Study Issue and Budget Proposal Extravaganza
- Sharlene Liu
- Jan 11
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 14
It is that time of year again: the Sunnyvale study issue and budget proposal extravanganza. Up for consideration are 7 study issues and 1 budget item that improve walking and/or biking in Sunnyvale. Topics include sweeping protected bike lanes, funding Homestead full-time bike lanes, Fair Oaks safety improvements, closing Sunnyvale Avenue to cars at the Caltrain crossing, expanding the downtown pedestrian mall, red curb painting volunteer program, and sidewalk maintenance. Although all these proposals have merit, Council will prioritize them and, due to limited resources, only a few of them will move forward. Earlier this week, the Sunnyvale Safe Streets Board met to discuss and prioritize these proposals. Here, we provide our prioritizations and reasoning. At the upcoming Council meeting on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, Council will take public input on which study issues and budget items that the public considers important. We encourage you to attend the Council meeting to give your input.The 7 study issues and 1 budget proposal of interest to walking and biking are shown in the following table. They are listed by broad priority groups as ranked by Sunnyvale Safe Streets and discussed below.
ID | title | priority |
Budget Proposal 2025-02 | Implement Homestead Road full-time bike lanes | high |
DPW 25-05 | Sweeping protected bike lanes | high |
DPW 24-02 | Complete streets re-design of Fair Oaks Avenue | high |
DPW 25-01 | Fair Oaks Avenue signalizations at 3 locations | high |
DPW 25-04 | Closing Sunnyvale Avenue Caltrain crossing to vehicles | low |
DPW 25-08 | Evaluate expanded downtown Sunnyvale pedestrian mall | low |
DPW 24-10 | Evaluate red curb painting request process and utilization of volunteers to paint curbs | drop |
DPW 25-03 | Evaluate and improve sidewalk maintenance | drop |
This budget proposal provides funding to complete the Homestead Road full-time bike lanes, stretching 3 miles from one end of Sunnyvale to the other. By the end of 2025, 95% of the bike lane painting will have been completed through other means. This budget proposal will fund the remaining 5%, between Bernardo and Wright, and the signage to alert road users of the presence of full-time bike lanes along the entire stretch of Homestead Road. The Homestead full-time bike lanes campaign lasted over 20 years. This budget proposal, which I proposed in 2024 while on BPAC, will be the final nail.
DPW 25-05: Sweeping protected bike lanes (high priority)
Sunnyvale's Active Transportation Plan proposes building 17.1 miles of protected bike lanes, with 89%
of them being high priority. Protected bike lanes are planned for Fremont Ave, Sunnyvale-Saratoga, Sunnyvale Ave, Borregas, El Camino Real, part of Wolfe, Evelyn, part of Mary, Java, and a few other streets. To date, only 1.2 miles of protected bike lanes has been implemented, due to not having a way to sweep them. The City's standard street sweepers are too wide to fit into protected bike lanes. Staff's response to this study issue, which I proposed in 2024 while on BPAC, is to reframe it as simply a budget item to fund the purchase and operation of a skinny street sweeper able to fit in a protected bike lane. This is a great improvement to the proposal, as budget items are generally easier to pass than study issues and can be done much more quickly. Thus, we need to advocate for the funding of a skinny street sweeper.
DPW 24-02: Complete streets re-design of Fair Oaks Avenue (high priority)
Fair Oaks Avenue is a major north-south corridor that bisects the City. Prominant safety weaknesses are intersections lacking signalization and Class 3 bikeways that share space with cars. Vulnerable road users have been killed on Fair Oaks, including a pedestrian crossing Fair Oaks in 2023. This study issue proposes to re-design Fair Oaks to improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. Council ranked it highly in 2024, but not highly enough for the study issue to get over the line for funding. We prioritize it highly again in 2025, hoping that this time it will succeed.
DPW 25-01: Fair Oaks Avenue signalizations at 3 locations (high priority)
This study issue is a subset of the previous one, DPW 24-02, focusing on installing signalization at 3 high-priority intersections on Fair Oaks. The 3 intersections are Balsam, Taylor, and McKinley. The potential signalizations are traffic light, traffic circle, and HAWK beacons. These intersections lack any signalizations for crossing, yet people want to cross them. By breaking DPW 24-02 into smaller chunks, it is hoped that the smaller chunks will more easily get over the line for funding. DPW 24-02 is still our higher priority, but if it doesn't get funded, then we support DPW 25-01.
In 2022, Council voted to close off the Sunnyvale Avenue Caltrain crossing to cars, as part of the grade separation project at that intersection. Bicycle and pedestrian crossing would still be allowed via an underground passage. While this Council decision is a great cause of celebration, the search for funding could delay this project for many years. This study issue is an attempt to do part of the plan -- the part that closes the crossing to cars -- much sooner. Having the crossing closed to cars could improve safety along much of Sunnyvale Avenue as car volume would reduce along the entire street once blocked near downtown. We assigned low priority to this study issue because safety is not as much of a concern on Sunnyvale Avenue as on the roads in the high priority study issues above.
In 2023, Council voted to permanently establish a pedestrian mall on the 100 block of Murphy Avenue. This study issue seeks to expand the pedestrian mall to neighboring blocks: Murphy Avenue south of the 100 block, McKinley, and Olson. Having a car-free space to walk in is nice, but the pedestrian mall would also be bike-free. The expanded area covers several city blocks, making the prohibition against biking possibly frustrating to many cyclists. Furthermore, we think this study issue may meet with much resistance from existing and committed tenants who expected car access when they signed the lease, making tenant approval of this study issue unlikely. Since a very limited number of DPW study issues get funded, you may want to consider shifting your advocacy elsewhere.
The new "daylighting law" in California (AB 413) prohibits car parking within 20' on the approach of an intersection. This law improves safety for pedestrians crossing intersections. In 2024, Council already allocated budget to purchase a truck and hire staff to paint curbs red at intersections. This study issue is thus somewhat redundant to the 2024 budget allocation in terms of personnel to paint curbs. The study issue proposes having residents decide which streets deserve painting, but we feel that priority should be given to the most dangerous intersections, which should be identified by considering all City streets and their future usage, and done by a professional transportation planner. Also, having residents decide leads to an equity issue, with better resourced residents likely getting more red paint. Thus, we feel it's best to drop this study issue.
Sunnyvale has accumulated over 4700 sidewalk locations needing maintenance. Damaged sidewalks, due primarily to tree roots, inhibits safe pedestrian passage, especially those in wheelchairs and other rolling devices. Although sidewalk maintenance is important, we recommend dropping this study issue because Staff is already doing a pilot that does much of what this study issue proposes. This study issue would divert resources away from the pilot and thus slow down sidewalk maintenance.
Call to Action
Give your input on the study issue and budget proposals that are most important to you. Speak at the Council Meeting on January 14. Email Council prior to that.
Email Council at council@sunnyvale.ca.gov
Send the email by Sunday, January 12, 2025
Speak at the City Council meeting
Tuesday, January 14, 2025, at 7:00 pm
In-person: Council Chambers, 456 Olive Ave.
Virtual: zoom
Identify the study issue and budget proposal ID when you write in or speak. Talking points:
Fund the implementation of Homestead Road full-time bike lanes (Budget Proposal 2025-02).
Fund the purchase of a skinny street sweeper to sweep protected bike lanes (DPW 25-05).
Re-design Fair Oaks Avenue to be safe for pedestrians and cyclists (DPW 24-02, DPW 25-01).
About the Author
Sharlene Liu is Founder and Chair of Sunnyvale Safe Streets. She completed her term on BPAC last year and continues to advocate for biking and walking facilities in Sunnyvale and California.
