Children up to the age of 12 can now ride bicycles on the sidewalk in Cupertino.

At a Feb. 7 meeting on Feb. 7, the city council voted 3-2 in favor of amending the municipal code to raise the minimum sidewalk riding age from 10 to 12.

Councilmen Rod Sinks and Steven Scharf cast the dissenting votes, citing safety concerns related to older children riding recklessly on sidewalks and cars backing out of driveways, among other issues.

Timm Borden, director of public works, told the council that the city was hearing concerns from parents about their middle school students riding in the street.

“It came to the attention of our bike-pedestrian commission that children between the ages of 10 and 12 were being required to ride in the streets on some of the streets near schools that aren’t sufficiently wide for bike lanes,” he said.

Scharf asked city staff if there are specific streets that raised the concern.

“Some streets keep coming up, for example Rainbow Drive, which has a lot of school vehicle traffic,” said David Stillman, senior civil engineer with the city. “It’s too narrow for bicycle lanes, and children from Kennedy (Middle School) use that road to access school.

“The issues that were discussed were that the line would have to be drawn somewhere,” Stillman added. “As the age of the students increases, they’re more skilled to ride in the streets and they’re more likely, frankly, to probably be a little reckless riding on the sidewalk, so the bike commission felt that 12 was an appropriate age to cut it off.”

Stillman said the city looked at three years’ worth of accident data for bicyclists ages 9-12.

“There were 10 documented accidents within that three-year period for bicyclists within that age group,” he said. “Of those 10, five of them could potentially have been prevented if those children were allowed to ride their bicycles on the sidewalk.”

Art Cohen, a resident and parent of children that would be affected by the change, said he fully supports the idea.

“I have an 11- and a 12-year-old; they ride in the street,” he told the council. “And unfortunately, statistically, a lot of times things aren’t reported. You have 10 reports, I know of number 11 and it’s not even with my kids; it’s one of their friends. He was hit, and it was a hit-and run-right in Rancho Rinconada. He wasn’t hurt that bad, scuffed his knee and arm. But if kids can ride on the sidewalk, even for short periods of time, I think that’s reasonable.”

Cohen said it’s up to the drivers to be careful around bicyclists, especially children, because children can’t be expected to know how to anticipate a driver’s movements.

Capt. Rich Urena, commander of the sheriff’s West Valley patrol division, supported the city’s plan.

“I have a 6-year-old daughter, and anytime we ride a bicycle we’re always on the sidewalk simply because I have seen a lot of accidents in my time, and certainly protecting our children is something I think we all take as a priority,” he said. “For me, allowing somebody to ride on the sidewalk that’s 12 or under sounds reasonable, given the traffic we have in this city.”

Stillman said the city looked into what adjacent cities are doing with sidewalk riding, and no two cities have the same approach.

“It’s all over the map in terms of what other cities do,” he said. “There’s no consistent approach to this among any of the cities in the area or in the entire Bay (Area), for that matter. Some cities prohibit riding on sidewalks entirely, some cities allow minors, some restrict cycling in business districts. There’s no trend one direction or the other.”

Some residents also suggested offering bicycle safety classes as part of physical education at schools. The council expressed interest in more city-wide bicycle education and in working with schools.

“I certainly agree with the comment that kids need more training,” Sinks said. “I see it when kids dart out from a parking lot right across a busy roadway in the crosswalk. I’ve almost hit a couple kids in this city. I’ve actually called the sheriff and said maybe you ought to be out here helping these kids. So they’ll come out and issue citations so kids really do understand that their life is worth something. The training thing is so very important.”

For more information, visit cupertino.org/bicycling.