Mountain View new transportation team to lead project backlog

In the wake of multiple staff vacancies, Mountain View is setting up a new division within its public works department to address a backlog of transportation and street improvement projects.

Public Works Director Jennifer Ng presented the plan for the new transportation division to the City Council earlier this month, as part of an update on where the city stands with its infrastructure projects.

Mountain View has nearly three hundred projects that are underway, with the vast majority managed by the public works department, according to Ng. Of these, a substantial portion involve transportation and street improvement efforts.

The work includes planned upgrades for major thoroughfares like Shoreline Boulevard, Rengstorff Avenue and Middlefield Road as well as basic maintenance projects, like road repaving.

Getting the projects across the finish line, however, has not been easy. The city has a shortage of transportation planners, with just two out of five positions filled, as of April 14. Since then, Mountain View has hired a transportation manager, leaving the city with two remaining vacancies, according to city spokesperson Lenka Wright.

This has meant that some projects have been put on the backburner, like a proposal for bike lanes on Terra Bella Avenue.

“We’ve already had to triage, like an ER room, with all of the work that’s on the transportation team and the limited bandwidth that they have,” Ng said at the council meeting.

The new division within the public works department – which will merge the existing traffic engineering and transportation planning teams – will help address the backlog by focusing solely on transportation and traffic projects, according to a city staff report.

“Bringing transportation planning and traffic engineering together is expected to improve communication, coordination and collaboration as the combined team works to advance the city’s transportation goals,” the report said.

The division will be headed by a chief transportation officer who will guide the implementation of major policy initiatives, according to the report. Some of these initiatives include a transportation ordinance to reduce drive-alone trips, a Vision Zero policy that aims to eliminate all traffic fatalities by 2030 and an active transportation plan that seeks to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety in the city.

Recruitment for a chief transportation officer will start this spring and is anticipated to continue through the fall, according to the report.

Several public commentators praised the plan at the April 14 meeting.

“I really hope that that is expedited, and we start seeing that impact because I think it’s been a department that’s been really missed for many months,” said Mountain View resident Silja Paymer, who is currently running for City Council.

This story originally appeared in the Mountain View Voice. Emily Margaretten joined the Mountain View Voice in 2023 as a reporter covering City Hall.