Dozens of protesters pulled off a four–plus-hour blockade of westbound Bay Bridge lanes during the APEC summit, San Francisco’s highest-profile political gathering in years. How did they do it?

The Nov. 16 demonstrators demanded that President Joe Biden, who was in San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering with other world leaders, call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. 

It marked the longest shutdown of the Bay Bridge since 2016, when activists led by a group called Black.Seed blocked westbound lanes for 96 minutes on the afternoon of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. California Highway Patrol officers arrested about two dozen protesters within half an hour and reopened lanes within an hour, but traffic backups lingered into the early evening.

California Highway Patrol officers walk among protestors during a demonstration that blocked traffic on the Bay Bridge for hours on Nov. 16. | Source: Courtesy of Denis Perez

November’s protest lasted more than twice as long and involved more than three times as many activists, severely inconveniencing thousands of people crossing into San Francisco. 

It also came as a bit of a surprise, given that the California Highway Patrol had commandeered one lane of the bridge in each direction since the day prior, citing security concerns related to APEC.

“This was hours long,” John Goodwin, of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, told The Standard. “I don’t recall an incident of this duration.”

CHP arrested 67 women and 13 men related to the demonstration. One protester was taken to jail, while the other 79 were cited and released. A total of 29 vehicles were towed, the California Department of Transportation confirmed.

To date, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has not filed charges against any of the protesters. The DA’s Office has not responded to a request from The Standard about the status of the cases.

How Protesters Blocked the Bay Bridge

The morning of Nov. 16 began as usual, according to official bridge toll counts: 22,522 vehicles drove from San Francisco to Oakland between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m., but just 11 made it across in the hour after 10 a.m.

All five lanes of the bridge were quickly blocked by protesters’ vehicles at 7:42 a.m., when demonstrators parked side-by-side under the tower just before the Treasure Island exit. 

BREAKING: Bay Area residents have SHUT DOWN Bay Bridge to demand ceasefire while @Potus Biden visits San Francisco. #CeasefireNow! No more genocide in Gaza!#BayBridge #CeasefireNow #BidenHarrisCeasefireNOW #APEC pic.twitter.com/xIqkKSc6TB

— AROC #FreePalestine (@AROCBayArea) November 16, 2023

Traffic came to a standstill. 

A Bay Area commuter, who joined the protest as it happened but wanted to remain anonymous due to fear of legal action, said they realized the demonstration was happening as they drove up to Treasure Island and traffic came to a standstill.

“People began to get out of their cars,” the commuter said. “As time passed and everything on the bridge came to a halt, I also got out of my car as everything on the bridge came to a halt. They weren’t driving lanes anymore; they were walking lanes.”

Protesters unfurled huge banners on the road demanding a cease-fire, staging a “die-in.” Many waved placards and banners as over 100 CHP officers and San Francisco County sheriff’s deputies stormed the bridge. Vehicles driven by office workers, school buses, semis and even a truck hauling portable toilets were trapped on the span for hours.

As the commuter walked from his car to the front of the protest, they observed others joining the protest with banners and signs and others hanging out on the bridge, smoking cigarettes.

“Protesters were all chained up to each other in the front in a line,” they said. “They were all chanting, calling for a cease-fire. There was a large banner in the middle of the protest. Someone had a bullhorn, and there were speakers looking like they were having a press conference.”

According to the commuter, organizers were addressing drivers and those protesters who were moving toward the front of the demonstration.

“There were a lot of people walking from far away to the protest area,” they said, adding that those who were protesters were easily recognizable walking up the bridge with banners and signs. “When people had gotten arrested, some protesters were still coming up there even as it ended.”

Some of the activists who abandoned their vehicles tossed their car keys into the bay in an effort to delay their removal, according to CHP Golden Gate Division spokesperson Officer Andrew Barclay. Protesters in their cars further behind the blockade got out of their vehicles and began handing out fliers to motorists.

Each flier began, “Hi, we know this interruption to your commute is frustrating and we wouldn’t do it if it weren’t incredibly urgent!”

The commuter confessed they never actually saw anyone throw their keys into the San Francisco Bay.

“It might have been that one or two people might have done it out of desperation.” 

After pointing to the dire conditions in Gaza and the president’s presence at APEC, the protest urged readers to tune into an FM radio station, or to follow live broadcasts from Instagram accounts for the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Anti Police-Terror Project, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center Bay Area, Bay Area Palestine Solidarity and the Palestinian Feminist Collective.

Some drivers turned around on the bridge and began driving back toward Oakland by 8:20 a.m. 

Passengers stuck in the mounting chaos also left vehicles and walked east along the bridge just after 9 a.m. 

A Standard staffer even spotted commuters using the portable toilets on the back of the flatbed truck at 10:52 a.m.

Bless this savior driving a porta potty truck pic.twitter.com/r5nerGvqrM

— Alicia Cocchi (@HellaDislike) November 16, 2023

Protesters tried to make it more difficult to be arrested by chaining their arms onto what appeared to be a drainpipe. Barclay told The Standard the pipe has handles inside, which activists gripped onto.

“However, those were easily removed with no problem, and they were taken into custody,” Barclay said.

FINAL UPDATE: All lanes of westbound I-80 on the Bay Bridge have reopened. pic.twitter.com/dWFTpbVAu0

— CHP San Francisco (@CHPSanFrancisco) November 16, 2023

By 11:55 a.m., the bridge had fully reopened to traffic, making the duration of the disruption four hours and 15 minutes. 

The 2016 protest employed similar tactics to November’s cease-fire action but also used of chains.

The group that says it organized the cease-fire protests declined to comment for this story. Several protesters who were detained on the bridge could not be reached for comment.

The post How San Francisco Bay Bridge Protesters Blocked Visitors for Hours appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Early last month, a fire truck on its way to an emergency was prevented from moving forward, in part, by a Cruise AV test vehicle. This is one of a handful of incidents giving San Francisco city officials a break as a proposed permit program is being crafted for autonomous ride-hailing vehicles.

The event took place on an April morning at around 4 am as emergency responders were answering a call, reports Wired. Their progress was blocked by a double-parked garbage truck and as they pulled around to pass it, a Cruise AV test vehicle going in the other direction stopped next to the garbage truck, blocking the road completely.

“This incident slowed SFFD response to a fire that resulted in property damage and personal injuries,” city officials wrote in a filing submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission.

Read Also: Cops Pull Over Driverless Cruise Chevy Bolt In San Francisco For Driving Without Its Lights On

A Cruise spokesperson confirmed the incident to Wired, adding that the vehicle behaved as designed, yielding to the oncoming fire truck and contacting the company’s remote assistance workers. According to the company, the fire truck was blocked for 25 seconds.

The blockage was not cleared, however, until the garbage truck’s driver ran from their work to move the vehicle. Some have pointed out that if a human had been driving the Cruise AV, they could have simply backed up to let the fire truck through. It also bears repeating that every second counts when an emergency responder is on their way to a call.

The San Francisco Fire Department confirmed the incident, too, stating that although it had been in discussions with electric and autonomous vehicle manufacturers for training before the pandemic, “we have been successful with EV training and continue to seek industry training related to autonomous vehicles. ”

This is just one of a trio of incidents that San Francisco city officials pointed to in filings objecting to certain parts of a proposed permit program that is being crafted by the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates ride-hailing across the state.

The second was a highly publicized incident in which a cruise vehicle was pulled over driving at night without its headlights on. The third happened in late April and allegedly involved another cruise vehicle that stopped in a crosswalk while driving through a work zone, blocking traffic for five minutes.

These incidents point to the challenges of designing autonomous vehicles that can handle so-called edge cases in which something unlikely or unexpected happens on the road. Although a human driver would likely be able to reason out a solution, autonomous vehicles have a harder time responding to those events.

These edge cases are so challenging that some in the autonomous vehicle industry have reportedly conceded that no automaker will ever build a car that is truly capable of Level 5 fully autonomous driving.

The post GM Autonomous Automotive Blocked A Fireplace Truck In San Francisco That Was Responding To An Emergency appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.