sean.hwy

I see some people on strava riding their bikes on Central Expressway in mountain view and sunnyvale. The road is practically a free way so not sure if it's legal to ride a bike on it.

I like the idea of long stretches of road with little to no stop lights.

shotwellian

Yes, it's legal to ride on Central as well as all the other expressways of Santa Clara County. (This was one of Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition's first advocacy campaigns, actually.) Just be very careful of traffic at the on and off-ramps, since, as you said, they're designed for drivers to take at freeway speed. Foothill Expressway in particular is a very pleasant ride.

sean.hwy

@shotwellian

Thanks for confirming that. I will have to check out Foothill Expressway also.

squirtdad

foot hill expressway is a far nicer ride than central expressway IMHO

sean.hwy

That's really go to know. Thank you.


I have been mostly riding the streets,
San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail and
Guadalupe River Trail.

It would nice to find less stop lights, traffic and pedestrians.

squirtdad

well with shelter in place the trails are really busy and there is a lot less traffic so roads are fairly nice right now

there is also the trail that goes from san jose to morgan hill, it is a pretty ride

and depending on where you live streets like Leigh to camden to Mckean road can be some nice rides

Takeshi

Is it legal - yes. And I have. Whether it is safe is a different question...

paloaltan

I've gone from the 85 overpass at Stevens Creek Trail to Castro a few times and it's not very pleasant. While legal, yes, the conditions are pretty horrid and while drivers are aware of bicyclists on Foothill Expressway, Central is a completely different story.

It would be interesting to see if more riders take Central and if the road were to become nicer...

paloaltan

Speaking of Expressways, I seldom see rider on Oregon Expressway although they've added a bike lane now. You find a lot of bicyclists on Bryant (Palo Alto's major bike thoroughfare) and I think riders tend to use Oregon Avenue (which run parallel) since it's much more protected, but I think you could get better timing on traffic lights on the actual Expressway going with cars.

Why is this potentially significant? Page Mill is a rider's delight and you could potentially go from 280 to 101 using Oregon Expressway once you get passed El Camino Real. The big downfall here is that the Oregon Expressway underpass (under the train tracks and Alma) is a big no-no for bikes. You can however go around using the California Ave underpass!

genejockey 

Except between Arastradero and Deer Creek, where it's scary as hell!

paloaltan

I used to really fear the 280 interchange but it's gotten better with the change in bike lane. Car drivers still get easily confused. You're right, Page Mill totally bottlenecks and turns into Petit Thrill between Deer Creek and Arastradero.

genejockey 

I like to make the right onto Arastradero, then left onto Deer Creek,take a left at the light onto Page Mill again, then take Old Page Mill to get to Junipero Serra or whatever they call the Alameda de las Pulgas there. Old Page Mill surface is getting a little rugged anymore, but it's nice and bucolic.

Of course, when you reach the end of Old Page Mill, you have to cross Page Mill with no lights to get into the left lane to turn North on Junipero Serra, but you can see a good long way in both directions

Chester

Try riding the Bay Trail and offshoots of trail that follow levees out into the Bay. There's some that's paved, some gravelly, some hard-packed dirt. Can go up to Palo Alto and Menlo Park from Mt. View or Sunnyvale without worry about cars. Some sections may have a lot of pedestrians, but there are long stretches with very little traffic and/or very wide pathways. If you want to drive to ideal spot, depending on how much mileage you want to do, try going to Shoreline Lake and riding up through Palo Alto Baylands Preserve and on up to Bedwell Bayfront Park in Menlo Park, north of 84 where the Dumbarton meets the Peninsula. I think that would be about 20 miles.

Depending on your tolerance for the connector streets, you can circumnavigate most of the Bay away from cars.

Another poster mentioned the multi-use San Jose path that goes all the way down to Morgan Hill. Imagine he means Coyote Creek Trail, which goes all the way down to Lake Anderson. The further south on the trail you go, the less people on it you'll see.

paloaltan

Chester Do you have a recommended route for how to go from Cooley Landing to Bedwell Park? Looks like there's a new boardwalk portion that was still closed off the last time I checked. Are the local streets through EPA manageable?

totheDude

Central? You must be suicidal.

Foothill Expwy, where cyclists have been killed, is another one to avoid.

Geekage

Yeah, so does everyone else, bicyclists and drivers.

Please, this is not the place to be judgemental about others' decisions. Everyone has their own levels of risk tolerance and people have adequately pointed out the dangerous parts of Central.

If​ that's not your cup of tea, fine. I have ridden Central from Mountain View to San Jose airport and find it preferable to surface streets because it is predictable where cars will be entering and exiting. There is one relatively narrow section of shoulder near SJC, and one should take care crossing the light rail tracks in Mountain View, but otherwise the bike lane is fine.

I am not surprised that someone has been killed on Foothill, but people are killed on almost every road. Foothill is a major cycling corridor between Sunnyvale and Palo Alto with a relatively wide, we'll marked bike lane. Most alternative routes are going to subject a rider to more potential for roadway conflict due to a higher number of crossings and entrys/exits.

I have balanced the risks and rewards of biking on these expressways vs. their alternatives, and I ride the expressways. Please don't make value judgements about me just because I do.

totheDude

Sorry Geekage, this is a public forum and I expressed my opinion--with the hope of dissuading others from doing it.

You want to cycle on Central? Suit yourself. But you can't control how other people feel about that.

And BTW, I think I have a reasonably high risk tolerance, but I would never do that.

Geekage

Agreed, I can't control people's feeling, but I was hoping to provide more information for someone who might not have made up their mind yet.

And maybe to rationalize my own behavior
See, if you had said that originally, I would have no problem. I respect that view, but I object to calling ​​​​​​someone crazy for considering something different. Even if this is a public forum, it's still nice to have some level of civility and respectful discourse.

But this has gone off tangent, so I'll quit now.