Sep 1, 2009 7:22 pm US/Pacific
Bicycle Path Opens On Benicia-Martinez Bridge
Benicia-Martinez (CBS 5) ―
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The Benicia-Martinez bridge.
CBS
For the first time ever, you can cross the Carquinez Straight between Martinez and Benicia without a car or hovercraft.
Many first-timers rode across the 2.2 mile bike path on the southbound George Miller Jr bridge Tuesday. It opened Saturday, part of the $50,000,000 seismic retrofit and now makes the 230 mile Bay Trail that much closer to ringing the Bay. It's up to 200 miles now, but crossing water is the hard part.
"I'm from Benicia and it's a beautiful bike path," said first time rider Jack Convery. "Took me about 20 minutes to get there and back but it's a beautiful view, and relatively flat. I enjoyed it."
It's not so bad when the wind is with you. And it's kind of cool. Though there is the traffic close by and you can smell the traffic pretty fresh. Other than that, it's a very cool ride. Traffic is that close on the Golden Gate Bridge bike path as well. The Benicia is now one of five Bay Area bridges you can ride and walk across, five and a half if you count the new one on the eastern span of the Bay Bridge that will just go to Treasure Island.
"It's pretty flat," another cyclist reports. "It's a nice coast going back. Going back up this hill it's kind of testy."
In fact, it's uphill getting to the path coming from both Martinez and Benicia. You'll be puffing.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Bicycle access information for all Bay Area bridges
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