The Dagmar Perspective

Over the past few months, I’ve become enlightened in the ways of biking (ok, ok, electric biking). What started as a curiosity has grown into a real joy, something I didn’t anticipate enjoying so much. These days, I find myself biking to places around Mountain View, where I live, on a regular basis. Meeting friends for dinner downtown? Take a bike. Grabbing coffee on the weekend? Take a bike. Small grocery run? Not a problem, take a bike!

Through this shift, I’ve realized biking has connected me more closely with the Mountain View community. When I drive my Prius, the route from point A to point B feels secondary. My body moves on autopilot and I find that my mind wanders, no longer paying close attention to how I got to my destination. With biking, I become more connected with the journey itself. Since I am more vulnerable on the road and required to give the trip my full attention, a positive side effect is that I have become more present and aware of my surroundings; a refreshing change of pace. I notice pedestrians on the sidewalk, the weather, even the smallest changes in the road. With biking you are no longer numbly traveling through space, you are engaging with it.

Of course, there are practical benefits too, like saving on gas (though in my case, with a Prius, the savings aren’t huge, but still!). At first, I only used my bike for nearby trails as a way to get outside and into nature. Recently, though, I’ve been replacing short car trips with bike rides. And here’s what I’ve learned: biking as true transportation only works when cities build infrastructure that supports it.

At first glance, Mountain View seems to do this well. Compared to many cities, Mountain View has made real investments in bike safety. The city’s website offers resources for beginners, weekly drop-in bike repair lessons at the library, and even an interactive biking map to plan routes ahead of time. There aren’t many cities that go this far to encourage biking, and Mountain View deserves credit for leading by example.

But it’s not perfect. I’ve run into challenges that make biking feel less viable as a primary way to get around. The biggest issue? Inconsistent (or nonexistent) bike lanes on major roads. Take Moffett Boulevard: it connects Highway 101 (and Google’s main campus) directly to downtown Castro Street, yet large portions of the road have no bike lane at all (see Figure 1). That forces bikers to share high-traffic, fast-moving lanes with cars. Having ridden this stretch many times, I can’t count the moments where I’ve felt uncomfortably close to traffic.

Middlefield Road is slightly better, but far from ideal. From Moffett to Rengstorff, the bike lane on Middlefield Road doubles as a parking lane. During evenings and weekends, it fills with parked cars, leaving bikers to weave in and out of traffic constantly (see Figure 2). In my opinion, it often feels more dangerous than Moffett. My guess is the city intended to prioritize weekday commuters (the signs restrict parking Monday through Friday, 7 am – 7 pm, see Figure 3), but I suspect more people use those lanes on weekends than weekdays. For obvious reasons, I can’t confirm my theory directly since I’m at work during commuter hours, but if anyone has this data, I’d be curious! Either way, when two major thoroughfares like Moffett and Middlefield are intimidating because of the lack of protected bike paths, it discourages new bikers from even trying.

Another challenge I didn’t anticipate: bike racks. You can have safe bike paths, but if there’s no secure place to leave your bike, a trip to any location becomes impossible. And bike racks aren’t always easy to find. A few weeks ago, I met friends for ramen downtown and decided it would be a perfect opportunity to take my bike. After several minutes of searching, I finally located a rack behind a bar, next to a dumpster in a dark alley (see Figure 4). The problem was, the rack wasn’t bolted to anything. I discovered this as I was locking my bike to the rack, and when I rested the weight of the bike on the rack, the entire unit shifted several inches. A thief could have walked away with my entire $1,800 bike simply by taking the rack with it. Needless to say, I kept looking until I found a better option on Castro Street (see Figure 5).

This isn’t a one-off problem. Many racks I’ve seen are poorly placed, unsecured, or scarce. Without reliable racks, bikers like myself end up locking bikes to signposts or other street fixtures (see Figure 6). It works in a pinch, but blocks sidewalks and frustrates pedestrians (rightfully so). Ideally, the city would create a public database of bike rack locations, maybe even integrate it into their interactive map. Until then, I’ve started mapping the racks I find on Google Maps. Now, don’t get too excited, to-date I have only logged 12 bike racks, all exclusively located in Mountain View. So if you happen to be a Mountain View resident who only needs to go to one of 12 locations, don’t worry, I got you covered! Jokes aside, although it is not much now, I am hoping by sharing what I have logged so far, it may help others begin their own biking journeys.

If you are thinking about trying out biking, I hope my reflections have helped in some way. I sincerely hope you give it a go! I know for myself, it has been a treasured new hobby, and one that I will likely continue for many years to come.