A Bridge to Somewhere

I just returned from a quick trip to the Bay Area, and on Friday morning, as my mother was driving me down I-280 from the CA-85 interchange, a gateway to Cupertino, I suddenly saw a stunning white cable bridge spanning the highway.  It reminded me of similar bridges I’ve seen around the world, from Buenos Aires to Yosu, Korea.  It was such a nice change from the bland concrete walkways you see almost everywhere else.  I was smitten.

The information I could gather on the bridge is that it is the first cable-stay bicycle/pedestrian bridge in California.  Cable-stay or cable-go, the Mary Avenue Pedestrian Bridge is certainly impressive. At 90 feet tall and 325 feet tall, this bridge is a welcoming trend of car culture losing out to those who want to leave their wheels at home and use their feet or a bicycle to get to work.

What’s amazing about this bridge is that it was even built at all.  As much as I admire Cupertino, this Silicon Valley town of 50,000 is an example of NIMBYism at its worst.  Residents of this community in west Santa Clara County love community events and new facilities as long as they don’t occur in their neighborhood.  I remember folks in our neighborhood many years back were aghast over a proposed skateboard ramp in little Wilson Park (I suppose it was better for skater boys to do it in store parking lots), and a couple years ago, I risked getting a parking ticket when I took the dog to Memorial Park, the town’s largest park—parking was prohibited on the nearby streets.  Another story from my youth involved a local dentist had successfully led a push to close off traffic on his street during “rush hour” . . . though I’m sure he and others in his ‘hood were content to use other local streets to shave a few seconds off the drive to the grocery store (the city has since removed that barrier).  I’m amazed any stores ever opened in Cupertino, since an announcement usually was followed my petitions and protest.  Oh, and by the way:  Cupertino has no light rail stops within its town limits.

Well, in the early 1970s, when I-280 neared completion, one street the highway split, Mary Avenue, had a proposed pedestrian bridge on the books.  The local natives were up in arms, because this would cause traffic which apparently was acceptable when cars were backed up on other nearby streets, but not in their neck of the ‘burbs.  So, the street dead ended both on the Sunnyvale and Cupertino sides, and folks who wanted to walk to nearby parks and shops had to walk so far it just wasn’t worth the bother.

Fast forward several years later, when a city councilman with a brain, Don Burnett, led the charge to have the bridge built.  The local transportation authority gave it the green light, and finished in April, this bridge will see 265,000 or so people use the bridge annually:  175,000 of them will be cyclists, and around 35,000 commuting trips will be nixed.  The cost, at $15 million, has its critics, but the momentum is clear:  two similar bridges were completed in nearby Sunnyvale.

Santa Clara County has one of the best climates in the country:  I’m glad more locals will enjoy that weather, instead of being insulated from it in their cars.  Personally, this is where I’m happy to see taxpayer money funneled.  Less soot in the air and more cars left at home?  It seems like money well spent to me.