I am a bike commuter and it has been a pathway for me to become more involved in the civic life of Silicon Valley. Just having that small amount of different perspective on our car-centered infrastructure makes you realize how bikes, transit, housing, healthcare, and business are super connected and need to be managed for the economic health of the whole Bay Area.The main thing, as this article shows, is that everything works better when business takes the lead -- because there's more respect for business in American than for government and NGOs. Also business can move faster at trying new ideas -- e.g. the famous Google shuttle bus fleet -- while it takes literally decades to build new train lines, despite booming demand. Plus, that's where the money is! The $5mm that Google is giving away to help locales think about their bike master plan is chump change to them but could have tremendous benefits for a lot of commuters in the area.

I was a little surprised at the "bike stress" map because honestly I think it makes things seem worse than they are. On a daily basis my biggest stress points are in front of schools during the morning drop-off period because MOMS IS CRAY. If her child is about to be late for school, every bitch in an SUV will run you over without a second thought. And of course every cyclist these days lives in mortal fear of texting drivers.

In the big picture the major bike stress point is crossing the freeway. Most of the big employers are headquartered on the east side of the 101, and there are only like 4 safe over or under passes for cyclists in the entire Silicon Valley area.

That stress map is unclear on the safe over or under passes.

I liked your line about bikes, transit, housing, healthcare, and business all being interconnected.