Home » City Guide » , ,

Bike Across the Bay Bridge from Oakland to SF?

A petition for a quick-build bike lane across the bridge gains steam
By - posted 2/15/2021 No Comment

Thanks to Streetsblog SF for sharing the news about the current petition for a quick-build bike lane across the Bay Bridge.

Bicyclists are pushing to create a bike-friendly path to connect Oakland and San Francisco. Currently, you can bike from Oakland to Yerba Buena Island, but there’s no way to cycle any further on the bridge to The City.

Bike East Bay and the California Bicycle Coalition, collaborated with traffic engineers to work on a proposal for a quick-build solution.

Their idea would utilize the existing Eastern Span bike path, then cyclists would cross under the Bay Bridge via a Caltrans access road. The cyclists would connect back up to the bridge and enter into the left “fast lane” of the Yerba Buena tunnel. After the tunnel, cyclists continue across the bridge in a Jersey-barrier protected lane. Once in San Francisco, cyclists, who are already in the left lane, would exit at the Harrison Street off-ramp, which is a left lane exit.

Read the full text of the petition below.

Right now, there is an unprecedented opportunity to create safe and environmentally friendly access for people to cross the Bay during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, car-free options to travel across the Bay Bridge are limited as a result of reduced public-transit operations and the absence of any routes for biking, walking and people-powered mobility. A shared-use path on the Bay Bridge will provide a socially distanced, affordable and traffic-free transportation option for travelers between Alameda and San Francisco counties. The path can be built for less than two days’ worth of BART’s annual budget and will take only two to three months to build with available funding, according to an independent engineering analysis. It can be funded through the new Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Quick-Strike Program and will deliver on long-standing transportation goals in the region including:

  • Statewide vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goals stipulated in SB 743 and AB 32
  • MTC’s mandate to increase non-driving commutes to 60% of all trips throughout the Bay Area by 2035
  • Caltrans’ five-year goal to:
    • Reduce statewide per capita VMT by 15%
    • Reduce statewide GHG emissions by 15% below 2010 levels
    • Triple the number of bicycle trips across the state
  • Implementing a top priority project in Caltrans’ 2017 District 4 Bike Plan
  • Closing a critical gap in the Bay Area Trails Collaborative’s planned 2,500-miles-plus regional trail network, which would connect 8 million Bay Area residents to schools, jobs, services and open spaces

MTC, Caltrans, Alameda County Transportation Commission and San Francisco County Transportation Authority need to act quickly to implement a shared-use path on the Bay Bridge, in partnership with outer East Bay communities as well as low-wage workers, Communities of Color and people with disabilities across the region who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and may be seeking alternate transportation routes across the Bay.