Let’s Get the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge Moving

Transportation has been identified as a priority focus area from our membership. As data from the State of the North Bay report notes, transit ridership is down, and traffic crossing bridges is steadily climbing. These commuters are workers in the service sector, in construction, in health care jobs, educators and in manufacturing, the ones that maybe don't have a transit option or a remote work option.

One action NBLC is taking in addressing congestion in the North Bay is on the Richmond San Rafael bridge. NBLC is actively engaged with the Bay Area Council, and other associations in getting the third lane of the Richmond San Rafael Bridge opened as a pull over lane Monday-Thursday. “More than 80,000 drivers utilize the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge in their daily commute. Many of them commute to jobs in Marin and other parts of the North Bay. The vast majority of them (63%) are people of color. Sixty-nine percent of them do not have a college degree, and the majority of them (60%) make less than Bay Area’s median income.

According to daily bike counts, on good weather days, only 21 bikers cross the bridge during the morning commute. On bad weather days, it can be as few as 8 or even 2 riders. There are exceptionally few pedestrians. On the weekends, bike ridership does spike up to an average of 146 bikers riding back and forth over the whole day. For comparison, the Golden Gate Bridge has about 6,000 bikers a day. (According to the US Census Bureau, in the Bay Area, white riders represent 61% of the bike commuters, followed by Hispanics at 17%, Asians at 15% and African Americans at 2.4%. And bike riders are well off, 1 in 4 making $250,000 or more a year). As these drivers approach the Richmond San Rafael Bridge in the morning, they hit a huge traffic jam. During the peak hour, on average, they face 16-24 minutes of gridlock. What the term “average” misses is that often and unpredictably, the backup is far worse, as without a third lane or pullover lane it is exceptionally hard to clear accidents, and therefore these workers must leave much earlier than normal, just in case there is a huge back up, so they aren’t chronically late to work and lose their job. That’s time taken away from getting sleep or spending time with their families. This traffic jam on the freeway also backs up local streets and roads in the City of Richmond, impacting many local families who aren’t even trying to get on the Richmond Bridge.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Bay Area Toll Authority have unanimously voted to support closing the bike lane during the most congested weekdays of Monday-Thursday to create a safety pullover lane. This can both improve safety for these tens of thousands of residents and reduce massive back-ups if there is an accident. While it is not a perfect analogy, we can see the safety improvements that happened on the lower deck with the addition of another lane that is open 5 hours a day and is solely a pullover lane the other 19 hours. Caltrans and study partner California PATH found that rear end collisions have decreased both on the bridge approach and the bridge by 50%. Sideswipes have decreased on the bridge approach with a 57% reduction as well as the rate of incidents per million miles traveled by 69%.

Following the actions by MTC and BATA, the permit is up for BCDC to consider this December. NBLC fully supports this compromise to create a phase 1 pull over lane, and a phase 2 HOV and Carpool Lane. This crucial decision by BCDC will bring additional safety and lower commute times for the critical teachers, nurses, contractors, employees and others don’t have transit options and who rely on the Richmond San Rafael Bridge to come to get to work.”