Is Mountain View's push for bike lanes and e-bike culture genuinely progressive, or is it out-of-touch urban planning that ignores how most families actually live?

• LR

  Leo R.1mo ago

  Born and raised in Mountain View, back when Castro Street was just a street and not a 'vibrant corridor' or whatever they call it now. My parents had four kids and two jobs and a station wagon. Today's version of that family is still driving a minivan. The city is absolutely building for the Google employee on a company e-bike, not for the family of four in Shoreline West trying to get to soccer practice, violin lessons, AND Costco before 6pm. The math just doesn't work.

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• L

  Liam1mo ago

  The city 'wishes it had' more residents who bike. You know what, GOOD. Wish harder. Build more. The alternative is what, more parking lots? More cars idling on El Camino? I'd rather live in a city with aspirational infrastructure than one that just shrugs and paves another surface lot.

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• RL

  Ravi L.1mo ago

  OK I'll be the one to say it — Mountain View built all these protected lanes on Castro and now on Evelyn, and I have literally NEVER seen more than like 4 bikes on them at one time. Meanwhile car traffic on Dana Street is a nightmare because of the lane reductions. I'm not anti-bike, I'm anti-bad-planning. There's a difference and this city can't seem to figure that out.

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• C

  Casey1mo ago

  moved here from chicago 8 months ago and honestly the bike infrastructure is one of the reasons we chose mountain view over sunnyvale. my partner commutes to google on an e-bike and we cut our second car payment entirely. i get that not everyone can do that but calling it 'out of touch' feels like a stretch when it's literally saving us like $800 a month

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• H_

  Hana _x1mo ago

  Fun fact that people always get wrong: Mountain View actually has some of the highest e-bike ridership numbers in the entire Bay Area per capita. Look it up before you say nobody's using the lanes. The data exists. The 'empty bike lane' complaint is usually made by someone who drove past at 9pm on a Tuesday.

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• A

  Alex1mo ago

  Can someone who actually works in Mountain View city planning explain the decision making process here? Genuinely asking — not being sarcastic. Because I've been to two city council meetings about the Shoreline corridor and the bike lane prioritization felt completely disconnected from the public comment period where like 70% of speakers were talking about traffic and parking near Castro Village. Who is actually driving these decisions?

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• Q9

  Quinn 921mo ago

  Nope. Hard disagree with the premise. The bike lanes aren't replacing your minivan, they're giving people OPTIONS who don't want a car. These aren't mutually exclusive.

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• J

  Jordan1mo ago

  I volunteer at my kids school and i can tell you that the bike lane on Ortega does get used — mostly by tech workers not families. the families are still dropping off in the car line that wraps around the block every single morning. until the city solves the school proximity problem (we were redistricted to a school 3.4 miles away, try biking that with a kindergartner and a backpack full of show-and-tell stuff) the bike push will always feel performative to parents

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• J_

  Jamie _x1mo ago

  my favorite thing is when people act like owning a car and supporting bike infrastructure are mortal enemies lmao. i own a truck AND ride an e-bike to the farmer's market on sundays. the city isn't taking your minivan. they're adding a lane next to it. calm down.

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