Maude Avenue Complete Street Project
Location
Maude Avenue between Mathilda Avenue & Fair Oaks Avenue
City or County Responsible for Project
City of Sunnyvale
Category
Complete Streets Projects
Author
Lillian Tsang
City of Sunnyvale
456 West Olive Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94088
408-730-7556
Project Description
The study corridor is 1.3 miles long along Maude Avenue between Fair Oaks Avenue and Mathilda Avenue. It is an east-west industrial/commercial collector roadway that connects SR-237 on the west to Wolfe Road on the east. It is predominately one lane in each direction with a two-way center turn lane, providing direct access to Sunnyvale Business Park on the west, which houses businesses such as Apple Inc. and Linkedin, and direct access to Downtown Sunnyvale and Caltrain station on the south. It also provides direct access to Bishop Elementary School to the east, and several apartment complexes and retail shopping centers along both sides of the corridor. Maude Avenue carries approximately 14,000 vehicles on a typical weekday, with an 85th percentile travel speed of 35 miles per hour. Parking is allowed on either side of the corridor. Bicycle lanes are already provided on Maude Avenue west of the project corridor, however, there is a gap in bike lanes between Pastoria Avenue and Wolfe Road. Long queues and substantial delay are observed on Maude Avenue during the peak hours. Over a recent three-year period, 79 collisions were reported along the project corridor, of which 21 involved injuries and one fatality, and four involved pedestrians and bicyclists. The main objective of this project is to provide a complete street solution for this corridor, to improve safety, to provide safe routes to schools, and to improve connectivity to Downtown Sunnyvale and the surrounding businesses. This project eliminated on-street parking and provided buffered bike lanes along Maude Avenue, which improved safety for all modes of travel by separating bicycles from vehicles, by eliminating conflicts with parked cars, and by shifting bicyclists from the sidewalk to the bike lane. Pedestrian improvements were also proposed to improve safety for pedestrians: sidewalks were upgraded to comply with ADA standards; channelized right-turn movements at Maude Avenue & Sunnyvale Avenue were removed to reduce crossing distance; an existing bus stop was relocated to reduce midblock crossing. The lane geometry along the corridor was reconfigured to convert the center turn lane to a through lane to minimize delay and to reduce vehicle queues along Maude Avenue. Three signalized intersections were upgraded with the installation of bike detectors and the connection to the City’s Central Adaptive Signal Management System, which resulted in over 60% of reduction in vehicle delay. The implementation of this project provides a complete street solution along the corridor, provides a connectivity to the local businesses, downtown Sunnyvale, as well as Caltrain station, supports safe and efficient bicycle, pedestrian and transit facilities, minimizes effects on congestion, provides safe routes to schools along and near the project corridor. The safety benefits of this project lead to an increase in bicycle and walking activities throughout the study area.
Add Comment