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

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.