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by\u00a0Jose Fermoso<\/a><\/strong> March 25, 2026 (Oaklandside.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-25-at-4.23.09-PM-780x473.png\")
On April 25, dozens of bike riders will meet in West Oakland to ride together for the annual Celebrate Trails Day ride, which highlights the East Bay\u2019s abundant trails in nature reserves and along local roads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year, Bike East Bay and the event\u2019s other organizers are focusing the day\u2019s advocacy efforts on pushing forward a potentially game-changing project that would transform bike and pedestrian access to San Francisco: the Bay Skyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The biggest goal of the ride<\/a>, the organizers told The Oaklandside, is to jumpstart momentum for the project among state, regional, and local legislators so that it gets the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to complete it \u2014 before they all get too old to ride. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, John Goodwin, the communications director for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, told The Oaklandside, the West span path part of the project is \u201ceffectively paused\u201d in the early planning stage. He said the soonest work on the project can advance is 2027. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFuture stages would include development and submission of Environmental Impact reports; submission of a Project Report; detailed design work; and right-of-way acquisition. All of these steps \u2014 to say nothing of securing money! \u2014 must be completed before construction can begin,\u201d Goodwin said by email. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Robert Prinz, Bike East Bay\u2019s advocacy director, legislators \u201cget surprisingly little direct correspondence from constituents on most issues, so anything we can do to activate folks and encourage them to get more engaged makes a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Never miss a story.<\/strong> Sign up for The Oaklandside\u2019s free daily newsletter.<\/strong>Email<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prinz said a recent Emeryville City Council vote to approve<\/a> a 40th Street cycle and walking track was a good example of such advocacy. Most people who showed up at the March 17 council session in-person opposed the project \u2014 but council members voted in favor because, Prinz said, most people who reached them in advance supported the project, giving them \u201cmore confidence to approve the construction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome of those comments were ones that we helped encourage, by sharing out info about the project and info on how individuals can get involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plans for Bay Skyway show a 15-foot-wide path that is separated from the main vehicle lanes on the Bay Bridge. It will connect to the eastern span of the Bay Bridge, whose bike lane opened in September 2013, via paths on Yerba Buena Island \u2014 with spur paths onto Treasure Island as well. Bike East Bay held an inaugural ride that year to celebrate the Oakland to Treasure Island path, which is why the Celebrate Trails Day ride has been called an \u201canniversary ride<\/a>\u201d in the years since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The path of this April\u2019s ride will take the cyclists onto the Bay Bridge and back, then to the Bay Trail next to Berkeley and Emeryville, continue onto the Albany Bulb, and end at Berkeley\u2019s Sports Basement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The latest design for the western span, completed by the Arup, an engineering and design firm in 2018, was originally estimated to cost up to $400 million, including full design and construction. But the estimate has gone up to $500 million for the western span and up to $700 million for the whole project that includes other paths. The price jump, Goodwin, the MTC spokesperson, and Gavin Lohry, an MTC staffer who is the bikeway project\u2019s program coordinator, told The Oaklandside, is due to inflation and rising material and construction costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That $700 million includes the costs of the entire Multimodal Bay Skyway<\/a> project: the western bridge span, called the Yerba Buena Island Multi-Use Pathway Project<\/a>, and the West Oakland Link<\/a>, which will connect the bridge path into West Oakland along West Grand Avenue and beyond. Goodwin said that $200 million is secured, with $500 million left to go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMoney almost always is the biggest question about major transportation projects, and the funding pie for virtually all such projects includes a mix of local, regional, state, and even federal slices,\u201d Goodwin said. \u201cWe recognize the huge gap between conception and construction. But there is not yet a plan for how to fill this gap and it\u2019s way too early to speculate about specific fund sources. An eventual funding plan may include private support as well as public dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goodwin further noted that, given funding availability for all projects, the top priority for bridge projects is simply to keep them in good repair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a summary document of the project presented to the Oakland BPAC by the Bay Trails Collaborative, securing funding involves \u201cadvocacy with elected officials, and identification of new and diversified streams of funding (grants, foundations, corporate giving).\u201d The collaborative is a group of member and non-member organizations, agencies, and businesses that want to develop a regional trail network in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The collaborative includes the city of Oakland, the SFMTA, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area Toll Authority, Caltrans, the Alameda County Transportation Commission, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The ride is also a chance to convince members of the Bay Trails Collaborative in charge of the bridge, mainly Caltrans, to open the eastern span of the Bay Bridge pathway 24\/7, as it currently closes at 9 p.m. each day. Bike East Bay has invited a representative from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to answer cyclists\u2019 questions about any of these projects before and after the ride. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bay Skyway\u2019s westbound bridge section is the cornerstone of a larger project that will further extend bike and pedestrian connections through the West Oakland Link<\/a>, an elevated pathway that will lead into the Oakland Port, then into West Oakland to West Grand Avenue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The West Grand Avenue project, scheduled to begin construction later this year, will renovate the old arterial road, replacing paving and adding bike lanes from Mandela Parkway to Maritime Road. According to Prinz, the city is currently preparing a grant application to the state\u2019s Active Transportation Program that proposes a fully protected bikeway from Telegraph Avenue to Mandela Parkway and potentially from Mandela to Broadway as well. That stretch could someday connect to the Grand Avenue project<\/a>, which the city is also in the process of securing funding, would add car-slowing infrastructure, such as pedestrian islands, as well as new protected bike lanes, north of Lake Merritt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prinz told us another goal of the April trail ride is to inform people about other major bike-and-pedestrian connectivity projects in the offing, as part of its Bridging the Bay campaign<\/a>. These include an elevated pathway on 7th Street being built by the Port of Oakland and Emeryville\u2019s 40th Street Multimodal Project<\/a>, which will include a protected bikeway that will run west of the city border from Adeline Street to the Bay Bridge trail entrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All these projects are expected to link up, to allow cyclists to travel easily from the lake to the bridge and into the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even with years of advocacy work ahead, the potential to someday ride from Oakland\u2019s famous jewel lake all the way to San Francisco\u2019s Embarcadero makes some of Oakland\u2019s most hard core cyclists giddy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting there may be a bumpy road. The Yerba Buena Island Multi-Use Pathway, for one, still needs to be completed. The San Francisco County Transit Authority says that should happen in summer 2028<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An environmental review is also needed to assess the potential effects of pollution on people walking or biking over the bridge right next to heavy car traffic. A brisk walk on the eastern span of the bridge today takes about 35 to 45 minutes one way; once the Yerba Buena path and the Western Path are completed, it might take close to 90 minutes or more to cross the whole bridge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Former West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project co-director Brian Beveridge had said that his group had raised questions with members of the collaborative about human exposure to vehicle emissions, especially particulate matter that has deleterious effects when it enters the lungs. In 2022, the WOEIP was working on adding signs to the current Eastern span to warn people about their potential exposure levels. The WOEIP told the Oaklandside today that those signs are still not up on the Eastern span. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Last month, the Oaklandside reported on another project, the Prescott Greening Project<\/a>, that seeks to reduce particulate matter exposure for West Oakland residents. That project is adding shrubs and trees between the freeway and residential neighborhoods to capture much of that pollution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Horticulturist Tom Ogren told us that the areas closest to freeways, which he calls \u201cdead zones,\u201d are the \u201cleast healthy places to live.\u201d Previous academic\u00a0work<\/a>\u00a0has found that living within 500 feet of a freeway poses the greatest risk, especially for older folks, but few\u00a0studies<\/a>\u00a0have examined the risks of temporarily biking or walking next to one. The bike-and-foot pathway on the Bay Skyway will be right next to the exhaust from up to 100,000 daily drivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n jose@oaklandside.org<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jose Fermoso covers road safety, transportation, and public health for The Oaklandside. His previous work covering tech and culture has appeared in publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, and One Zero. Jose was born and raised in Oakland and is the host and creator of the El Progreso podcast, a new show featuring in-depth narrative stories and interviews about and from the perspective of the Latinx community.More by Jose Fermoso<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Bay Bridge bike ride on April 25 seeks to breathe life back into a cherished dream of cyclists and pedestrians. But the price tag has grown to $700 million. by\u00a0Jose Fermoso March 25, 2026 (Oaklandside.org) On April 25, dozens of bike riders will meet in West Oakland to ride… Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bay-bridge-future-pathway-from-oakland-1-1-1600x1008.png\")
A 15-foot-wide walking and biking path<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Possible pollution risks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Jose Fermoso<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n