The outdoor recreation opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area are world class with nearly 1 million acres (bigger than Yosemite!) of publicly accessible open space. Currently the vast majority of people access these magnificent lands by driving their cars. What if more folks began to use public transit to get to their outdoor destination, making it part of the adventure?

The benefits are numerous:

• Reduced carbon footprint
• One way trips – no out and backs
• No bridge tolls
• No parking tickets
• Avoid rising gas prices
• Talk on your cell phone or just check out the views on the ride

The Transit and Trails team set out to build a site that would allow the community to access information on where to recreate and more importantly, how to get there on public transit. You can start by Finding trailheads and preset trips, next Plan your trip from home to the start and from the end back home, and eventually Share your trip experience.

The Bay Area Open Space Council and partners have been developing this idea - providing information on how the public can get out to our wonderful parks here in the Bay Area using public transportation - since the mid '90s. There have been 3 editions of a printed map - 1995, 2001 and the latest just released in April 2009. You can get the latest version via a number of park or transit agencies in the region or in the April edition of Bay Nature Magazine. You can also download a digital version for FREE here.

A natural progression has been to take the printed map to the web in the form of an interactive map. The printed map provides a tool to get people to think about accessing their open spaces in a different way, using transit. It helps to educate and is a regional guide, but is not extensive and is limited to a static hard copy map. Only recently has online technology developed to the point where real interactive trip planning in an easy to use web based system is possible!

We hope you’ll enjoy the site and provide us with any constructive feedback so we can help you get outdoors without getting in your car!

Thanks for your support,
The Transit & Trails Team