Bay Bridge bike, pedestrian path now open every day

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The Bay Bridge and pedestrian path is now open seven days a week, so now people can get a great view from the new Vista Point on Yerbuena Island.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Ryan Russo, the city's new director of transportation, rode bicycles out to meet San Francisco city officials for the grand opening of Vista Point Tuesday morning.

Schaaf and Russo, who were joined by bicycle and pedestrian advocates, left from the Bridge Yard building at 210 Burma Road in Oakland around 9:45 a.m. "To kick off national bike month in Oakland, we are celebrating the completion of the bike, pedestrian path to Yerba Buena Island," Schaff said.

Around 10:15 a.m., they joined Tilly Chang, executive director of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim, Treasure Island Development Authority board member Linda Richardson and Caltrans District 4 chief deputy director Dan McElhinney at the Vista Point's grand opening.

"This project is going to allow people to bike across the Bay Bridge and they'll have a place to rest and go to the bathroom, which is incredibly important," Kim said.

Kim hopes the new path will bring bicyclists another kind of relief. "Relieving themselves of really what has become a terrible commute on the Bay Bridge," she said.

However, before this path could really change the commute as we know it, something else has to happen -- the trail has to go all the way to San Francisco. But the East Bay Bike Coalition said it could be a 10-year struggle, costing $350 million to attach a bike path to the western span of the bridge.

The 15.5-foot-wide path on the Bay Bridge connecting Oakland to Yerba Buena Island was completed and opened in October, but only on weekends.

Two-thirds of the path opened to the public in September 2013 when the new eastern span of the bridge opened to vehicle traffic.

The Bay Bridge carries nearly a quarter of a million car trips a day, and now, the new eastern span is seeing a growing number of bike trips, especially after this news.

Click here for more information about the bicycle and pedestrian path on Caltrans' website.

Click here to take a look at the Bay Bridge trail map.

Click here for information on how to access the new bicycle and pedestrian path.

Bay City News contributed to this story.