My May Surprise

I'm a passionate bike rider. I find it to be a fun way to get around Mountain View, that combines light exercise with my usual commute to work. It keeps me connected to my community, as I can stop and talk to people as I go about my day-to-day activities. Across my commutes, exercise, and leisure, I rode my bike about 2300 miles in 2023.

No activity is without risk, however, and earlier this year, I unfortunately fell and broke my hand. Eagle-eyed viewers of the board meetings may have noticed my late arrival on the date of the accident at the May 8, 2025 board meeting, wearing a brace, followed by subsequent meetings wearing a cast.

Fortunately, my recovery has gone well, but as mentioned in a previous newsletter, it required some improvising of my official duties during fifth grade promotion: I doled out many congratulatory fist-bumps instead of the usual handshakes. However, it was more disruptive to my usual activities, as I could no longer ride my bike as my main mode of transportation, nor could I drive my car.

With Transit Month kicking off for September, I thought this would be a great opportunity to document how I managed this challenge. As I'll go through later, this led me to learn more about navigating Mountain View in some ways I hadn’t before. Our city has a robust, if imperfect, network of alternative methods of transit, and my experience highlights our deep need for continued investment in accessible, non-car infrastructure for all residents, including students.

When Driving is Not an Option

Serendipitously, I’ve been reading When Driving is Not an Option by Anna Zivarts. From the description on the publisher’s book page:

When I started the book, prior to my accident, I saw myself reflected as the “choice” nondriver in the book: “people who have the financial resources, immigration status, and physical ability to own and drive a vehicle but choose not to,” among the “voices that tend to dominate bike advocacy, transit nerd, and city planning spaces.” While I am not car-free, I live a car-light lifestyle, and I am fortunate enough to be able live that way.

After my accident, it became much more relevant. I was now, for a brief time, a nondriver by necessity. While my experiences during this time only scratch the surface of the challenges facing the diverse category of nondrivers, it was an important learning experience for me.

Making it Work in Mountain View

Mountain View is a great city for biking: we can take pride in a whopping Bike Score of 92! Our walk and transit scores are good, but not quite as good as the bike score. Taking that into consideration, I was a bit apprehensive about how well I’d be able to make this shift. With my knowledge base of bike routes in the city now mostly useless, it was going to require a significant amount of reorganization and thought to make my days work.

Mountain View Community Shuttle

The Mountain View Community Shuttle, a service provided by the. The Community Shuttle operates weekdays from 7 AM to 7 PM and on weekends/holidays from 10 AM to 6 PM, with comprehensive coverage across 50 stops throughout the city. Among these stops are some key community points, including the Mountain View Transit Center, Senior and Teen Center, and schools like Crittenden Middle School and Graham Middle School.

It’s through the stops at the middle schools that I was initially familiar with the shuttle. As nondrivers themselves due to their age, many students in the district rely on this service once they’ve reached middle school, my own child being one of them.

Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)

VTA runs both the light rail and a bus system that serve Mountain View. Living in the Whisman Station neighborhood, the light rail is a fantastic resource to get into downtown relatively quickly. I wouldn’t use it for long distances, but this segment is extremely convenient.

The VTA bus lines connect many places around the area here. Particularly relevant to me, the VTA 40 bus line runs to my work in North Bayshore. It picks up on Shoreline a short distance from the District Office, which made it convenient to get between meetings at both the Mountain View Whisman School District and my day job. That very same stop on Shoreline is directly in front of the district’s staff housing at the Sevens, connecting it to Foothill College, the San Antonio shopping center, and the Transit Center.

Caltrain

While not part of my day-to-day, for longer distances Caltrain was great to help move. The recent electrification has improved the frequency of service and speed of the trains, making it a great way to get up and down the peninsula where other modes of transit are impractical. During rush hour, it’s often easily the quickest way to get between peninsula and South Bay cities.

The Kindness of Others

I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that having a spouse who was able to drive me places was an important safety net. Without this, I would have had to rely on taxis or friends to help make urgent trips. While I appreciated the selfless help, the social obligation, the disruption to my spouse’s day, and the loss of independence would weigh on me if this was a long-term situation.

Hoofing It

Pedestrian infrastructure is a final connector. Well-maintained sidewalks, pedestrian bridges, and abundant crosswalks help getting around that last mile. Thanks to the Permanente Creek Trail Bridge over 101, I was able to walk between Crittenden Middle School and North Bayshore. Without pedestrian-focused infrastructure and connections, this trip would be unreasonable without a vehicle.

Transit App

The Transit App was an essential tool in my planning and getting around in the moment. It combines schedules from many different public transportation services, including the ones I highlighted above, and helps navigate along with walking and biking. I continue to use it to this day to be able to plan my trips.

Back to Schools

My experiences here directly connect to Anna Zivarts' argument: "improving our transportation system with nondrivers in mind will create a better quality of life for everyone". This experience reminded me that we all have been and will be nondrivers during our lives. She argues that designing transportation systems with the needs of the most vulnerable users at the forefront ultimately leads to a better quality of life, healthier communities, and climate-friendly outcomes for all.

The City of Mountain View's Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program, launched in 2011, embodies this philosophy. Its foundational goal is to promote walking and bicycling among students and families, thereby reducing traffic accidents and encouraging active transportation. This is a key part in the growth of children: designing safe, active transportation for students allows them to develop independence and self-sufficiency. The same reliance I bristled at above when receiving rides from others applies just as well to younger people.

As both a school board member and a parent, the start of the new school year has brought the car pickup and dropoff line back to the forefront of my mind. Our district’s lines are not as bad as some places, I have to suspect in no small part due to the success of our SRTS program and the City’s Active Transportation Plan, but they still are a source of frustration amongst drivers and nondrivers.

Even though the SRTS program is focused on children, it can be a blueprint for universal design and mobility for the entire community. Routes designed to be safe and accessible for a child walking or biking to school are inherently safer and more usable for an elderly person, an individual with a temporary injury, or someone using a mobility aid. SRTS is not just a school program, but a foundational strategy for achieving a broader inclusive urban environment.

What’s Next?

The cast is off my hand, and I have been cleared by my doctor to resume riding my bike again (with the strong recommendation that I not fall while riding it). I’ve managed to pick up biking once again, but this experience provided me with new tools to get around.

My key takeaway is clear: strategic investments in accessible infrastructure and diverse, resilient transit options, like those championed by the Safe Routes to School program, are not merely acts of inclusivity but fundamental steps toward creating a more robust, equitable, and enjoyable city for all residents, irrespective of their driving status, physical ability, or age. When transportation systems are designed with these users in mind, the benefits ripple outward, enhancing the quality of life for everyone.

Monday, September 29 to Sunday, October 5 is this year’s Week Without Driving. I encourage you to give it a try. I guarantee even attempting it will be eye-opening about life in our city! I hope you’ll discover that many trips are manageable and even more enjoyable without a car, and that you’ll encourage the city and transit agencies to improve the ones that are not.