SafeTREC reports on BART to Bay Trail training workshop


By Janet Byron

On May 24, Berkeley SafeTREC and El Cerrito Strollers & Rollers convened a community training to explore opportunities for improving the pedestrian and bike route from BART to the San Francisco Bay and Bay Trail. Residents of El Cerrito and Richmond Annex have long sought a better way to get to the bay than Central Avenue, which is currently not welcoming to those on foot or bikes.


“The training aimed to identify near-term projects and programmatic work that could formalize a safe, comfortable route for those walking and biking between the El Cerrito Plaza BART station and the Bay Trail,” SafeTREC wrote in its recently published report on the workshop. The training was cosponsored by the City of El Cerrito, California Walks, and California Office of Transportation Safety, and followed on from a previous Community Bike and Pedestrian Safety Training workshop on July 25, 2022.

The 18 stakeholders who gathered at the Hana Gardens community room included representatives of El Cerrito Strollers & Rollers, Richmond Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, BART Bicycle Advisory Task Force, El Cerrito Trail Trekkers, Rich City Rides, and the City of El Cerrito, as well as Richmond and El Cerrito residents.

The suggested route, which El Cerrito Strollers & Rollers showcased in an April 16 bicycle ride, travels north from El Cerrito Plaza BART on the Ohlone Greenway, west/left on Eureka Avenue, through Richmond Annex, over the I-80 pedestrian/bike bridge at Sacramento Avenue, south/left on San Joaquin Street, west/right on Central Avenue, and over I-580 to the Bay Trail, Pt. Isabel dog park, and Costco.


The report outlines a range of short-term projects identified by workshop participants to improve the BART to Bay route via the Sacramento Avenue bridge, including:

  • Further improvements at the Eureka Avenue/Columbia Avenue intersection of San Pablo Avenue, such as a pedestrian refuge and bike-activated sensors or accessible beg buttons for the new pedestrian-activated beacon.
  • Improvements to provide better access on both sides of the Sacramento Avenue pedestrian bridge, including more generous landings on both ends of the bridge, traffic calming on both sides of the bridge and a protected bike lane on San Joaquin Street.
  • Safety upgrades to the Central Avenue over-crossing of I-580, including soft-hit posts to separate the bike lane from the car lanes, or creating a sidewalk-level multi-use path for the long term.
  • BART to Bay Trail way-finding signage and road striping along key intersections of the route.

“Overwhelmingly, the participants came out of the training with a commitment to work together to continue to improve pedestrian and bike safety in the community, even outside of [this] specific project,” the SafeTREC report concluded.

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