As Sunnyvale expands its bicycling network, one neighborhood is grappling with decades-old limitations.
Residents in North Sunnyvale, a portion of the city that historically lacks resources, are excited about planned safe transit infrastructure on Tasman Drive, from Fair Oaks Avenue to Lawrence Expressway. Other residents are less enthusiastic, saying the proposed changes — bike lanes and expanded sidewalks — will worsen traffic congestion.
This stretch of Tasman Drive has two lanes in both directions, with a partial sidewalk on one side. Road space is restricted by the VTA Orange Line light rail route, which cuts between both sides of traffic. The improved sidewalk project proposes reducing the street to one lane in both directions.
Ari Feinsmith is a member of Safe Streets Sunnyvale and Bike Sunnyvale who grew up and lives in the Casa de Amigos mobile home park. He said the proposed bike lanes would make the street safer. Tasman Drive has a speed limit of 40 mph and a blind curve at one point, which makes it hard for drivers to see cyclists.
There is no sidewalk on the side of Casa de Amigos, so residents have to jaywalk across the street and VTA tracks to reach a sidewalk. Feinsmith recounted a time when he saw a young couple walking toward the mobile home park’s entrance from the grocery store at the end of Tasman Drive, bags in tow, forced to wade through foliage lining the road rather than cross the train tracks.
“It’s so sad that we’ve created our infrastructure where to get basic necessities like groceries, you have to risk your life,” Feinsmith told San José Spotlight. “I’m grateful that my parents have a car, that’s something a lot of people take for granted, but cars are expensive and we need to be designing our streets for everyone.”
The main intersection on this stretch of Tasman Drive is Vienna Drive, which feeds into two of the largest mobile home parks in California — Casa de Amigos and Plaza del Rey. The two parks have more than 1,700 homes combined and thousands of residents, many of whom have spoken at numerous City Council meetings over the past months to voice their frustrations with the plan.
Judy Pavlick, founder of the Sunnyvale Mobile Home Park Alliance, said cutting the number of lanes on Tasman Drive would worsen existing traffic problems, especially during peak commute hours. The proposed lanes require changes to the Vienna Drive intersection’s traffic signals, such as restricting cars turning right, which she said would make it harder to leave either mobile home park.
Pavlick, who has lived in Plaza Del Ray Mobile Home park for about 35 years, said the nearby roads are dangerous for cyclists.
“The residents in the mobile home parks cannot be held captive for a bicycle path that comes (out of) nowhere and goes nowhere,” Pavlick told San José Spotlight. “Fair Oaks is not safe, Lawrence is not safe, so you just have one block here.”
Sunnyvale has been working to expand its bike network, and improving bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure on Tasman Drive is part of that plan. A 2024 city survey on the bike lanes received 371 responses, with 265 from residents living near the project.
The survey found half of all respondents indicated adding the missing sidewalk portions as the top priority. Other priorities included safer crosswalks and new bike lanes. Roughly 70% said they would walk, cycle or use transit more often with either of the proposed improvements.
Elana Feinsmith, Ari’s mother, has lived at Casa de Amigos since 1996. Before the VTA light rail existed, Tasman Drive had a shoulder on either side that served as an unofficial pedestrian path. She and her husband used to walk there before it was removed.
“They’re going to save lives if they put these lanes in here,” she told San José Spotlight.
Pavlick said she’s hoping the city accepts a compromise to leave the stretch between Vienna Drive and Lawrence Expressway without a bike lane, so vehicle traffic has more leeway to exit toward commuter roads. However, after watching the city overlook North Sunnyvale for decades, she said she’s waiting to see what happens.
District 6 Councilmember Eileen Le, who represents the mobile home parks, said the city needs to balance traffic concerns with better cyclist and pedestrian infrastructure. The city council is scheduled to receive an update this spring.
Le said she wants more traffic data on how many vehicles travel the street and more studies on how it will affect the people living in the area.
“I think there are reasonable people on both sides, who are raising reasonable issues and reasonable asks, that we’re going to be taking back to staff,” Le told San José Spotlight.
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at sakura@sanjosespotlight.com or @SakuCannestra on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.
The post Sunnyvale’s bike lane plan sparks debate: Safety vs. traffic concerns on Tasman Drive appeared first on Local News Matters.