Can Silicon Valley Work for Bikes?

Rachel Dovey covers a new report by laying out a vision for a "stress-free" biking network in Silicon Valley. Created by Joint Venture Silicon Valley, the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, and Nelson\Nygaard, the report benefited from sponsorship from Google, Facebook, and Stanford University. 

Those heavy hitters promise that it's possible to fix "discontinuities in the bikeway network that compromise the user experience," a particularly "tech" way of putting things. Dovey writes, "Only 1.7 percent of Silicon Valley residents bike to work, which is still more than the national average, but, the report argues, far less than the number could be, given the region’s mild climate and flat topography."

The report stresses regional approaches, which haven't materialized because Silicon Valley is divided between many separate cities and two counties. 

But some of the biggest players in town are behind the report, and these first steps may lead to something more. "'Creating a connected, stress-free network of bike lanes is a key part of Google's vision for the future of transportation,' Google's transportation planning program manager, Jeral Poskey, said, according to a release about the report."