Active transportation, or human-powered transportation, like bicycling, walking, and scootering, is making good progress in Sunnyvale. At last month's Study Issue and Budget Proposals Workshop and this month's Strategic Priorities Workshop, active transportation was a focus area.
Active transportation study issue and budget proposals
At the Study Issue and Budget Proposals Workshop, Council prioritized 3 active transportation items. First, Council unanimously referred a budget proposal to fund the sweeping of protected bike lanes. Protected bike lanes have long been in the Sunnyvale's Active Transportation Plan but up until now, the City had not determined a way to clean the bike lanes, which are too narrow for average street sweepers to fit in. This budget proposal would fund the purchase of equipment (like a narrow gauge street sweeper) and staff to operate it. Thanks to City Manager Tim Kirby's "Let's Just Do It" approach which averted a costly and lengthy study issue on how to clean protected bike lanes and instead streamlined it into a budget proposal.
Second, Council unanimously referred a budget proposal to fund the remaining construction of the Homestead Road full-time bike lanes. Until now, these bike lanes had been part-time, turning into parking lanes at night and on weekends. Council unanimously voted to make them full-time in 2023, but implementation is still incomplete after 1.5 years. Not only has the implementation been slow, but it has been low quality, with pot holes, gutter seam lip, and too narrow bike lanes. This budget proposal would fund the completion of the full-time bike lanes, hopefully with better quality.
Third, Council unanimously ranked the "Fair Oaks Avenue Signalization at 3 Locations" study issue at the top in the Department of Public Works set. By ranking it number 1, it is practically guaranteed to be funded. Fair Oaks Avenue is one of the most dangerous streets in Sunnyvale, with recent pedestrian deaths in 2023 and 2025. A better study issue was the "Complete Streets Redesign of Fair Oaks", which would've planned Fair Oaks holistically along its entire length, allowing for optimization and efficiency. However, the City lacked funds to do the entire study this year. It remains to be seen whether there will be enough funding in 2026 for the holistic study issue, or if Fair Oaks needs to be broken up into 3 segments.
Strategic Priorities Workshop uplifts active transportation
At this month's Strategic Priorities Workshop, Council created 5 lofty priorities. Active transportation is included in this one: "A Sustainable City: Advancing Climate Action, Active Transportation, and the Vision Zero Plan."
We need to talk about active transportation as co-equal with private automobiles. We need to make sure that we're not creating some sort of implicit hierarchy, where automobiles are primary and everything else is secondary. Councilmember Mehlinger at the Strategic Priorities Workshop
At the Workshop, Councilmember Richard Mehlinger uplifted the importance of active transportation and public transportation. He said, "If we're going to meet our climate goals, if we're going to meet our housing goals, then we need to talk about public transportation and active transportation as, at the very least, co-equal with private automobiles. We need to make sure that, in city documents and presentations, we're not creating some sort of implicit hierarchy, where automobiles are primary and everything else is secondary."
Of note, City Manager Tim Kirby said that he will come up with actionable items for each of the strategic priorities that can be completed in the next 2 years and give regular updates to Council within that time. The progress of the Active Transportation Plan has been largely unknown to the public. Having a published 2-year work plan for active transportation with status updates is a most welcome improvement.
At the Budget Workshop in May, the Council will decide whether to allocate funding to the referred budget proposals and prioritized study issues.