Political Notes: Out Sunnyvale councilmember recovers after being hit by a car on his bike

Sunnyvale City Councilmember Richard Mehlinger has long been an advocate for bicycle and pedestrian issues. It was part of his pitch to voters when he first sought election to his governing body three years ago, and he has been a steadfast vote for more bike lanes and other street safety measures ever since.

So, the irony was not lost on the queer and bisexual South Bay leader when he was injured by a car driver who hit him while biking home this summer. He was on his e-bike at the time, returning from brunch with several of his constituents.

“Right after the car did,” Mehlinger, 38, quipped about it hitting him how ironic his accident was.

It occurred at 12:45 p.m. Saturday, August 30, on California Avenue about a block from his townhouse he owns in the Cannery Park neighborhood. The roadway does not have a protected bike lane.

Bystanders helped get him and his bike up off the street, gave him ice for his injuries, and waited with him until public safety officials arrived. After getting his damaged e-bike home, Mehlinger was driven to the ER by a friend.

“I was in a fair bit of pain,” he said. “When you have a crash like that, your mind stops working for a second or two. You get up and just sort of check yourself out and see what is broken and damaged and so forth.”

A police report of the incident has yet to be released, said Mehlinger, who told the Bay Area Reporter he didn’t want to go into specific details due to his possibly bringing legal action against the vehicle driver. The person did stop after hitting him.

The crash left Mehlinger, who is right-handed, with a broken left thumb and a broken right wrist. A software engineer, he has had difficulty typing as fast as he once could but has found some workarounds to allow him to return to his job part-time last week and continue attending to his council duties.

“While I have a good prognosis, this promises to be a trying couple of months, as both of my hands are in casts. I am so grateful to my many friends are stepping up to help, and for all the well wishes I've received,” Mehlinger had noted in a post last month on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10102844689920524&set=a.624504341264 with a photo of him bandaged up. “One thing is for certain: I won't stop advocating for safer streets in Sunnyvale and the region. Forward (for now, very slowly, and with apologies for the crazy eyes).”

Speaking to the B.A.R. Friday, September 19, after returning home from a doctor’s visit, Mehlinger said it will be “another couple of weeks” until the cast on his right hand is removed. As for the one on his left hand, it is “unclear,” he said.

“Your first feeling is ‘Oh expletive!’ I am on the ground. I am in asphalt. I am in the street. The first thing you do is a mental check and see if can I get up, what is injured, and what is not? I very quickly realized both of my hands were in bad shape,” recalled Mehlinger, though he was unaware about the extent of his injuries until told later by the doctors who treated him at the hospital.

His parents are staying with him to assist him during his recovery and various friends also have been helping him out. Life over the last several weeks has been “very challenging,” said Mehlinger, who is grateful he wasn’t more severely injured.

“I definitely play that moment, though, in my head quite a bit,” he said. “What could I have done differently? The fact is, frankly, I could have died.”

Prior to being elected to his District 5 council seat, Mehlinger had chaired his city's advisory body for bicycle and pedestrian issues. On the campaign trail, one of the promises he made to people he spoke to at their front doors was ensuring local children could “bike and walk to school safety,” he noted.

 
It was why he voted for a controversial plan regarding bike lanes on a main street in town that runs near several schools as a councilmember, which the B.A.R. had noted back in August 2023. https://www.ebar.com/story/71492 He had just bought his e-bike at the time and was seeing firsthand the various issues on his city's streets.

His attention was on strengthening the city’s Vision Zero plan to eliminate pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities in the city by 2039, with a goal of reducing them by 50% reduction by 2029.

As the news site San Jose Spotlight noted in its coverage https://sanjosespotlight.com/sunnyvale-councilmember-injured-in-bike-accident/ of Mehlinger’s accident, Sunnyvale has recorded 11 pedestrian or cyclist fatalities on Sunnyvale’s streets since 2020, with two occurring in the first half of this year, while another 36 people were injured.

“We are not on track. Serious crashes have been increasing,” said Mehlinger, whose own accident is not considered serious since he wasn’t transported by ambulance to the hospital. “I feel, more strongly than ever, we need to be doing more to make our streets safer for everybody.”

In the coming months, the council is to vote on amending the Vision Zero plan to state that safety is the “primary consideration when doing traffic analysis,” noted Mehlinger, something he had called for last year. He also wants to see the city work faster on adding bike lanes and crosswalks called for in its Active Transportation Plan https://www.sunnyvale.ca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/2844/637822670426570000 it adopted in 2020 .

“As a city, we need to be doing more to really, truly build safer infrastructure for everybody,” said Mehlinger. “We have made some improvements but are not there yet.
That is something I feel very passionate about.”

Another solution he is amendable to looking at is adding automated traffic cameras along problematic corridors in Sunnyvale that would mail out tickets to vehicles captured speeding at least 10 miles over the posted limit. A law state legislators enacted in 2023 allowed several cities, including Oakland and San Francisco, to use such technology on a trial basis through January 1, 2032.

SF speed cameras
The East Bay was the second to launch what is known as the Speed Safety System Pilot Program and expects 18 of the cameras to be operational by year’s end. San Francisco was the first to do it, with it turning on its 33 cameras earlier this year and issuing tickets as of August.

One is located a few blocks from the heart of the city’s LGBTQ Castro district on Market Street between Danvers and Douglass streets. Neighborhood groups and street safety advocates recently held a party at the cameras and held signs calling on drivers to slow down.

Joining them was gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, currently president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He posted photos from the event to his social media accounts afterward.

“The cameras here have decreased speeding by 15%!” he noted in an Instagram post. https://www.instagram.com/p/DOg9sJukvMy/?img_index=1

While he hasn’t thought a lot about the program, Mehlinger nonetheless told the B.A.R. he thinks installing the cameras in Sunnyvale “is a very interesting idea” and they could “potentially be a very valuable tool” if the state law is extended to cover other cities.

For the time being, he will be focused on pushing Sunnyvale city officials to fast track the projects called for in its transportation plan. With him planning to seek another four-year term on the fall 2026 ballot, Mehlinger could be doing so for years to come.

“I am more committed than ever to building safe streets for this city,” he said. “People should be able to walk and bike safely in Sunnyvale, and we need to be doing more to make that a reality.”

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