SVBC Member Spotlight: Timm Borden
We are happy to spotlight Timm Borden in the latest Member Spotlights series on our blog!Timm has been the Director of Public Works for the City of Cupertino since 2011, overseeing much of the design, construction and maintenance work done for city projects, including the recently approved Bicycle Transportation Plan. The city has been improving safety for bicyclists and pedestrians following a devastating collision that took the life of Ethan Wong, a bicycling high school student, in 2014. Timm also sits on the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee for the City of San José.Are you an SVBC member, and wish to showcase your bike club's work, events, and/or concerns? Contact us!How did you get introduced to Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition?I’ve known of SVBC for several years, recognizing their leadership on annual Bike to Work Days that I have participated in. I became a member a few years ago and the City of Cupertino has now been a sponsor of Bike to Work Week and the Silicon Valley Bicycle Summit. After understanding SVBC’s mission and their culture of advocating and supporting local government in their efforts to increase biking in the region, we brought SVBC in to give feedback and advice for bike improvements around the Apple Campus 2 project.What kind of activities and/or trips do you use your bicycle for?Although I’d like to say that I commute regularly by bike, that isn’t the case. I do my once-a-year commute on Bike to Work Day, however with my round trip being 40 miles, it isn’t something that I have prioritized into my daily schedule. I do mostly social riding with a neighborhood group of up to 10-12 riders, called the Alliance Athletic Club. While we also ride for the fitness, we old guys have been known to ride five gentle miles to get around a quarter mile hill. Every Sunday, we ride for coffee and back, about 24 miles. We also do four or five organized rides every year, always making sure the Solvang Century is included. For every weekly ride or organized ride that you complete, you get an AAC sticker on your helmet. Of course, if it is raining, that is a double sticker day! At the end of the year, whoever has the most stickers is the Cyclist of the Year.Cupertino has been very active in making the streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. Is there any update from your guest blog? How does the City work with organizations like SVBC and your BPAC, as well as the broader community to inform this work?While Cupertino has a lot of exciting improvements forthcoming as we implement our new Bicycle Transportation Plan, we also have already accomplished quite a bit in a very short time frame. Over the past two years, with the support, advocacy and leadership of our Bicycle Pedestrian Commission, our grass-roots organization Walk, Bike Cupertino, and SVBC, our City Council has listened and approved funding to make significant short- and long-term improvements. Our job as a Public Works Department is to use every dollar efficiently so that every stakeholder is motivated to keep the momentum going. We don’t repave any street without considering opportunities to narrow lanes, add buffers, and use green bike lanes at conflict areas. With the passage of Measure B, I am super excited about our ability to implement new trails and protected bike lanes that are called for in our Bicycle Transportation Plan.We also have hired a full-time Safe Routes to School Coordinator to work with our schools and parents so that everyone can get engaged in making biking and walking to school safer and more popular. The other great focus that our Safe Routes program brings is that it makes our strategy more than just about engineering solutions. Green paint, buffered lanes and sharrows are all very helpful additions, but working with the Cupertino Unified School District to make bike education part of the 6th grade curriculum, one of our recent and notable successes, is a great example of the type of non-engineering approach our program also incorporates.Personally, being a San Jose resident, I have recently begun serving on San Jose’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission. It is a good way for me to get involved in improving biking in my own community, and it is also a good way to share successful strategies from Cupertino and to get new ideas that I can bring back.Among your friends and people you know who don't ride a bike, what do you think would help encourage them to get out there? I encourage them to come on a social ride with our neighborhood group, and assure them that we are all very content riding at as slow of a pace as anyone on the ride wants. To get people comfortable with riding, you need to help them overcome two common barriers; first, you need bring them to areas that feel safe and second, you need to reduce the “spandex” intimidation of having them feel overwhelmed by experienced bikers.What do you think needs to be done to achieve 10% of trips taken by bike by 2025 in Silicon Valley?While there are hundreds of things necessary for a successful strategy, I am very optimistic that in the last few years, the Valley has set itself on the right trajectory to achieve some lofty non-vehicle goals. I think that the best plan is to diversify investments in engineering, education, enforcement and encouragement. Having advocates like SVBC support and lead efforts, such as what they have done to coordinate efforts on Bike Share expansion, is also necessary. The biggest challenge that will take more patience and gradual improvement is making land use changes that fully support and encourage biking and walking and make getting between home and destinations safe and convenient.Share with us what a dream day on your bike looks like.A dream day on the bike is riding with friends (flat terrain!), having every signal detect us immediately, no flats, and having a destination to look forward to for coffee in the morning, and a beer in the afternoon.What would you say to someone considering becoming a member of SVBC? Becoming a member of SVBC is a great way to stay informed of all of the great biking improvements happening in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, along with all of the events that are an outstanding and fun way to get involved. SVBC is doing excellent work in many areas, and members quickly can see their investment of time and money pay off.Will you join Timm and the other 2,000+ members of SVBC? Join today and support our work to make our streets and trails safe for all users, improve and expand bike infrastructure where you live and ride, and get more people riding!
