The Bay Trail is a an ambitious project, spearheaded by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), that seeks to create a continuous, 500 mile trail all along the Bay’s coastline. The project will create a public space ringing the Bay we all have come to love so much. Today, 310 of the 500 miles are complete. But what about Oakland you ask?
First, we must understand how the Bay Trail project works. ABAG adopted the Bay Trail Plan in 1989, seeking plan future growth around the Bay. These policies guide the plan. Cities around the Bay received the plan with open arms, a good thing, since they own the land along the Bay.

To Oakland

Both the city and the people of Oakland have been very supportive of the Bay Trail. The Passage of Measure DD bond measure in 2002 is evidence of this. The measure partly funds the development of Oakland's shoreline Bay Trail from Jack London Square to the Martin Luther King Regional Shoreline. However, such an ambitious project does not come without roadblocks. Lee Huo, Bay Trail planner, ABAG contact for Alameda and Contra Costa counties, and designer and editor of Bay Trail Rider, says, “One of the greatest challenges in completing the Bay Trail is to obtain the property rights to do so.” However, Huo goes on to applaud Oakland, “the City has been diligently negotiating with different property owners and using the Measure DD funds to leverage additional funding to build the Bay Trail piece by piece.” Dave Campbell, from East Bay Bike Coalition, specifically cites the Port of Oakland as one of the major impediment’s to Oakland’s completion of its Bay Trail. He says that while Oakland does have a smaller percentage of its Trail completed than do other cities, such as Richmond, the Bay Trail shining star, the project remains one of the city’s “higher priorities.”

What next?

The Bay Trail people have worked with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, CalTrans, and the state legislature to have a cycling/pedestrian path included on the new Eastern span of the Bay Bridge. A path will be added to the western span in the not-too-distant future. This will provide a key human-scale link between two of the Bay Area’s most important cities: Oakland and San Francisco.
Of Oakland’s 38 planned miles of trail, 24 are already complete. Huo says these miles are “being used as both a place to recreate along the shoreline and a way to commute to work.” They add form and function to the city and people of Oakland.
So, now that you know more about the Bay Trail’s history, present condition, and future plans, it’s time you take advantage of such a unique regional planning project. The beauty of the Bay can not be wasted. With their commitment to the Bay Trail, Oakland, along with ABAG and the other Bay Area cities, area making sure that that does not happen.