The online survey of community input closed June 6 for Cupertino’s new Active Transportation Plan. This plan will decide what gets built in Cupertino for the next 10 years to improve safe active transportation. After that time, residents should email Alta with their information.
Your input is needed to make this a great plan which makes Cupertino safer, more connected, and more enjoyable to walk, hike, bike or roll. Use one of the buttons below to help out.
Why is your input needed? Two great reasons.
✦ There is a motivated and very vocal minority in the city that doesn’t want any new active transportation work done in Cupertino. Councilmember Wang asked to cancel the ATP process at the June 3 City Council meeting, after residents led by Planning Commission Chair Santosh Rao led a letter-writing campaign to cancel it. Even though cancelling it would have saved the city zero dollars, have silenced the voices of all those that given input already, and made future grants to our city harder, they still pushed to kill it..
Often these arguments are about “being on the side of drivers” though all studies show bike and pedestrian safety measures enhance cities and none of the work in Cupertino has slowed traffic throughput.
Though not successful on June 3, these anti-bike and anti-pedestrian advocates have been successful very recently. In May, a Bollinger Road safety study (not any infrastructure changes) was killed by the vote of three councilmembers. Even more shocking was that this study was free to the city as it had grant funding, and was for a road that has seen two fatalities recently with numerous serious accidents. It’s listed as a top project in the Vision Zero plan, which was approved by two of the very same councilmembers that voted against performing this study.
✦ We won’t get what we don’t ask for. Your input directly impacts what will be in the plan for the next ten years. If a bike ped project is not in the plan, it will not get worked on until we make a new plan in 2035. With the previous Bike and Ped Plans, the city staff considered the project list and worked on them in the order found in the plan. If it wasn’t in the plan, not only did it not happen, it wasn’t even talked about.
Without a significant number of people asking for new trails, wider sidewalks, safer bike lanes, better intersections, improved connectivity between neighborhoods, and streets that are enjoyable and safe for residents of all ages and abilities, (whether you walk, bike, roll, or drive) then things won’t change–and they may get worse.
If you or a loved one walk, bike, or hike, or roll in Cupertino, the city needs your input TODAY.
Click here to email City Transportation Staff with your comments.
Click here to write an email with the locations in the city of your concerns, if the online survey has closed.
Working together, we can make positive change for everyone who walks, bikes, or drives in our community. Putting your input into the ATP can make the difference between unsafe roads with ongoing serious injury accidents and enjoyable and safe roads. It can mean that everyone gets to enjoy new pathways and trails. You can make the difference!