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Started Nov. 16, 2014
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Recently Posted Articles
- Prose and Cons of new 2016 Bicycle Transportation Plan
- Raised Bicycle Lanes
- A Bicycle Ride on the Stevens Creek Trail in Mountain View
- Cupertino is Mostly about Education
- Incentivizing Employees to Live Close to Work and Reduce Traffic
- Smart Growth for our Communities
- The Deadly Third Rail of Growth
- Free Public Transportation for Cupetino
- Union Pacific Railroad Trail Update
- Mitigating traffic around Tri-School Area
- A Community Mall that Reduces Traffic the Larger it Grows – Thinking Outside the Box
- A Building Moratorium between Developments to Control Growth
- Vallco – Housing for Apple 2 Employees to Mitigate Traffic
- What We Can All Do to Help Save Our Planet
- Need for More Bicycle Trails
Category Archives: Ideas
Incentivizing Employees to Live Close to Work and Reduce Traffic
I have written about incentives that employers could pay employees for living near work in an earlier post. I am breaking this out as a separate post because this could be a key strategy for reducing traffic around town. The … Continue reading
Posted in Examples, Ideas, Traffic
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Smart Growth for our Communities
I have been involve in the Smart Growth movement for about one and a half years now and have read numerous articles and subscribe to a news letter. Smart Growth isn’t about one way of doing things. It has its … Continue reading
Posted in Article, Examples, Growth, Ideas, Smart Growth
Tagged Apple Campus 2, community, efficient, environment, impact, land use, movement, natural habitat, philosophy, smart planning, sustainability, Vallco
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Free Public Transportation for Cupetino
The benefits of public transportation are well documented. It reduces traffic congestion and results in far less pollution and greenhouse gases than cars driving by individual drivers. It also uses less fuel thus reducing our dependence upon fossil fuel today. But … Continue reading
Mitigating traffic around Tri-School Area
Close off Bubb Rd. on the Kennedy Middle School side of the road between Rainbow Rd. and McClellan Rd. for bicycle traffic only during Peak AM traffic hours. Make Bubb Rd. one way North bound for cars traffic on the west side of Bubb Rd opposite the school side of the road. This would still allow residents on the railroad side of Bubb to exit onto Bubb Rd. since they would not otherwise have a way out. Close off McClellan Rd. on the Monta Vista High School side of street for example between roughly near De Anza College to just past the curve in the road near Monta Vista High for bicycles traffic only during the same Peak AM traffic hours. Make McCellan Rd. one way West bound for cars traffic on the North side of the street away from the schools. Continue reading
A Community Mall that Reduces Traffic the Larger it Grows – Thinking Outside the Box
I like thinking outside the box. It stimulates ideas that others have not thought about yet. But such thinking must also solve problems as well. It also acts as the springboard for other similar but original ideas. I have written extensively about the concepts of Smart Growth. The essence of this new concept in city planning is to promote sustainable growth while having minimal impact upon the environment. These environmental impacts come in the form of cities spreading out into undeveloped habitat and the emissions of greenhouse gases contributing to Climate Change.,, Continue reading
A Building Moratorium between Developments to Control Growth
Vallco business and shopping mall, with its proposed 2,000,000 sq. ft. of office space next door to the new Apple campus has been submitted for the city’s approval which would bring in more than 10,000 employees. The Oaks and Goodyear Tire proposals have just been submitted for consideration. The Target property has been purchased by a developer and will soon have a proposal as will Marina, Cupertino Village and many others. This onslaught of new construction and growth in our small city in a short space of time brings with it concerns of exploding traffic congestion … Continue reading
Vallco – Housing for Apple 2 Employees to Mitigate Traffic
My vision for Valco is as a self-contained community within our community of mixed use containing the following categories of development to meet the needs of this community. The goal is to mitigate traffic as much as possible and build an interdependent infrastructure to support this community… I base this community upon Smart Growth principles to reduce the use of cars as much as possible by placing everything conveniently within walking, biking, or public transportation distance for occupants of Vallco. There is enough diversity of land-use that provide for the needs of this community and profitability for the developer… Continue reading
Posted in Growth, Ideas, Smart Growth, Traffic
Tagged Businesses, Child Care, mitigate traffic, Mobility, Smart Growth, Vallco
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What We Can All Do to Help Save Our Planet
The primary culprit of Climate Change is excessive Climate Change (CO2) being released into the atmosphere from the insatiable appetite of Our Affluent Lifestyle. There is almost no part of our lives that does not impact Climate Change from the goods we consume to the conveniences we treasure. So there are plenty of opportunities for each of us to mitigate Our Individual impact. It isn’t only about government regulating carbon emissions. It is also about each of us doing our part to reduce the use of energy that is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions… Continue reading
Need for More Bicycle Trails
A bicycle trail is a bicycle route that is largely away from the sights and sounds of car traffic. It is typically made of asphalt but can be made of concrete or dirt and gravel. Bicycle trails are typically shared with walkers, joggers, and hikers. Many bicycle trails go through undeveloped portions of cities such as long creeks, railroad tracks, parks, and open spaces. And occasionally they pass through residential area to connect portions of trail not possible along the natural route such as a narrow creek or blocked by private property. Continue reading
Posted in Bicycle, Considerations, Ideas
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Smart Growth – A Personal Perspective
I actually devised Smart Growth independently (my form of it) around the summer of last year while the General Plan Amendment (GPA) was undergoing scrutiny around the summer of 2014. I had by then determined that car traffic would limit Cupertino’s ability to sustain growth for long and was trying to solve this problem. It became clear that replacing cars with bicycles was the right path so I developed a long range Vision of what Cupertino would look like without cars. Continue reading
Posted in Considerations, Growth, Ideas, Smart Growth
Tagged Bicycle, biking, car traffic, community centers, energy conservation, ideal case, In-city commuting, mixed use, Nextdoor, self-contained, Smart Growth, sustain growth, vision, walking
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More Sustained Growth for Cupertino with Smart Growth
Smart Growth was originally developed to help cities undergoing rapid growth to do it in a more sustained manner with sensitivity to its impact on the environment. This started as a European concept but was easier because they had relatively limited urban sprawl. It is like a suitcase in which you need to pack your belonging more efficiently into a fixed container as you buy more souvenirs along the way. Continue reading
Free Public Bicycles and Bicycle Share Programs
I have suggested on various posts that the City provide residents with free inexpensive bicycles that they could pick up and leave conveniently at designated kiosks throughout town. I thought I’d elaborate on this idea. However this will not be feasible until the City first makes most of our heavily trafficked streets SAFE to bicycle. Continue reading
Posted in Bicycle, Ideas
Tagged designated kiosks, errand, inexpensive bicycles, smart bicycle kiosk, taken home, tempted to steal
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The Case for Bicycles vs. Minibuses and Uber Cars
Designing a workable transportation system as an alternative to driving everywhere in town is a bit of a daunting challenge here in Cupertino. Its urban sprawl creates public transportation design nightmares because of the complex mazes of small interconnecting streets … Continue reading
Liability Kills Innovation and Solutions
We in Cupertino live in the heart of Innovation, Silicon Valley. Apple has its headquarters and largest R&D facility here. Yet when you ask the city to implement biking safety enhancements which are not mainstream in California they say they … Continue reading
Building a Quaint Bicycle Friendly Community
Building up a Bicycle Community requires the following Bicycle Strategy: Safety, Appeal, [and] Convenience to be developed and implemented. But from a logistical perspective these Strategies can be done in a combination of series and/or parallel actions. But bicycle Safety … Continue reading
Letter to City: Future Growth and Traffic in Cupertino
Letter from me to Cupertino Planning Department 8/9/2015 (with minor corrections): Dear Planners of our City, I do not think our City Government has a firm grasp of the future traffic issues in Cupertino based upon the GPA. Let me … Continue reading
My Bucket List for Biking and Walking in Cupertino
Here are the things I how to see, do, and experience in Cupertino: Convince the City that Bicycles are a major part of the solution of traffic mitigation and for Sustainable Growth for the City. This is the center theme … Continue reading
Bicycle Express Lanes on Highway 85
Highway 85 extends from Highway 101 North near Mountain View at its northern extremity to Highway 101 South in San Jose at its southern extreme. There is Light Rail located on a section of Hwy 85 in San Jose near … Continue reading
Heated Conflict between City Government and Residents
There have recently been a number of contentious and heated discussions between Cupertino residents and City Council involving proposed commercial developments in the General Plan Amendment. The city is concerned that more than 30% of the its sales tax revenues … Continue reading
Biking Cupertino 