The state has stepped in to help fund the initial phases of a bicycle superhighway that will make commuting between Santa Clara and East San Jose easier.
The California Department of Transportation has awarded VTA a $14 million grant for the Central Bikeway project, a 10-mile stretch of protected bike lanes connecting the Sunnyvale/Santa Clara border with the Berryessa BART station. The funding will go toward required environmental studies, which officials said could take about two years. The board of directors is expected to choose a consultant to handle the studies in late fall or winter.
“It’s so fabulous to feel the momentum,” Lauren Ledbetter, a senior transportation planner with VTA, told San José Spotlight. “It’s not just a plan on a shelf, we are actually moving forward.”
A 2022 feasibility study shared broad details of the bikeway. Its route runs on El Camino Real in Santa Clara, and Hedding Street, The Alameda, Taylor Street and Mabury Road in San Jose. The protected lanes will physically separate cyclists and pedestrians from vehicle traffic using concrete, landscaping and other permanent barriers.
Santa Clara County has a network of bike trails that run north-south, including the Guadalupe Creek Trail and the Stevens Creek Trail, and Ledbetter said the planned bikeway will fill the county’s need for an east-west connection.
While the $14 million from the state is helping the bikeway’s momentum, the project’s full price tag is estimated to be more than $200 million. Suds Jain, a VTA board member and Santa Clara councilmember, said he’s worried about the cost in light of the public transit agency’s projected deficits.
“Somehow, VTA has money for big projects (but) they don’t seem to have money for running the transit system,” Jain told San José Spotlight. “It’s been frustrating for me, because they like to do big projects and build stuff, but they don’t have the money to maintain them.”
Jain said using concrete to keep cyclists and pedestrians safe is good, but it’s expensive and time consuming to install. In the interim, he said VTA could consider adding stripes and temporary plastic barriers. He also said the bikeway could impact Santa Clara businesses along El Camino Real, as the project’s early designs remove some street parking.
Silicon Valley Central Chamber CEO Harbir Bhatia said the organization supports the bikeway, but is concerned about the loss of street parking. She said the bikeway needs to work in tandem with Santa Clara’s development plans along El Camino Real and wants to see what benefits could encourage more cyclists to use the lanes once they’re open.
“Overall, we definitely agree that there’s a greater benefit to our small businesses to have greater foot traffic, more modes of mobility, as long as it’s planned in a holistic manner,” Bhatia told San José Spotlight.
Clarrissa Cabansagan, executive director of the Silicon Valley Bike Coalition, said strengthening protections for cyclists on El Camino Real is one of the the coalition’s priorities, and has looked forward to the bikeway for years. El Camino Real is one of the region’s deadliest corridors, and Cabansagan said the concrete protections will make the bikeway “orders of magnitude” safer.
“Separating bikes from cars is essentially to get more people on bikes, so that’s why we’re so excited for a separated, elevated (bikeway),” Cabansagan told San José Spotlight. “It’s truly separate from the street and it’ll provide safety for all roadway users.”
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X.
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