Bay Trail

MTC Joins Region in Celebrating Bay Trail's 20th Anniversary

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Coyote Hills Regional Shoreline (Photo: Ron Horii)

Bay Trail Reflections

"San Francisco Bay is the visual icon that gives our region its name and its identity. But without the Bay Trail, in many places the Bay would be remote and separate from the communities around the Bay. The Bay Trail is the public’s main entrance to the Bay. It is our doorway to all the wonder, drama and beauty the Bay brings to all of our lives."
— Will Travis, Executive Director, Bay Conservation and Development Commission

“The dream of a bayside network of pathways to link communities with each other and with the incredible natural resource of the San Francisco Bay started as just a gleam in the eye of Senator Lockyer and other visionaries some two decades ago. We at MTC are proud to have been there from the beginning, providing financial and planning support to make that vision a reality. This is a case where the end product is more than the sum of its parts; this chain of links fundamentally changes how we view the Bay, how we view ourselves in relationship to it, and how we get around.”
— Steve Heminger, Executive Director, Metropolitan Transportation Commission

"The Bay Trail is the people’s playground. It connects the region’s diverse communities, provides a sense of place for residents and is an outdoor classroom that will serve generations to come. The Trail has surpassed the vision I had 20 years ago when the community and I worked together to write the law that created this wonderful resource. The Bay Trail is the glue that links the people, wildlife and shoreline together in one of the most magnificent areas of the world."
— State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, Hayward resident and "Father of the Bay Trail"

"The Bay Trail is our backyard, our stroll around the Bay, our gateway to the shore, and a transportation link to commercial, industrial, and residential neighborhoods encircling the Bay. Twenty years of effort have made this recreational corridor one of the best in the country. The Bay Trail is about added value-from biking and hiking trails, bay shore parks, and environmental restoration, to community health and economic vitality-the project’s quality of life vision made tangible. We have more paths to travel, and more than 175 miles to go before the Trail is complete, but we have come far."
— Henry Gardner, Executive Director, Association of Bay Area Governments

May 2009
If you have ever walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, flown a kite along the waterfront in Tiburon, hiked through the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge or windsurfed off of Candlestick Point, then you have enjoyed the San Francisco Bay Trail. This year marks the trail’s 20th anniversary, and after two decades of improvements since its groundbreaking, almost 300 miles of trails have been built. Sponsors are celebrating with a series of events around the region.

Currently 60 percent complete, the Bay Trail ultimately will be a continuous 500-mile corridor that will encircle the San Francisco and San Pablo bays, linking the shorelines of all nine Bay Area counties. The next segment of the Bay Trail will be completed in the summer of 2009, when the pathway across the Benicia-Martinez Bridge opens to the public.

In the face of climate change, the Bay Trail provides an important commute alternative for bicyclists, and connects to numerous public transit facilities, including ferry terminals, light-rail lines, bus stops, and Caltrain, Amtrak, BART and VTA stations. The Bay Trail also provides free and easily accessible recreational opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts, including hikers, joggers, bicyclists, rollerbladers and wheelchair users. The Bay Trail connects nearly 100 waterfront parks, creating a linked greenbelt along the shoreline, reminding us of our shared connection to the San Francisco Bay.

Senate Bill 100, authored by then-state Senator Bill Lockyer and passed into law in 1987, directed the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) to develop a plan for this "ring around the Bay," including a specific alignment for the Bay Trail. Since 1989, MTC has been a major financial contributor to the planning of the Bay Trail, providing over $2.4 million to ABAG for this purpose. Over the years, MTC also has helped finance the construction of various Bay Trail segments. The pace of construction will likely accelerate in the coming months and years thanks to the Transportation 2035 Plan just adopted by MTC, which calls for investing $1 billion in completing the Regional Bicycle Network, including the Bay Trail system.

For more information on the Bay Trail, go to baytrail.org.

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