Bike path renamed after Greg Cox

The 24-mile San Diego Bayshore Bikeway has a new name: the Greg Cox San Diego Bayshore Bikeway.

Chula Vista City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to rename the bike path after the former county supervisor, whose District 1 included South Bay communities and part of the city of San Diego, to recognize his role and that of the San Diego Association of Governments in helping the project come to fruition.

“I’m very honored and gratified for the consideration in including my name in the Bayshore Bikeway,” Cox said Wednesday. “I think it’s one of the most iconic bikeways anywhere in the country.”

Since 1975, the bike path has grown to more than 17 miles, with multiple segments around San Diego Bay through the Coronado Silver Strand and into Imperial Beach, the Chula Vista Bayfront, the National City Waterfront and Harbor Drive in the city of San Diego. The project has extended to the Barrio Logan area from 32nd Street north to Park Boulevard and is designed to complete a major part of the loop along the east side of the bay. In December 2020, the Bayfront also opened one portion of the path in Chula Vista. Final construction of the bike path is slated for completion by the end of the year, according to SANDAG.

Cox, who has described himself as a “parks person,” has worked on getting the segments of the path completed since the early 1980s, he said. Cox served as chairman of SANDAG’S Bayshore Bikeway Working Group, as well as mayor and councilman for the city of Chula Vista.

“This bikeway has been prominently recognized nationally, and that is largely due to the leadership that Greg Cox has provided to make it happen,” said Andy Hanshaw, interim chair of the Bayshore Bikeway Working Group. “It is a regional asset that’s safe, that safely serves bicyclists of all ages and abilities, whether they ride for recreation or to get to and from their daily job.”

Now retired, Cox said he is working with the San Diego Bicycle Coalition to raise funds for a bike center at Liberty Station and hopes to visit the bike path more than he did in the past.

tammy.murga@sduniontribune.com