Northern California - Oakland - training routes?

Hi - new to forum and to bay area also.

Coming from a much less populated area so the roads here feel much, much more congested and tons of stop signs, traffic lights, etc. Pretty much the reality of many big cities so I'm not lamenting it, just acknowledging the facts!

Are there any spots in the general Oakland & Emeryville area where I can ride for a good distance without being constantly in heavy traffic/tons of lights/stop signs?

The stop/green light/red light/go/stop sign/repeat routine makes it hard to pedal for even 2 minutes without stopping.

I do not want to do hills right now. I'm returning from a bit of a layoff and want to avoid hills for a while so please suggest routes other than the oakland or berkeley hills :)

How about Mission Boulevard? There's a few hills there though.

Hmmm, haven't heard of mission blvd. except in SF :)

Some hills or rollers OK - I just don't want to lots of continuous climbing. I've got a rehabbed knee that I have to keep the big load off of in terms of gears.

Are there any spots in the general Oakland & Emeryville area where I can ride for a good distance without being constantly in heavy traffic/tons of lights/stop signs?



This maybe pretty tough without hills. Try mapmyride.com. Here is a route as an example: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/emeryville/668401674

Most any ride along the waterfront will be flat.

Cheers,
Geary

no hills at all? or slight hills?

for no hills at all you can roll along the bay front trial that runs from emeryville along the frontage road. be forewarned that it multi purpose. Also be forewarned that the squirrels on that trial are fearless, including the one that I almost hit.

I know you want to avoid the hills but If you want to go without stoplights at all you can ride from rockridge bart, up past temescal, over the bridge to tunnel, up tunnel to skyline, then back down redwood and up pinehurst, down tunnel again to bart and you would only have 3 stoplights in 30 miles. But this is again, in the hills.

If you want flat flat, you can also ride bart out to lafayette or walnut creek and get to Danville Blvd and ride some loops around that, you can ride 30 miles out there with 700 feet of elevation gain if you use the right routes. We did a 70 miler out there with only 2000 feet of elevation change in april

PM me if you want some more ideas or explicit directions.

no hills at all? or slight hills?

for no hills at all you can roll along the bay front trial that runs from emeryville along the frontage road. be forewarned that it multi purpose. Also be forewarned that the squirrels on that trial are fearless, including the one that I almost hit.

I know you want to avoid the hills but If you want to go without stoplights at all you can ride from rockridge bart, up past temescal, over the bridge to tunnel, up tunnel to skyline, then back down redwood and up pinehurst, down tunnel again to bart and you would only have 3 stoplights in 30 miles. But this is again, in the hills.

If you want flat flat, you can also ride bart out to lafayette or walnut creek and get to Danville Blvd and ride some loops around that, you can ride 30 miles out there with 700 feet of elevation gain if you use the right routes. We did a 70 miler out there with only 2000 feet of elevation change in april

PM me if you want some more ideas or explicit directions.

Hi - thanks for the suggestions.

I have cycled a bit by the bay on the trail and noted, much as you described, that it is a multi-use place - which I think we all know what that entails at times (ped's, squirrels, dogs....other dangers!)

I'll send you a PM to get more info.

If you want flat flat, you can also ride bart out to lafayette or walnut creek and get to Danville Blvd and ride some loops around that,...

+1

From San Pablo Dam Road through Moraga and then over to Danville Blvd / San Ramon Road / Foothill Rd is a good 40 miles with very little hills. There's a good MUP, the Lafayette-Moraga Trail from Moraga to Olympic or you can take St Mary's Road. That'd be your only main stop and go area. Take BART to Pleasanton and loop south and north from there.

I don't know of many long (i.e > 10 miles) flat areas west/south of the hills in the east Bay that don't have a bzillion traffic lights and stop signs.

I do all my interval training around the Harbor Bay Parkway / Ron Cohen Parkway past the Oakland airport / Doolittle Drive. Minimal traffic lights and good shoulders.

BARTing out to ride on Danville Blvd/San Ramon Valley/Foothill (all the same road, the name changes with the towns) is a great idea. For a flat ride, you could go all the way from Walnut Creek down to Sunol on basically the one road that runs parallel to I-680. Once you get south of I-580 (the border of Dublin and Pleasanton), there are some rollers in Pleasanton and Sunol, but nothing too steep or long. Other than downtown Danville, this route is pretty wide open. It does have a few stoplights, and parts of the road in San Ramon and Dublin are under construction, but it really is flat and easy riding, with good shoulders and mostly decent pavement.

JB

edit: the Lafayette BART station is probably the best one for cyclists up by Walnut Creek - the WC and Pleasant Hill ones are too far north, so you'd have to ride through some unfriendly WC streets or the Iron Horse trail; otherwise you could go down to Dublin or Pleasanton on BART

ride over to emeryville, down hollis, then hook a left at the train tracks, ride through the path in that little park, then left onto the overpass, bay trail to the race track, up and over, back onto the bay trail, then at the usps facility you go over that overpass, ride central to el cerrito bart station, right, then left, right at the school, then left on solano ave, up solano ave, right on the alameda and and if you go fast enough, you can hit most of the lights all the way down MLK.

it's a 20-mile loop from my house and back and i usually get home in an hour and change. it's a good respite from doing oakland/berkeley hills rides.