Mountain View City Council will have the opportunity to approve the first phase of parking-protected bike lanes on California Street at their City Council meeting on Tuesday, December 7, 2021. Find all the details about the project in the Council Report linked to here, or read below for a summary.

Consent Calendar Item 4.9 (California Street (West) Complete Street Improvements, Pilot, Project 21-40―Authorize Professional Services Agreement) will authorize BKF Engineers of San Jose to design parking protected bike lanes. This first phase will be a 12-month pilot, from Showers Drive to Ortega Avenue, as pictured below.

The pilot will utilize nonpermanent features such as paint striping, rubberized bulb-outs, temporary pavement markings, and will include the following elements:

Four-lane to three-lane reduction
Interim parking-protected bike lanes
Two-way left-turn lane
Protected intersections
Temporary bulb-outs at intersections
High-visibility midblock crossings with enhanced lighting

Before and after the installation of the project, staff will evaluate traffic in the project area, including traffic volumes, vehicle speed, cyclist volumes, and number of people using the midblock crossing. Staff will reach out to the community using a survey and other outreach tools to gauge support for the improvements before proceeding to Phases 2 and 3. If the pilot is well-received, Phase 2 will include permanent bulb-outs with green street features, and Phase 3 will include a permanent four-lane to two-lane reduction with the following elements:

Permanent parking-protected bike lanes
Landscaped median
Sidewalk widening downtown

Phases 2 and 3 would stretch from Showers Drive to Shoreline Blvd, as shown in the image below.

This is part of the California/Escuela/Shoreline (CES) Complete Streets project, and has been a long time in the making! Council approved of the concepts in feasibility study of the CES Study in 2015. If Council authorizes contract services with BKF Engineers, they will begin designing the pilot in February 2022, will wrap up the design in the fall, and the project will begin construction in early 2023.

We are excited City Staff is recommending moving forward with this project, but if there is opposition, there is no guarantee City Council will approve it. Please voice your support of the project by writing a letter to City Council before 4pm Tuesday, or by attending the meeting and voicing your support.

Email City Council here: city.council@mountainview.gov (make sure to identify the Agenda Item: 4.9 in the subject line of your email)

If you want to attend the meeting to voice your approval, follow these instructions (copied from the agenda):

Online:
You may join the Zoom Webinar using this link: https://mountainview.gov/meeting and entering Webinar ID: 812 7157 5416

You may be asked to enter an email address and a name. Your email address will not be disclosed to the public.

When the Mayor announces the item on which you wish to speak, click the “raise hand” feature in Zoom. Speakers will be notified of their turn shortly before they are called on to speak.

By phone:
Dial: (669) 900-9128 and enter Webinar ID: 812 7157 5416

When the Mayor announces the item on which you wish to speak, dial *9. Phone participants will be called on by the last two digits of their phone number. When the Mayor calls your name to provide public comment, if you are participating via phone, please press *6 to unmute yourself.

For instructions on using the "raise hand" feature in Zoom, visit https://mountainview.gov/raise_hand.

When called to speak, please limit your comments to the time allotted (up to 3 minutes, at the discretion of the Mayor).