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San Jose touts its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic fatalities. But instead of preserving safe commuter routes, airport and city officials are pushing forward with a permanent closure that will force cyclists into dangerous, high-speed traffic.
Early this year in April, San Jose Mineta International Airport (SJC) posted 30-day notices announcing the permanent closure of Ewert Road around its northern perimeter to bicyclists and pedestrians. While public outcry pressured the airport into delaying the closure due to El Niño, officials are still determined to proceed with the closure. Built with taxpayer money and celebrated by the community and city officials three decades ago, Ewert Road is now deemed a “private road on airport property,” that will be permanently closed.
For the bicyclists and pedestrians that logged 433,000 trips last year on the Guadalupe River Trail, this is a devastating blow. The trail’s U.S. Highway 101 underpass is frequently underwater, completely blocked by flooding from late fall to spring. During these extended closures, Ewert Road serves as the only safe connection allowing commuters to traverse across Highway 101, which is otherwise an impassable barrier.
The hypocrisy of this closure is glaring against the city’s broader planning efforts. San Jose recently advanced the Guadalupe River Trail Bike Connections Plan, spending public resources to identify on-street detours for these exact flood events.
Yet the plan leaves an inexplicable blind spot: It offers no safe, viable way to cross the Highway 101 barrier when the river underpass submerges. Instead of preserving Ewert Road as the obvious low-stress bypass, the city’s inaction leaves bicyclists stranded, forcing them into the path of 45 mph vehicle traffic and highway on-ramps while the airport cuts off the safest existing route.
SJC has bypassed transparent community engagement, choosing instead to engineer this cutoff through bureaucratic maneuvers, such as leveraging a quiet 2021 land swap agreement with the San Jose Department of Transportation. Taking advantage of its perceived authority, SJC continues to operate without oversight, pushing forward even as the safety and security justifications they presented at a recent Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee meeting completely crumble under basic scrutiny.
First, to argue the closure is for the safety of bicyclists, SJC cited a solitary collision where a bicyclist was hit by a police vehicle. But a single instance of reckless driving by law enforcement does not prove the road is inherently dangerous, nor is it a valid excuse to ban bikes.
Second, to claim security risks, SJC pointed to a past incident where an individual scaled an airport fence. To supposedly prevent this, the airport plans to build an additional fence that cuts off the road entirely. But banning cyclists and building a second barrier is a completely unnecessary overreach. If perimeter security is truly the issue, the airport could simply upgrade its existing fence while keeping this vital commuter corridor open.
Ewert Road is being closed by SJC for bureaucratic convenience, not public safety. Aviation Director Mukesh Patel and city leadership have the power to keep the road open today, completely free. If San Jose is committed to keeping cyclists alive, airport leadership, city staff and the City Council must reverse course and preserve this critical connection.
Haojun Li is a San Jose resident, regular bicycle commuter and a representative of the community organization Bike San Jose. He also serves as the VTA BPAC representative for San Jose. He advocates for better bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure both within San Jose and Santa Clara County. He can be reached at [email protected].
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