Page Contents:
Make Tasman Safe and Plant Trees
1) Sign the Petition
2) Email Sunnyvale City Council
Send a personalized email to Sunnyvale City Council. This is ten times more impactful than just signing the petition. Here's what to include:
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"Please implement Alternative 1 of the Tasman Pedestrian-Bicycle Improvements Study and plant trees"
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Explain your connection to Tasman Dr. Do you live on it or commute on it?
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Describe how Tasman Dr is dangerous for walking and biking.
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If there were safe places to walk and bike on Tasman, how would you use them? Where would you go?
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Explain the importance of planting trees on Tasman Dr.
Sample email (use for inspiration only)
Dear Sunnyvale City Council,
Please implement Alternative 1 of the Tasman Pedestrian-Bicycle Improvements Study.
I live on Tasman in the Casa De Amigos mobile home park. The street is dangerous. Cars travel at over 40 mph and there are no convenient sidewalks. I have seen people walking to the car lane and almost getting hit. Alternative 1 will make Tasman Dr safer by creating a safe separated space for pedestrians and bicyclists. If this project was built, I could walk to Grocery Outlet to make a quick grocery run. And my young daughter could safely bike to the park to meet up with her friends.
EXISTING CONDITIONS
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Tasman Dr has no continuous sidewalks or bike paths.
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People frequently walk and bike in the gutter next to car traffic traveling over 40 mph.
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Tasman Dr has blind curves, which prevents drivers from seeing pedestrians and bicyclists.
THE SOLUTION
The City is proposing to
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Replace the outer traffic lanes with wide bi-directional walk/bike pathways. See this simulation.
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Retime intersection lights at Fair Oaks, Vienna, and Lawrence
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Make safety improvements at intersections.
This project will right a historic wrong, allowing residents to finally be able to safely walk and bike out of their mobile home parks. You can learn the history of Tasman Dr here.
LOCALS WANT THIS PROJECT
There is strong local support for this project. A City survey found that 88% of Sunnyvale residents support replacing the outer vehicle lanes with dedicated walking and biking facilities (source).
Already, dozens of people walk and bike on Tasman Dr every day. They travel not only on the existing temporary pathway, but also in the street with cars. There are 4000-5000 residents along this part of Tasman Dr. If some are willing to walk and bike in the street now, imagine how many more would walk and bike if the road was safe!
BENEFITS
Mobility
This project will enable residents to safely and conveniently walk, bike, scooter, etc. to local destinations
safety
This project will save lives by separating vehicles from vulnerable road users
Connect to trails
The proposed multi-use pathway will connect to the East Channel Creek Trail and future Lawrence Expy Multi-Use Path
Sustain future population
As the population grows, residents will have safe, efficient, and sustainable alternatives to driving
IMPROVE INTERSECTIONS
The project will retime light signals to optimize intersections
FAQ
WHAT ABOUT TRAFFIC?
Tasman Dr is overbuilt for vehicles. Between Fair Oaks Ave and Lawrence Expwy, the vehicle volumes are not high enough to justify 2 lanes. This is true during the entire day and during rush hour. Removing a lane in each direction will not have a significant impact on drivers. See the traffic counts below to learn more.
Tasman Dr is overbuilt for vehicles
Between Fair Oaks Ave and Vienna Dr, removing 1 lane will not have a significant impact on driving time. (Traffic count data below was collected by the City in 2023)
WHAT ABOUT TRAFFIC AT INTERSECTIONS?
If this project is implemented, the traffic signals at all 3 intersections will be retimed to minimize delay. Extensive traffic modelling shows that the vehicle delay will only change by an average of 0-3 seconds at the majority of vehicle movements at all intersections. A few turning movements will actually become faster for drivers. For example, at Vienna Dr the left turn from Eastbound Tasman Dr to Northbound Vienna Dr will become 13 seconds faster. Efficiency gains like this occur because fewer lanes on Tasman Dr result in less time needed for the walk signal for pedestrians, therefore shortening the entire cycle length. The Lawrence Expressway intersection will have some notable changes. Mainly, the waiting area (AKA pocket) for left hand turn from Northbound Lawrence Expwy to Westbound Tasman Dr will be extended by over 100 ft and reduced from 2 left turn lanes to 1 left turn lane. This is necessary because there will only be 1 receiving lane on Tasman Dr after the road diet. However, the average delay for this turning movement will remain the same as existing conditions. The added delay from the single turning lane is counteracted by the shorter cycle length of the entire intersection due to signal retiming.
WHAT ABOUT EMERGENCY VEHICLES?
This area is already has very fast emergency response times. The Sunnyvale DPS Chief has confirmed that neither of the design alternatives will significantly impact emergency response times. In fact, Alternative 1 may actually improve emergency response times. In the existing conditions, an emergency vehicle could get stuck behind bumper-to-bumper traffic in both lanes. But in Alternative 1, the emergency vehicle can mount onto the multi-use pathway and bypass the traffic. Here is an example from another city.
Emergency response time is 2 minutes for the Casa De Amigos and Plaza Del Rey mobile home parks. The typical response time is 5-10 minutes in the rest of the city.
WHY CAN'T PEOPLE WALKING/BIKING TAKE ALTERNATE ROUTES?
There are 2 parallel routes to Tasman Dr: Persian Dr in the North and the Greenbelt in the South. However, both of these options are prohibitively far and/or dangerous. Persian Dr has blind turns, narrow overgrown bike lanes, no sidewalks, 40 mph traffic, and a history to violent collisions. Biking on Persian Dr is dangerous, indirect, and unintuitive. Meanwhile, the Greenbelt is out of the way. It turns a 5-minute walk into Grocery Outlet into a 53-minute trek. This is too far, especially for young children and the elderly.
Currently, people frequently walk and bike on all parts of Tasman Dr, even though it is unsafe. Instead of needlessly directing people to take alternative routes, we should address the core safety issue of Tasman Dr.
WHAT ABOUT FUTURE POPULATION GROWTH?
This project is a proactive solution to manage future population growth and transportation needs. While it's true that the city is densifying, assuming that all new residents will rely solely on cars ignores modern urban trends and the benefits of improved transit access. By prioritizing safe walking and biking facilities, the project enables more residents to use active transportation and access the nearby light rail stations, reducing car dependency. Studies consistently show that improved transit access and safe active transportation infrastructure reduce car trips, even in rapidly growing areas. Without these changes, traffic could worsen as car dependency continues unchecked.
This project ensures that as the population grows, residents will have safe, efficient, and sustainable alternatives to driving, helping the city meet future transportation demands without overwhelming the road network.
WHAT ABOUT ALTERNATIVE 2?
Alternative 2 is similar to Alternative 1, but instead of a multi-use pathway, it has a sidewalk and a bike lane at the road level. While this would be an improvement from the existing conditions, it falls short for 2 reasons:
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Biking alongside cars traveling at 40 mph does not feel safe, especially for children. Tasman Dr should feel comfortable for all ages and abilities.
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The uni-directional bike lanes will force cyclists to frequently cross the light rail tracks to get to the proper side of the street. Meanwhile, some bicyclists will avoid crossing and choose to bike the wrong way in the bike lane. Both scenarios are major safety hazards.
To summarize, Alternative 1's raised multi-use pathway offers greater safety and route flexibility than Alternative 2.
HOW WILL MOBILE HOMES BE MOVED?
A few times each year new mobile homes are transported in and out of the Casa De Amigos and Plaza Del Rey mobile home parks. They are moved on a wide-load truck during non-peak hours. The design for Alt 1 will have the Eastbound lane between Vienna Dr and Lawrence Expwy widened to 13-14 ft to fit the wide trucks. The remaining lanes will be limited 11 ft wide to reduce speeding.
WHAT ABOUT EMERGENCY EVACUATIONS?
According to the City of Sunnyvale, one lane of Tasman Dr can carry a maximum of 900 vehicles/hour. With the completion of this project, there will be 2 outbound lanes on Tasman Dr, meaning the street would have a capacity of 1800 veh/hr. Assuming 1 vehicle per house, that’s 1700 vehicle/1880 veh/hr = ~1 hour to carry all of the traffic from both mobile home parks.
The limiting factor for evacuation time is not the number of traffic lanes on Tasman, but rather the number of exits from each park, which is not changing under this project. However, after a natural disaster, driving is not always the best option. This project enables people to evacuate on foot and by bicycle, which is faster and more efficient.
WHAT ABOUT THE TREES?
In April, 2025, the City removed 23 beautiful trees on the North side of Tasman Dr between Fair Oaks Ave and Vienna Dr. Trees were a non-native species with particularly invasive roots, which were damaging water lines and properties in the Casa De Amigos mobile home park. We want the City to replace these with native trees that have non-invasive roots. This will add shade and restore Tasman Dr's beautiful tree canopy.