School Fall 2024 travel tally report shows mixed results in encouraging active transportation. While the biking/scootering students are increasing, walking and carpooling students is showing a steady decline. This has created an increasing trend of more students driving or being driven to school.
⬇︎ Walking students are decreasing
The number of high school students walking to school is usually a little higher at the start of the school year then drops as the year progresses. It is also dependent on the weather, leading to monthly swings in the data. Even accounting for these fluctuations, there is a clear downward trend in the number of students walking to school at all three Cupertino high schools since Fall 2018.
⬆︎ Biking students are increasing
In contrast, the number of students biking or scootering to school has increased steadily since 2018 across all three high schools which is very encouraging. Both Monta Vista HS and Cupertino HS show significant increases, while Homestead HS shows a more moderate increase, though the data is still trending upwards.
⬇︎ Carpooling is down and single-family cars are up
Carpooling has shown the steepest decline across all the travel modes with current carpooling numbers at half of what they were ten years ago. Unfortunately, all of these carpools seem to have become vehicles with a single student driving or being driven to school. All three high schools show this trend, though a small positve note is that the number of students coming by car to school declined from Fall 2023 to Fall 2024 for both Monta Vista HS and Homestead HS. It’s too soon to say if this trend will continue.
Walk Bike Cupertino Bike Counts
The 2024-2025 school year has shown the highest level of biking and scootering across all FUHSD high schools since we started collecting the data.This is a positive testament to the efforts of the city’s Safe Routes to School team, the Walk Bike Cupertino volunteers, and the SR2S students at each high school who have been promoting active transportation with events such as Bike for Boba, Don’t Drive for Donuts, Dr. Bike bike repair events, and the Bike Bus event at the start of the year. The increased availability of electric bikes, scooters, and skateboards is likely also making it easier for students who live a bit farther away from school or have a more challenging commute to still travel actively.
⬆︎ Monta Vista High bike usage steadily increasing
Monta Vista HS has seen an increase in bike/scooter ridership every school year for the past four years, which is a very encouraging trend. One major change has been the new protected bike lanes which were installed on McClellan Road prior to and during this period, which students are now using to safely get to school. Students have also reported that affordable electric bikes and scooters have now allowed them to get to school independently. The terrain in the enrollment area for Monta Vista has been one of the biggest challenges, along with limited safe commute paths from the northern side of the enrollment area.
⬆︎ Cupertino High trend improving
Cupertino HS saw a steep drop in biking to school in the last two school years but the numbers seem to have bounced back, showing that SR2S efforts are paying off. Tino has one of the highest percentage ridership of all the FUHSD high schools with 16% biking to school on average. Cupertino’s enrollment area is not as hilly as Monta Vista, but still presents significant challenges for the more than half of the students living east of Lawrence Expressway. With the Stevens Creek Blvd protected bike lanes now being extended to DeAnza Blvd, Cupertino High students will be able to bike safely on Stevens Creek from the North Blaney neighborhoods.
⬆︎ Lynbrook High biking has jumped up in last two years
Lynbrook HS saw a huge drop in ridership in the 2022-2023 school year, likely due to a combination of Covid and a very wet and cold winter. Ridership numbers recovered the following year in 2023-2024, then jumped up again in the current school year, showing a strong positive trend.
⬇︎ Homestead High still struggling
Homestead HS has a low ridership number at 11.5% of students. This is likely due in part to its large attendance area extending a long distance into north Sunnyvale and its location on a busy high speed road. It is unclear why ridership continues to decline. Possible reasons include ongoing campus construction, multiple incidents of cars hitting students near Homestead, and unsafe cycling conditions on Homestead Rd with high speed car traffic and a lack of protected bike lanes.
⬇︎ Fremont High held back by large enrollment area
Fremont HS has the lowest ridership of all the FUHSD high schools at only 5.1%. This is likely due primarily to the wide attendance area which includes students coming long distances from north Sunnyvale on streets with high speed car traffic and no protected bike lanes and secondarily to its location on a busy high speed road.
Seasonal Trends
As mentioned before, there is a seasonal trend every school year in bike/scooter ridership where August has the highest ridership, which then declines sharply in January during the wet and cold winter months, then rebounds somewhat during the Spring semester. Looking at FUHSD as a whole, January and February 2022 saw the lowest number of riders because of the very cold and wet winter that year. In 2024-2025, the winter weather has been fairly mild with light amounts of rain which has helped keep the number of riders high.
Key Takeaways
The key takeaways from these two sets of data are:
- Protected bike lanes encourage more student biking
- Events encouraging active transportation get more students walking and biking
- Electric bikes and scooters are empowering more students to get to and from school independently
- Long commute distances are major obstacles to active transportation. Improved carpooling options such as the SV Hopper might be better solutions for these students. The proposed East Channel Trail in Sunnyvale will also provide a long, safe, off-street commute path.
- High-speed and heavily trafficked roads without speed limiting and protected bike lanes create major obstacles to students choosing active transportation.
There are many benefits to students getting to school actively – it improves academic performance, increases social interaction and friendships, and promotes student independence, while freeing parents and guardians from daily drop-off and pick-up duty. It also benefits residents living near schools by reducing the daily car traffic and air pollution in their neighborhoods.
The information in this article is solely the opinion of the author and Walk-Bike Cupertino and does not reflect the opinions of any other organization or entity. For more information, contact WBC at info@walkbikecupertino.org.