Circle the Bay: Day 17: Berkeley Marina to Emeryville

Day 17: Berkeley Marina to Emeryville
(Berkeley to Emeryville)

Circle The Bay Part 3

June 1st 2018

7.6 miles in 1 hrs 46 mins

(Total: 279.6 miles in 52 hrs 3 mins)

This biking around the bay is taking almost as long as hiking around the bay, because I am using the freedom of two wheels to explore every optional route that juts into the bay. For example, the next segment of this circumnavigation will be riding the bike path on the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge out to Treasure Island and back.

I've run into a few places where bicycles are not as welcome as pedestrians. You are not supposed to carry them on BART escalators. If there is a crowd I'll walk up or down the stairs carrying the bike, but waiting for the elevators that are frequently closed is not really a viable option.

And for the first time I ran into segments of the Bay Trail in both the Berkeley Marina and the Emeryville Marina where bicycles were excluded. In each case there is a nearby bike path on the side of a road, but it is not the same as the privilege I've had of peacefully riding the trail right next to the bay's vista. I promise to always give pedestrians the right of way, and never travel faster than a runner when navigating a crowd of people. Can a law be made to encode that?

A bicycle law that would be great to propagate across the land is already the law in the state of Idaho. Under Idaho rules, for a bicyclist, a stop sign is a yield sign, and a stop light is a stop sign. Giving this kind of advantage to human powered (or even hybrid electric/human vehicles that fit some category) makes sense to me, and codifies what most people expect from bicyclists anyways.

Speaking of the law, the President today said he could pardon himself if he wanted. Nobody has had that privilege in America since King George. I'm sorry, but we will not be having another King in the United States of America, no matter what the current President says.