Better Bike Plan 2025 Adopted in San Jose

Carly Wipf reports that the San Jose City Council has recently approved the Better Bike Plan 2025, "which would prioritize rider safety while increasing the amount of bike lanes, bike parking and bike sharing services citywide."

"The bike network would also help connect east and west San Jose to the downtown area, making commutes to work and school by bike more direct. It would also encourage more biking to reduce emissions from vehicle transportation," adds Wipf.

"The Better Bike Plan 2025 would allow for 253 miles of existing bike lanes to become protected bike lanes and would create 104 miles of new protected lanes. An additional 102 miles would become bike boulevards."

The plan will have a long way to go to offer the kind of safety that will inspire a lot more people to ride bikes around the city. The city's General Plan sets a goal for 15 percent of trips to be made by bike by 2040, but currently about three percent of the city rides bikes as their primary mode of transportation, according to a report cited in the article. Just under half of the 52 traffic fatalities reported in the city in 2018 were pedestrian or people on bikes. Two-thirds of city residents report not feeling safe enough on streets to ride a bike.

For more perspective on the planning accomplishment of the city of San Jose in adopting the Better Bike Plan 2025, see an article published two time zones over, by Streetsblog Chicago, holding the plan as an example to be followed.