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Letter: Bike coalition urges county to accept funds

On Dec. 1, I shared this letter with the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. The letter represents the position of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition on the Alpine Road trail.

We encourage the Board of Supervisors to accept a portion of the money offered by Stanford in regard to the Lower Alpine trail to study various alternatives regarding a multi-use path.

We recognize that the existing substandard trail alongside Alpine Road is currently being utilized by children, families, and recreational cyclists and walkers/joggers. We believe that the current trail is unsafe, and believe that San Mateo County should accept money from Stanford University to study various options connected with improving bicycle and pedestrian travel in the Alpine corridor.

While Stanford's money may only be available for the design and construction of off-road multi-use trails, we also urge the county to maintain its focus on the on-road cycling infrastructure in this corridor. We ask the county to support a study that examines further improvements to the Alpine Road/Interstate 280 interchange. Public Works staff has already proposed several relatively inexpensive improvements to the interchange — however, there may be opportunities to incorporate more significant intersection improvements into a more comprehensive corridor study.

Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition members have significant concerns regarding the design of the trail. We encourage San Mateo County staff to investigate innovative design standards, such as the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) guidelines, in identifying alternatives for the multi-use path. The study should include a safety analysis for trail users.

In studying the Lower Alpine C1 Trail redesign options, the Coalition would request to be involved in the plan review and offers our expertise in cycling infrastructure to provide constructive feedback to San Mateo County regarding trail design and implementation.

Corinne Winter, president and executive director, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition