The outreach involving students

On April 1, 2022, the City of Cupertino came to Monta Vista and set up a booth during lunch to inform students about the Local Road Safety Plan, Safe Routes to School and Via, a public transport company, all which have partnered with the City of Cupertino to encourage cleaner modes of transportation.

Birgit Werner, who works for the city and is a member of the Safe Routes to School team, stood by a table that contained information about the LRSP and handed out yellow, orange and red stickers to students to place on maps to express their varying concerns. Yellow was for areas with concern, orange was for areas where students had near misses and red was areas where students witnessed accidents. 

There is also an online version of these maps where individuals can drop pins and write a short comment on what the incident was. The information gathered from both the sticker map and its online version will go to the city traffic engineers, who will then evaluate the information. 

“If there’s a corner that gets a whole bunch of stickers or drop pins, they’ll go out and watch that corner and figure out what was so bad about it,” Werner said. “They’ll take all that information and figure out what they can do to make it better.”

Junior Kelly Tung, one of the two student MVHS representatives of Safe Routes to School describes SR2S as a “city-led organization committed to creating a safer environment for students in Cupertino to travel to and from school.” The organization has created and shared maps to allow them to navigate intersections, bike routes and crosswalks safely. 

Tung attends monthly group meetings for SR2S in which members discuss topics related to bike and pedestrian safety such as Cupertino’s infrastructure. Anyone within the community can join to express their thoughts and suggestions on how SR2S could improve these elements. 

“Safety is definitely a concern that parents hold,” Tung said. “A few years ago, there was an accident [at] the intersection near 7-Eleven where a biker was killed by a big truck. I think that specific event made Monta Vista parents wary of [allowing] their kids [to bike] to school and I wish we could incorporate more safe trails. Cupertino [is doing] its part in trying to make our roads safer; for example, they incorporated a [protected bike] lane down McClellan.”

Ultimately, Tung and Werner want to encourage biking and walking and promote change throughout the city to make roads safer for everyone. 

“It’s a beautiful sunny day,” Werner said. “Walk and bike to school, take Via, take the bus. It’s gorgeous. Leave the stinky car at home.”