Explore the Project Footprint

Nearly 60 percent of the regional trail network is already built. The trail network's overall footprint travels through nine counties and dozens of communities—urban and rural, small and large—in the San Francisco Bay Area. The network includes trail systems that are either complete or in development, such as the 500-mile San Francisco Bay Trail, which links the diverse communities along the Bay’s shoreline; the 550-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail, which connects the Bay Area along its ridgelines; the massive 1,200-mile California Coastal Trail, which spans the entire California coast; and the 47-mile Napa Valley Vine Trail, which winds through the vineyards of one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country.

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Protecting Our Environment

California has passed sweeping climate-change legislation with ambitious greenhouse gas reduction and petroleum use targets, which is fundamentally changing the way California plans and invests in transportation infrastructure. By completing the regional trail network, the Collaborative can help reduce vehicle miles traveled and significantly reduce the Bay Area’s carbon footprint in the long-term while also providing a way for people to travel around the region more efficiently. Emissions from cycling are more than 25 times lower than those of a passenger car, and trails have the capacity to carry thousands more people an hour than traditional travel lanes.

Improving Health and Wellness

By providing safe, close-to-home opportunities to walk, run and bike, the Bay Area regional trail network will be a cornerstone of a statewide strategy to encourage physical activity and combat high obesity rates among adults and youth. A Public Policy Institute of California study found that obesity levels were lower among adults who felt safe to walk for leisure in their own neighborhoods—and it’s proven that when people have safe places to walk within 10 minutes of their home, they are one and a half times more likely to meet recommended activity levels than those who don’t.

Generating Strong Economies

Completing the remaining gaps in the Bay Area regional trail network (approximately 42 percent) could spark new waves of outdoor tourism, small business investment and job creation. A 2011 statewide study found that over the course of the year, Californians engaged in an estimated 1.5 billion days of outdoor recreation—specifically for activities such as walking, biking or running on paved surfaces for fitness and pleasure—with trip expenditures topping $4 billion. The Bay Area regional trail network includes signature projects that attract millions of tourists (such as the San Francisco Bay Trail and the Bay Area Ridge Trail) and connect to renowned tourist destinations (such as San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and Bridge). The Napa Valley Vine Trail will run the length of Napa Valley, one of the premier winemaking regions in the world, which attracts 4.7 million visitors annually. The Bay Area regional trail network also travels through extremely underserved communities like Richmond, California, which are experiencing inclusive revitalization due to trail-oriented development.

Trail Talks

BATC Members and Friends are invited to regular live webinars organized by trail experts, advocates, and enthusiasts from around the Bay Area that touch upon themes deemed important to our regional partners. These webinars, affectionately known as “Trail Talks,” highlight current issues in trail planning, funding, design, construction, operations, and maintenance, and provide local case studies and best practices that showcase successful approaches to overcoming these common challenges. Past Trail Talks topics include: trail funding strategies, addressing social issues and safety concerns on trails, and transit to trails.

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