For 2 weeks from July 24 to August 7, 2019 and then later for an 8 week period from August 21 to October 21, Sunnyvale has closed the Bay Trail section next to the Sunnyvale Smart Station and the Water Pollution Control Plant while some construction happens for the Water Plant.
Alas the detour that was put in place has major negative consequences for walkers or bicyclists. Cars are fine on Caribbean Drive so bicyclists and walkers should be fine too, right? Wrong! Each of the following problems (and not choosing a better detour) is an example of car privilege -- prioritizing car convenience over safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.
For pedestrians:
1) the east bound detour routes walkers down very long sections of high speed Caribbean Drive where there are no sidewalks and no easy shoulder to walk on. WTF!
2) if walking on the road they are required to walk with traffic, not against it, contrary to standard pedestrian guidelines.
3) Caribbean has high speed traffic that is not at all a trail-like experience.
For cyclists:
1) a U turn across 6 lanes of Caribbean. This is very difficult to do even for an advanced bicyclist!
2) the bike lane has a number of stretches where there is a ridge along the gutter in the bike lane that could catch a tire and cause a fall.
3) Caribbean has high speed traffic that is not at all a trail-like experience.
4) this detour routes bicyclists who were expecting to be on a safe trail through the same unmodified section of road where a bicyclist was killed last year.
These serious issues put trail users at considerably greater risk and also expose the City of Sunnyvale to significant legal risk as well -- people tend to sue if they are hurt by poorly designed facilities.
People use the Bay Trail to avoid high speed streets like Caribbean. It is not acceptable to route trail users onto Caribbean without more accommodations for them.
There is a pretty easy solution if you put car privilege aside.
Since Caribbean is 3 lanes in both directions but due to traffic volumes only 2 lanes are needed, a thoughtful detour would block off one entire car lane on the bay side of Caribbean and turn it into a 15' wide temporary "popup" shared bicycle and pedestrian path completely separated from motor vehicles so bikes and pedestrians would have a substantially trail-like experience and just need to negotiate a single crossing at Borregas where the traffic is much slower to rejoin the Bay Trail rather than deal with multiple intersections across the much wider and faster Caribbean Drive. This option would provide an excellent trail-like detour and would also be a good test to see how well this works and possibly make it permanent from Borregas all the way down to Baylands Park. It is also advantageous for commuter cyclists using the existing bike lane on Caribbean as they get a bit of relief from cars speeding past their elbow -- a 15' wide multi-use path is easy for all bicyclists and pedestrians to share and pedestrians also have the option of using a super wide flat shoulder as well with one small exception (a sign fully blocking said shoulder) noted in the photos below.
This car lane closure option would significantly reduce risk to trail users and legal risk to the City of Sunnyvale.
Going forward, since Sunnyvale continues to have challenges in keeping bicyclists and pedestrians safe (3 motor vehicles recently hit 3 bicyclists in 3 different locations of Sunnyvale on July 23 and July 25), it would be good for the city to consult some bicycle and pedestrian experts before making willy nilly changes (even temporary ones) to bike and pedestrian facilities in the future. I've asked the Sunnyvale Public Works Department for an explanation of their current detour choice and am waiting for a reply.
Another good option to assess whether a facility is well designed is to have an 8 year old and an 80 year old navigate any new proposed bicycle or pedestrian facility to see if they are happy with it. If both an 8 year old and an 80 year old think it is great, it is likely great for all users. For more about this 8 & 80 city design principle, see https://www.880cities.org/
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Here is the closure announcement from the Sunnyvale City Manager:
Temporary Bay Trail Closures and Detour
As part of the Pump Station No. 1 Rehab Project, a temporary closure of the Bay Trail began on July 24. This closure is expected to be approximately two weeks in length. The trail will be temporarily reopened for two weeks following the sheet piling work and prior to the contractor excavating the levee that the Bay Trail runs on. A second closure is expected to last about eight weeks.
Bikes and pedestrians are being detoured onto Caribbean Drive during the closures. For more information, contact the Department of Public Works at 408-730-7605 or email
pubworks@sunnyvale.ca.gov.
See page 3 of 5 in the City Manager's July 25 update at https://sunnyvale.ca.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=26534
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Here is the initial signage showing the closed trail with informational signs.
This picture is from the other side of Caribbean where the detour directs pedestrians and cyclists.
Pedestrians don't have a sidewalk here but there is reasonably flat dirt.
The detour sign then points across Borregas and east on Caribbean.
So across Borregas we go.
Ooops, there is no sidewalk on this side for a pretty long stretch.
And the landscaping could be challenging to navigate as a pedestrian. Should pedestrians then walk with traffic in the road?
Detour continues east on Caribbean. At least the shoulder is grass at this corner but no marked cross walk for pedestrians and just landscaping on the other side.
This section does have a sidewalk, but bicyclists must watch out for the edge that can catch a tire between the concrete gutter pan on the right and the asphalt on the left. Hard to see but if it catches a tire, you are likely to fall. Current Sunnyvale Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission chair Richard Mehlingher was caught by such an edge on a street not far from here and fell and suffered a compound fracture.
Here at least is a sidewalk and a crosswalk, but no detour reminder signs.
Sidewalk disappeared but at least no landscaping in the way of walking.
Across the road, there is where we need to go but crossing here between intersections with high speed traffic is not recommended plus a bicyclist would need to hop the curb.
No sidewalk but at least level lawn to walk on. Bicyclist now needs to do U turn across 3 high speed traffic lanes to get to left turn lane.
Now on other side heading west to get to detour there are 2 problems:
1) no sidewalk for pedestrians although there is a narrow trail of sorts where you duck under trees
2) another sketchy road edge in the bike lane that could catch a tire
Finally approaching the end of the detour, no shoulder to walk on, pedestrian is on the road walking with traffic
Turn right onto detour and notice the gate is closed!
On one side there is a narrow opening that barely fit my handlebars. Many bike handle bars would be too wide to make it through here.
The baskets on my bike jam on both sides when squeezing through but they do push through after some wiggling. If I was riding my touring bike which has wider panniers, I would have to take them off to get my bike through. If I was pulling a trailer (which I often do), I could not fit. The gates here really should be open so bicyclists can ride through and not get blocked.
Now heading west from the eastern closure, there is a wide shoulder to walk on without landscaping blocking it.
Further on there is some sidewalk.
Sidewalk goes away but the shoulder is still wide.
Wide shoulder but either crawl under the Sunnyvale signage or walk on the road a bit to get around the sign.
Now we are back at Borregas looking west. Pedestrians can use the cross walk. Bicyclists can take a right then a left to get back to the Bay Trail. Regardless, Borregas and Carl Road here are relatively easy to deal with compared to biking or walking along Caribbean with no lane closures. West bound is better than east bound but it would be best for both bicyclists and pedestrians if the west bound section had a traffic lane blocked -- turning that lane into a fully separated bidirectional multi-use path.
The following map shows the detour problems and options for improvement: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aYXI1nYCIZxpU1Yk3ZWW1k3sSkcLArG6&usp=sharing
Click on each line to see notes about it.
At the Tuesday July 30, 2019 Sunnyvale City Council meeting, the Council approved the new Vision Zero Plan. The goal of the Vision Zero Plan is to eliminate all deaths and major injuries due to traffic crashes. Vision Zero is all about prioritizing safety for people over convenience for machines. Implementing an excellent temporary detour rather than one riddled with issues would be a good example of the city pursuing Vision Zero rather than falling victim, yet again, to car privilege.
Please send your concerns and suggestions to the Sunnyvale City Council and the City Manager at https://sunnyvale.dynamics365portals.us/contact-us/?depid=845280000
Thanks!
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