What this needs is restrooms. If a park is built, restrooms are part of the mix. This trail is expanding where miles are covered and not a bathroom in sight.

Never mind the bathrooms, how about more water fountains?

@noneckjoe:

I'm sorry, but it's pretty easy to bring a water bottle. Not so easy to bring a toilet.....

Actually there is a proposal for a bathroom near Crittenden Lane.

There's a bathroom at Shoreline Park and more at some of the parks along the trail near downtown.

The most important consideration for the trail extension is safety from cars. The existing trail has zero car intersections. There used to be one intersection at Moffett, but that was replaced by a bridge because cars kept running the red lights and hitting or almost hitting trail users in the crosswalk. The new section of trail has to be designed to be just as safe as the current trail if we want it to be successful. This includes nighttime trail use, since many people use the trail to commute to work and it is dark during rush hour in the winter.

A cool place to smoke, maaan!

Whisman Park is on the trail and has restrooms. Shoreline has restrooms.

There are water fountains at Shoreline, Avenida trailhead, Whisman Park, Creekside Park, Landels Park, Yuba trailhead, Sleeper trailhead, etc.

If you have an urgent need to use a restroom along the trail, odds are you'll be out of luck unless you are near a restroom. This is how most of the world is. Plan ahead and know where the current bathrooms are if you think you might need one.

The Stevens Creek Trail is way better than the Stanford Dish Trail which has no restrooms anywhere along its 4 mile length.

@Trailer

Makes a lot of sense in principle. But I've seen several articles about indecent exposure and other shenanigans on the trail. It's not a trail that's out in the wilderness, where common sense must prevail. It's a trail in a suburban setting. People may use it at any time of day or night, for exercise or recreation or commute or whatever reason. So I think the "normal" rules don't apply.

People use it with great lack of "common" sense. No water bottle, no flashlight, don't look over their shoulder, have their iPod on loud and can't hear people sneaking up behind them, don't notice the sun going down, etc. Many folks treat it more like a hidden sidewalk than a trail.

If you go hiking in the woods and the call of nature comes, you do your business as discretely as possible, and most people have the common sense to not freak out about that. A golf course is 5 miles walking, and people don't freak out if they see someone in the trees off to the side.

But Stevens Creek trail caters to more than outdoorspeople. So for the same reason a bus station or an airport or a train station should have restrooms, so should the trail.

That said, maybe the ones we already have are enough. I personally have never had a problem.

@AC: Yes, I carry a water bottle - one when I run and a couple when on my bike. For long runs/rides...I still run out. I have a Camelback too which I sometimes take on bike rides but prefer not to use it for runs. The hotter the weather....the more I wish there were more fountains. Sounds like I may be alone on this though ;-)

Would be awesome to have a direct route from Remington Ave to the trail. Would save me 5 minutes on my commute.

What we need on the trail is a grocery store or farmers market that serves fresh fruit, that can not be accessed by cars, but is at the intersection of the trail and the high speed rail, that has small rental units for several floors over it, and a bike shop that fixes flat tires.... and a pizza parlor... and a segway rental place.... and a place to charge your ipod.... and wifi the whole length of the trail....and shelters for the homeless people... and Park and Rec programs for child care.... what am I forgetting? There must be something else the government can do for us?

Don't forget about Permanente Creek! It should be another main bike path through the middle of Mountain View, but City Council is allowing it to be built over the top of along El Camino and Mariposa! Bet you did not even know there was a creek there! It is trapped inside a pipe, and most of the water is diverted into Stevens Creek at Fremont Avenue. Without the diversion, Permante Creek is a nicer creek than Stevens Creek.
We already have the North End of the trail from Middle-field over 101 to the bay! Wake up City Council! Don't let big business apartment builders use our creek for parking lots and private landscape space!

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