OVERVIEW OF THE RICHMOND BAY TRAIL

See the Jan 31, 2008 San Francisco Chronicle article: Richmond Shoreline Parks: Trails and history

The San Francisco Bay Trail is a planned 500-mile recreational and transportation corridor encircling San Francisco and San Pablo Bays.  Authorized by State legislation in 1987, cities and counties developed the Bay Trail Plan in 1989 under the auspices of the Bay Trail Project of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). As of mid year 2010, 300 miles of Bay Trail had been completed.

In 2000, the Richmond City Council adopted Resolution 2-00 stating:

• “The Bay Trail will make Richmond a better place to live and work by creating new recreational opportunities for bicycling, walking, running and roller skating. facilitating access to shoreline parks, allowing residents to walk and bicycle between neighborhoods, and reducing automobile traffic and congestion.”
• “The Bay Trail will provide economic benefits to Richmond by showcasing Richmond’s beauty and recreational values, attracting visitors and new residents, and contributing to a climate that attracts new business.”

Richmond has 32 miles of shoreline -- more than any other city on San Francisco and San Pablo Bays. With 26 miles of Bay Trail now in place, Richmond stands out as having more Bay Trail built than any other City. The Bay Trail now links all of the parks along Richmond’s Southern Shoreline connecting Point Isabel with Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline via the City’s Marina Bay parks -- Shimada, Marina Bay, Barbara & Jay Vincent and Lucretia Edwards (where you may take a self-guided Bay Trail walking/biking tour). Download a high resolution map of Richmond’s built and planned Bay Trail routes.

Credit for the 26 miles of Bay Trail now built goes to the City of Richmond and the East Bay Regional Park District, as well as private development projects which incorporated important Bay Trail segments thanks to encouragement by the City and BCDC. Completing Richmond’s remaining 15 miles of planned Bay Trail will be challenging and time consuming.

Closing each gap will require access to land, planning studies, CEQA compliance, construction design and funding for each of these steps, as well as for construction itself. Cooperation of the private sector will be critical since many of the remaining gaps are located on private lands.

The upbeat 2010 Richmond  Bay Trail MID YEAR and NEW YEAR Reports are available! 
Download the Mid Year Report to learn about strides forward during the first half of 2010 and
Download the New Year Report to read all about advances made during 2009 and plans for 2010

To receive these and other hard copy progress reports on Richmond’s Bay Trail, as well as announcements of special events, send an email to TRAC, the Trails for Richmond Action Committee .

Photos this page courtesy of  Bob Walker and Ellen Gailing