Key Facts About the Lawson Bikeway
Cost: $125K total; funded completely from an Apple ‘Walk Audit’ grant
Project: Add a two-way protected bikeway at Lawson Middle School, along Vista Drive (east side) and Forest Avenue (south side).
Type of Project: Class IV bikeway
Current Status (July 2024): The bikeway was approved by City Council on July 9, 2024. Design is expected to be complete by the end of 2024; the bikeway is expected to be finished in Spring of 2025.
Project Overview
Design
The bikeway will be a two-way bikeway that is 8′ wide with a 3′ buffer with plastic bollards spaced so cars cannot park in the lane. It will include green bikeway paint as appropriate, and enhancements for crossings at the south Lazaneo intersection and Merritt Avenue intersection.
Why Does Walk-Bike Cupertino Support this Project?
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Lawson Middle School students have been the victims of car collisions and face safety issue each day
Students biking on Vista Drive must mix with cars and make unsafe left turns across traffic to enter the school bike corral. Students have already been hit, leading some of them to bike on the sidewalk instead, which can cause conflicts with the large number of students walking to school.
Encouragement of walking and biking
The top reason parents cite for not allowing their children to walk or bike to school is safety. Making our streets safer can allow more people, including students, to enjoy these healthy activities.
We are a community
We all care about the children in our community, and Lawson students are part of that. The safety of all our children should be a top priority.
Student benefit
Studies show that walking or biking to school improves concentration, leading to better school outcomes. Walking and biking are part of a healthy, active lifestyle–and lifetime habits are made at an early age.
When the schools are in session, traffic volumes are very high on all roads. This is because so many parents drive their children to school instead of walking or biking. Encouraging biking by making it safer can lead to less traffic. Every student that bikes or walks is one fewer car on the road.
Climate Action
A student biking to school for one week saves the equivalent CO2 of 2 ½ trees. A whole semester of biking saves the equivalent of 47 mature trees! Encouraging students to bike to school is an environmentally positive action which gets results.
A school near you (or your own child’s school) may need similar changes to make it safer for students. Implementing improvements at one school makes it easier to advocate for improvements at other schools.
City Plans support encouragement and prioritizing bike lanes over parking
The Mobility Element in Cupertino’s General Plan encourages building infrastructure that makes active transportation more attractive. Cupertino’s Climate Action Plan and Transportation Action plans also encourage it. The City’s Vision Zero Plan approved in July 20224 not only encourages adding infrastructure to enhance safety, but also states that bike lanes should be prioritized over parking.
Here is an idea of how the bikeway will look after installation.
History of the Project
The safety issues for students walking and biking to Lawson was first identified during the citywide 2016-2017 Walk Audit process. Possible solutions were then considered by a group of parents, CUSD staff, a Bike Ped Commissioner, city staff, and a Safe Routes to School representative in 2018. After several years of brainstorming and discussion, they recommended that on street protected bike lanes be added along Vista Drive and Forest Avenue, adjacent to Lawson Middle School.
As parking would need to be removed for these lanes, the City Council in 2020 decided to spend $40K on consultants to review all the possible solutions to this issue and perform more public outreach. This work was completed in 2023.
Several options were considered, including moving the bike corrals, allowing students to use the school running track as a bike path, and on-street markings. Many were rejected as not possible due to CUSD constraints or lack of remediation for the safety issues. The consultants determined that only two solutions were possible with the constraints: the protected bikeway or widening the current sidewalk into a multi-use path for both cyclists and pedestrians. Each had their positive points and negative concerns.
The protected bikeway was reasonably priced ($125K, completely paid for by an Apple grant. separated all modes of travel (bikes/walkers/cars), was a relatively quick build, and did not require moving utilties or removing any trees. On the negative side, this option did require removing 50 parking spaces along Vista and Forest.
The other option of a multiuse bikeway did not require eliminating any parking. Some neighbors also liked the idea of a wider sidewalk. Downsides included that this was expensive ($1.15M), was not covered by a grant, did not separate pedestrians from cyclists, required extensive utility work, and required removing many trees, nine of which could be considered mature.
Residents and the public during the extensive outreach–including giving notice to the neighbors via postcards about the meetings–preferred the on-street protected bikeway over the multi-use path. Surveys indicated 60-80% preference for the bikeway over the multi-use path. A subsequent public review of the consultant work at the Bicycle Pedestrian Commission had the commissioners voting 4-0 (one abstain) to recommend the bikeway to the Council.
The Council subsequently approved the bikeway on July 9, 2024 in a unanimous vote.
How Walk-Bike Cupertino has actively supported this project
Walk-Bike Cupertino has:
Provided information, maps and data to residents, City Council and Staff regarding accidents at Lawson, and usefulness of this bikeway for students;
Kept supporters up to date on upcoming events and milestones for the project including outreach meetings via email newsletters;
Sent emails of support to City Council and ecouraged others to do the same;
Coordinated vocal support at City Council and Bicycle Pedestrian Commission meetings when this topic was to be discussed;
Met with City Staff, Bicycle Pedestrian Commission, and Cupertino City Councilmembers to discuss details of project. Discussed concerns with them from residents living nearby and parents of Lawson students.