New plan unveiled to build a bike path along the Bay Bridge

Cyclists hoping to bike from Oakland to San Francisco might finally have an option someday. The Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) released plans on November 19 showing that it’s feasible to build a path attached to the western span of the Bay Bridge for bicycles and pedestrians. Estimates for the cost of the project run high—upwards of $300 million—but MTC hopes to make the case that it’s an investment worth making to improve the commute to and from the city.

“BART is at capacity. The ferries are at capacity. The express bus across the bay, the Transbay buses, are at capacity. And frankly, when you look at the bridge it’s full of cars all the time,” said Andrew Fremier, MTC’s deputy executive director of operations. “If you can get a number of folks on bikes during the morning peak and the afternoon peak, and if it was just a small percentage of commuters that actually got out of the train or got out of the vehicles and got onto the path, you could make a difference.“

Even if MTC is able to secure funds for the project, the path won’t be open anytime soon. Fremier says the project would likely take up to 10 years to build, start to finish, once it’s funded.