This Week: Pop-up Protected Bikeway Demo in San José

This week, the City of San José is hosting a team from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) to help create world-class streets and a premier bicycling network in San Jose. NACTO is bringing staff and experts from Vancouver, Atlanta, and Chicago to advise San José staff and elected officials on how to build great public spaces and bicycle facilities that are comfortable for people of all ages and abilities. The work is starting with a network of facilities in the greater downtown area, to compliment and enhance the existing network the City has been expanding rapidly in the last five years. The Knight Foundation has been a crucial supporter of the effort to dramatically increase safety and accessibility with a protected bike network.The long-term goal of the project is to have a series of protected bikeways – safe, comfortable bike lanes with physical separation from moving traffic – to get people on bikes in, through, and around downtown; across major barriers like the freeways; and to and from the trail network. These projects aim to make the street better for biking, but also create public spaces for everyone, particularly pedestrians.As a way of demonstrating this concept, engaging people, and testing a few different design ideas, the City will have a "pop-up" protected bikeway along 4th Street from Monday, 8/7 (today!) through Sunday, 8/13. Please try the pop-up and share your thoughts in this brief survey.The City and SVBC would appreciate community involvement and feedback! Here are a couple of ways to learn more and provide input:

• Please spread the word about the pop-up, try it, and give us feedback.
• Come out for one of the community events happening as part of the program: a Community Roundtable Workshop on Wednesday (8/9) in the evening in conjunction with Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, or a Happy Hour on Thursday (8/10) at Uproar Brewing.
• A public tour of the pop-up on Friday, 8/11, at 5:30 pm (rush hour!). Join SVBC with your bike in front of our downtown office at 96 N. Third Street. We’ll ride up an existing, more conventional bike lane so that we can compare them to the proposed designs, then test out the multiple designs on 4th Street. Share your thoughts and let us know how you want to see future San José bikeways designed to maximize your safety and comfort.

If we’re serious about getting more people to bike for transportation, protected bike lanes are the future of bike infrastructure. Come learn more and experience them for yourself!SVBC is able to host the Pop-up Protected Bikeway Tour thanks to the grant-funded Focus Cities California project.Focus Cities California is a program of UC Berkeley SafeTREC and California Walks.Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.