Mountain View BPAC Meeting: E-Bike Safety & Miramonte Study, Aug. 27, 2025
Mountain View BPAC Meeting: E-Bike Safety & Miramonte Study, Aug. 27, 2025
The Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) met on August 27, 2025, at 6:30 PM. The meeting covered a presentation by the Mountain View Police Department on e-bike classifications, enforcement, and safety, followed by a discussion and recommendation on the Miramonte Avenue Complete Streets Study (Segment A) from El Camino Real to Castro Street/Marilyn Street.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the BPAC Fiscal Year 2025-26 Work Plan and Tentative Agenda List unanimously (4-0).
- Meeting minutes from June 25, 2025 were pulled for correction (member Kuzma noted two motions had incorrect motion/second names on items 6.1 and 6.2). The minutes were approved after correcting: 6.1 motion by Kuzma/second by Bonton, and 6.2 motion by Stone/second by Kuzma. Vote: 3-0-1 (Kuzma abstained).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Eugene Cordero (18-year resident, climate scientist): Expressed full support for safer bike infrastructure, urged innovation in network design, invited staff/council to ride bikes to experience conditions firsthand, and requested access to original consultant design plans for Miramonte (which he noted cost $16k).
- Henry Whitfield: Reported that on Stevens Creek Trail, over 50% of bikes (especially e-bikes) exceed the 15 mph speed limit; he was clipped from behind on a bridge and required triage at Stanford. Asked for radar enforcement, signage emphasizing personal liability, and education for adults.
- Bruce England (former BPAC member): Noted the difficulty of earlier sidewalk ordinance efforts and that many users do not understand bike classification codes. Emphasized that enforcement is difficult but education is critical.
- April Webster: Requested more granular spatiotemporal data on the police transparency dashboard, particularly for bicycle/pedestrian collisions. Noted that current enforcement on El Camino Real bike lanes (cars parking) is lacking, and that speed feedback signs are ineffective without paired enforcement.
- Deb Henningson: Described daily dangerous behavior by high school boys on overpowered e-bikes (no helmets, two on bike, towing). Called for a coordinated safety campaign at high schools.
- Ben Levitt: Asked for clarification on legality of electric skateboards on Stevens Creek Trail after a one-year pilot period; officer indicated no update was found.
- Jesse Cup: Requested a shortcut to report construction vehicles blocking bike lanes; noted that cars park in striped-off areas at California Street protected bike lanes, creating sightline hazards.
Discussion Items
- Active Transportation Collision Report (Item 6.1): Officer Hammond presented on e-bike classifications (Class 1-3), vehicle code distinctions, and enforcement limitations. Data: e-bike users are 2.8 times more likely to be hospitalized than bicyclists; e-bike assist cuts off at 20 mph (Class 1 & 2) or 28 mph (Class 3); stickers can be purchased online. Police conduct school education but have no statistics on effectiveness. MVPD does not believe additional municipal codes are needed now but emphasized education and collaboration for Vision Zero.
- Miramonte Avenue Complete Streets Study (Item 6.2): Staff presented the preferred alternative (concept plan) for Segment A, including a class four barrier-protected bikeway on the west side and parking-protected bikeway on the east side, a 55% public support in survey (19% more support for protected bikeways), and 64% support for proposed parking removal. Key elements: road diet from two lanes to one lane (based on low traffic volumes), new mid-block crossings with RRFBs, traffic calming via lane reduction and barrier, and reserved space for green streets. An alternative preserving 8 on-street parking spaces (parking at curb) was noted but increases conflict points. Staff will take feedback to the Council Transportation Committee on September 2, 2025; final report to council in fall 2025.
Key Outcomes
- BPAC voted unanimously to approve the FY 2025-26 Work Plan and Tentative Agenda List.
- BPAC received and acknowledged the Active Transportation Collision Report; no formal action taken.
- BPAC reviewed the Miramonte Avenue preferred alternative and will provide feedback to staff; the recommendation will be forwarded to the Council Transportation Committee for further input.
- Next BPAC meeting set for Wednesday, October 29, 2025 at 6:30 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Go ahead and call rolling ready. It is 6 31. So do you want to call the order? Yes, please. So for the August 27th meeting of the bicycle pedestrian advisory commission. Like to call us to order and get a roll call, please. Member Bonte? Here. Member Stone? Here. Member Hong? Here. Chair Terry. Jerry Burton. Advice Chair Agies Cousin? President. Okay, thank you. So moving to our first item. We've uh no one finished business. So we are looking for oral communications from the public for uh addressing topics not on the agenda. Um do we have any members of the public uh wishing to address us this time on Zoom? Yes, I have there was somebody here, I think. Okay, we'll we'll take the in-person. Go ahead. Okay, so we'll go ahead with uh start with in-person then. Three minutes, right? Yes, three minutes. Hi, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Eugene Cordero. I'm uh 18 year resident here in Mountain View. I work at San Jose in meteorology and climate science, so I'm a climate scientist, care about transportation emissions related to climate change, and very supportive of bike uh design infrastructure to make it safer and easier for me and my neighbors in the community to cycle around. I've kind of three points to make. Um the first is you know, we live in Silicon Valley, the center of innovation, and I look forward to seeing that innovation in our transportation network. So I want to encourage BPAC and I want to encourage staff to kind of dig deeper into developing what I think would be the more of the kind of infrastructure that we'd be proud of, showing our colleagues in Europe and Asia that we can effectively design transportation networks that make people from all ranges feel comfortable cycling. Um kind of brings me to my next point. So that's about innovation. Second point is a story about my neighbor Ronique Bryant, who was a council member and a mayor here in Mountain View. One day Renit said to me, Mountain View has always been a bicycle-friendly city, always. And I thought to myself, I wonder if Ronnie actually rides a bicycle. Because I've been riding a bicycle in Mountain View for 18 years, or better than that, and it doesn't feel like a friendly place to ride. She probably hasn't ridden on um middle field in an evening or on a weekend when the cars are in the bike lane. She hasn't ridden on uh shoreline to go over to Google ever, going over the overpass. Um she hasn't ridden on uh on shoreline and El Camino where you know bike lane ends and you're you're stuck. Um so I actually want to invite staff, especially council members and staff to go riding with us to see what it feels like to ride a bicycle. And I know some of the staff do, but I don't think they all do, because if they did, they wouldn't design what they've been designing for two decades because that is not a comfortable way to move around. And uh so the invitations are gonna come to staff, and we're gonna ask you to come ride with us so you can see what it feels like. My last point is uh going back to the innovation. Uh you're gonna be discussing Miramonte today. I would like to see what the initial design plans were from the consultant, because that consultant has a very good reputation of doing good design, and not that Miramante isn't a huge improvement, because it is that's a that's a real tough area right now, but I wonder how we got to the plans that we're looking at today. And it didn't seem at least I couldn't find on the website any reference to the original designs given by the consultant who got paid 16k.
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