Let's Have Equitable Bike & Ped Signs!

Motor vehicles usually have reliable street signs on every corner to help them know where they are and get where they need to go. Most hiking trails in wilderness areas also have trail signs at intersections. Unfortunately bicyclist and pedestrian paths often do not have names or signage.  It would be great for Sunnyvale and other cities in the US to have a policy to name paths and add "street" signs for all trails, paths, paseos, and other passages that are in urban settings. These signs would be similar to motor vehicle street signs but at an appropriate bike/pedestrian height. Naming such paths would be an opportunity for City Councils to honor people and places, like they do when dedicating city parks and plazas.

Here are some bike & ped paths in Sunnyvale, some of them signed, some not.

The John Christian Greenbelt is often reasonably signed where it intersects a motor vehicle street (although the sign is often put parallel to the car road that has a different name instead of parallel with the actual trail).

The John W. Christian Greenbelt is reasonably signed.

However the John Christian Greenbelt is not signed where it intersects a trail, like where it intersects the Calabazas Creek Trail.

The intersection of the John W. Christian Greenbelt and the Calabazas Creek Trail is not signed.

Here is another example of a major trail intersecting another trail, but it is unsigned! Do you know the names of these trials?

Two major trails intersect one another, but they remain nameless.

Here is an excellent and highly useful path that many school kids use in Sunnyvale. What is it called?

Another nameless passage used by many school children in Sunnyvale.

There are hundreds of unnamed intersections in Sunnyvale. GPS navigation systems like Google Maps and Apple Maps often show them but without names. Unnamed intersections frequently lead to confusing instructions like "turn right" but not naming where one is to turn right. Trail users need to verify where they are going and that they are making the correct right. Adding simple street-like signs provides bicyclists and pedestrians with ground truth. This information would eventually make its way into GPS navigation systems. It would give people confidence that they are going where they expected, both with a smartphone and without one.

The standard for path signs could match or be very similar to the green street signs that Sunnyvale puts on most of its car roads, but with some differences to avoid confusion. Bike & ped signs can be lower and a different color, so motorists are less likely to think they can turn down that path. I suggest a rust red color with white lettering or white with rust red lettering. Car road signs could be green and at the full height to distinguish them from the bike & ped signs. 

Sunnyvale's car streets are reliably labeled by street signs. Bike + pedestrian paths can be similarly labeled.

I was biking recently in Holland, and I really like their paths and signage. Almost all of their bike facilities are made from red rust colored pavement or asphalt, or actual brick. They rarely use paint. The paving material itself is colored all the way through, like red bricks, so the color doesn't wear away. After experiencing this I now much prefer it over green paint. Holland has blue street signs which also also serve to name their parallel bikeways.

Toepad two-way bike path in Rotterdam, Holland.

I biked on the "Toepad" two-way bike path in Rotterdam with a parallel car road. The bike path is paved with rust-colored pavement. They have matching red-on-white wayfinding signs, shown in the upper right corner of the photo. The paths and wayfinding signs distinguish themselves in color from car roads and signs. Here is the same intersection in Google Street View so you can look around more.

I served for a time on a VTA subcommittee that was researching better wayfinding for bicyclists and pedestrians. Much of what I am sharing here was also discussed and shared with this subcommittee. 

Sunnyvale need not wait for VTA to finish its guidance document to move forward in this space. Cupertino, Palo Alto, San Jose, and others have been adding these sorts of signs for many years now.

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About the Author

Tim Oey is a 36-year resident of Sunnyvale and bicycles everywhere. He served 10 years on the Sunnyvale Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission including stints as Chair and Vice Chair.  He is currently the Chair of the Santa Clara County Roads Commission.