a smarter way to get around town

We live near Las Trampas Pool and first thought getting to BART required a car. We were so wrong! Taking the Lafayette-Moraga Trail, then School Street to Plaza Park, is only 12 minutes by bike or a 40 minute brisk walk. It’s a great decompressor after a day in SF – try it sometime. If you’re bike parking at BART, I recommend using the north-side (main entrance) racks for best safety.

Guess how long it takes to ride a bike from Burton Valley to Whole Foods, Peets, or the Yogurt Shack? It took me 13 1/2 minutes, versus 8 minutes by car. Only 5 extra minutes! But I saved $3.32, 0.26 gallons of fuel, and 6.24 pounds of CO2 according to the GoLafayette web site. I also burned about 200 calories, with just 12 extra minutes of travel time (round trip). Take the bike trail down to Stanley Middle School. Go West on School Street. Take a right on First Street (that runs behind Lafayette Elementary). Then by the Library sneak over to the Taco Bell side of First and take the crosswalk over to the shopping center. Whole Foods has bike parking right in front.

My wife and I rode our bikes to the New Lafayette Farmers Market from Burton Valley. It was so easy! According to GoLafayette it’s a little over 3 miles, take about 15 min each way. For the round trip we burned 242 calories and saved $3.60, .28 gallons of gas, and 6.76 lbs of CO2. To get there we rode down the trail to School Street, crossed to Brook St. by Lafayette Elementary, took a right on Hough Ave, then a left at Lafayette Circle, crossed the street and went right onto the path (behind Baja Fresh) that leads to BART.

At least one day each week, I ride my bike to work from Lafayette to downtown Walnut Creek. It is a pretty easy bike ride that is only about 4.5 miles long. The trip planner on this site recommends taking the Laf-Moraga trail to Olympic Blvd to Walnut Creek. Although this route certainly works, I ride a slightly different route which I feel is safer. The Laf-Moraga trail gets quite a lot of foot traffic during commute hours so I prefer to take Moraga Blvd which parallels the tail for most of the way. Olympic Blvd has great class 3 bike lanes for most of the way but be careful for parked cars and opening car doors on the street after the intersection at Tice! The bike lane on Olympic gets very narrow after the Newell blvd intersection so I choose to take a right on Newell which takes me into Walnut Creek. I make a left on California for my last half mile to my workplace. These minor tweaks to the recommended route make for a safer and more enjoyable ride!

The new Downtown Bypass route, a way to get through downtown without riding on Mt. Diablo Blvd., also provides a nice “back way” to Diablo Foods or Trader Joes if you’re coming from the East. Get to School Street (adjacent to Stanley Middle School) via the regional bike trail or First Street, head West, cross Moraga Road to Brook Street, go down to Dewing and take a right. Diablo Foods can be accessed from Dewing. To get to Trader Joes take a left on Bickerstaff, which takes you down to Mountain View Drive – adjacent to Trader Joes. It’s an easy route and you avoid all the traffic of Mt. Diablo Blvd!!

We live near Las Trampas Pool and first thought getting to BART required a car. We were so wrong! Taking the Lafayette-Moraga Trail, then School Street to Plaza Park, is only 12 minutes by bike or a 40 minute brisk walk. It’s a great decompressor after a day in SF – try it sometime. If you’re bike parking at BART, I recommend using the north-side (main entrance) racks for best safety.

Bo’s BBQ is easily accessible by bike or by foot from Burton Valley, the Trail Neighborhood or even Moraga if you know the shortcut.
If you’re on the the Lafayette-Moraga Trail, exit at Foye Drive and make a quick left onto Moraga Blvd. A short block later, at the corner of 3rd St. and Moraga Blvd, take the bike/ped trail Mt. Diablo Blvd.
The trail crosses a small wooden bridge and brings you to the gazebo at Golden gate Way and Mt. Diablo. Cross there or walk east to Brown Ave for the signal to get to Bo’s.