Want Less Traffic? Complete the Bay Trail.

The San Francisco Bay Trail, a 500-mile shoreline pedestrian and bicycle trail around the Bay, is enjoyed by residents every day for commuting and recreation.

The only problem is that 200 miles of it don't yet exist, resulting in gaps that force cyclists and hikers onto busy city streets to get through.

But many of the missing sections lie within Marin, Sonoma, and Napa counties in the North Bay. Menlo Park is lucky - it's smack in the center of a nearly continuous network of 100 miles of Bay Trail paths.

But a single one-mile gap in this 100-mile network is very frustrating for bike commuters. About half of it's in Menlo Park, and half in East Palo Alto. It forces cyclists on a two-mile detour that includes a state highway (University Ave), and a long series of congested residential streets.

Despite the difficulties, the Bay Trail through Menlo Park is heavily used by bike commuters - the most recent counts showed 30 cyclists per hour (or, one every other minute) use it during the morning peak commute period.

But that was in November. Next Spring, with warmer temperatures, a recently completed section of the Bay Trail around in Mountain View, and to its new Menlo Park Campus, the Bay Trail in Menlo Park could accommodate hundreds of bike commuters every day.

And if the Menlo Park/East Palo Alto gap were completed?

The Bay Trail would then be very nearly continuous all the way from San Francisco International Airport to downtown San Jose on the Peninsula, and from Oakland to Fremont in the East Bay - creating a network of over 100 miles of bike paths on both sides of the Bay. 

How would non-cyclists benefit? More people biking to work means fewer driving, especially on Hghway 101 and the Dumbarton Bridge.

Less traffic congestion, anyone? Mind the Gap!