SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Authorities urged motorists to avoid California's scenic Highway 1 after a section of the coastal road collapsed during an Easter weekend storm, causing closures and stranding motorists near Big Sur, authorities said with.

The collapse occurred during heavy rain Saturday afternoon near the Rocky Creek Bridge about 17 miles south of Monterey, with chunks of asphalt falling from the south side of the two-lane road into the sea.

The highway was closed in both directions in the mountainous area of ​​California's central coast while engineers assessed the damage, the state Department of Transportation (Caltrans) said.

“We are working on a plan to evacuate motorists from the area,” the California Highway Patrol said Saturday.

By around noon Sunday, emergency crews had determined that the northbound lane was safe to travel in, and authorities began regularly escorting motorists through the damaged section. About 300 cars were waiting to head north as officials led the first convoy through the area, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Some stranded motorists slept in their cars overnight while others stayed at the nearby Big Sur Lodge, the newspaper said.

Caltrans spokesman Kevin Drabinski said regular convoys would continue moving in the coming days as crews secured the highway, which was already closed due to rocks and debris in the lanes. He urged people to avoid the area.

The closure of Rocky Creek on California Highway 1 occurs March 31, 2024 in Monterey County following heavy rainfall in the area.

Caltrans District 5 via AP

Road information and updates can also be found on Caltrans District 5's social media platforms: Twitter at @CaltransD5, Facebook at Caltrans Central Coast (District 5), and Instagram at Caltrans_D5.

The famous highway was frequently closed due to collapses, mudslides and rock falls during storms.

The slow-moving storm dropped heavy rain at lower elevations and more than a foot of snow at Sierra Nevada ski resorts around Lake Tahoe.

Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the system was typical of March but was not an atmospheric river like many of the other storms that have hit the state in recent winters.

The storm left the Bay Area on Friday and “marched right up the California coast,” bringing most of the rainfall to the Los Angeles area, Kittell said.

The storm then parked over Southern California, where it was expected to last until Sunday night or into Monday. Showers and possible thunderstorms were possible in portions of Santa Barbara, Ventura and LA counties, with the possibility of lightning and damaging winds.

Bay City News contributed to this report

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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.

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About 50 arrests have been made on the Bay Bridge following a protest during Thursday’s morning rush hour that resulted in the shutdown of all westbound lanes for hours.

Protesters demanding a cease-fire in Gaza shut down traffic on San Francisco’s Bay Bridge as U.S. President Joe Biden and world leaders gathered in the city for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ conference.

All lanes reopened shortly before noon, according to the California Highway Patrol.

CHP spokesperson Officer Art Montiel said about 15 vehicles were towed. There had been earlier reports of protesters throwing their keys off the bridge, but Montiel could not confirm that occurred.

“No, but that was some of the reports that we received,” said Montiel. “I don’t know if anybody from up there on the bridge did it.”

“No, we didn’t see anybody throwing keys into the Bay,” said Marie Choi, one of the protesters, after the event. “I think, you know, people were actually trying to get back in their cars and drive off, but the police were refusing to let people back into their cars.”

Sometime before 7:45 a.m. Thursday, a group calling themselves Bay Area Palestine Solidarity parked their vehicles on the bridge and hung banners calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. They laid on the ground under sheets written with the words “Stop the Genocide.”

Choi said she was surprised that several of the trapped commuters were not angry at the protesters.

“Someone had a tamale truck and was giving them out on the bridge,” she said. “Folks were walking up and walking back with tamales, we had a lot of folks thanking us for protesting as they walked by. At the end of the day, millions of people around the world are calling for a ceasefire now,” she said.

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The day after California regulators handed driverless car companies a major victory, allowing them to expand their services without restriction in San Francisco, a herd of robotaxis decided to celebrate by breaking down in the middle of a busy street.

According to several local news reports, 10 Cruise vehicles sat paralyzed in a busy intersection near the Outside Lands Music Festival, causing a traffic jam and drawing exasperation from witnesses. The company told KPIX that the music festival caused “wireless connectivity issues” with its vehicles. In other words, festivalgoers were overwhelming the cellular networks, making it difficult for Cruise’s vehicles to send and receive information.

It was a bizarre end to a week that otherwise represented a significant milestone in the development of autonomous vehicles

It was a bizarre end to a week that otherwise represented a significant milestone in the development of autonomous vehicles. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) overrode the concerns of San Francisco’s transit and fire officials as well as several hundred local residents who testified during the six-and-a-half-hour hearing to approve a dramatic expansion of robotaxi services in the city. The orange cone protest did not achieve its desired outcome.

And it was a sign of more conflict to come, as cities that serve as ground zero for this science experiment face pushback from states that set the rules of the road for driverless cars and seek out conformity in how the technology is regulated.

“Every blocked traffic incident is going to add to degrading public opinion and enthusiasm for the technology, regardless of which company is having the problems,” said Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who has conducted research on autonomous vehicle safety for decades. “When a large adverse event eventually happens, all that pent up public opinion is going to make it much more difficult for companies to deal with the situation.”

The sight of a robot traffic jam was unfortunately all too familiar in San Francisco. For months, city officials have complained about blocked roads, obstructed emergency response vehicles, and other bizarre behavior by these driverless cars. A Waymo vehicle ran over and killed a small dog — inspiring a street painting memorializing the martyred canine. And as more vehicles are deployed and the companies begin commercializing the service, more obstructions are to be expected.

“Every blocked traffic incident is going to add to degrading public opinion and enthusiasm for the technology”

Other cities will follow. Waymo has its sights set on Los Angeles and New York City, while Cruise is testing its vehicles in Miami and Austin, Texas. The companies are under enormous pressure to turn on the money spigots after their parent companies have invested tens of billions of dollars for more than a decade with very little money flowing back into their coffers.

Those cities will face similar issues as San Francisco: blocked roads, embarrassing media coverage, and populations split over the utility of robot cars versus the need to reduce car use overall.

The robotaxi dilemma is also shining a light on the divided way we regulate cars in the US. The federal government creates vehicle safety rules, leaving the states to license drivers, register vehicles, and enforce the rules of the road. All that’s left for cities to do is make minor infrastructure decisions, help direct traffic — and not much else.

The companies could do themselves a big favor by doing more outreach. Obstructing emergency vehicles, in particular, is unlikely to help win over the hearts and minds of the residents you’re hoping will become new customers, let alone not piss off the populace you’re trying to serve. Driverless car companies are required to report crashes and vehicle miles traveled to the state and federal government, but San Francisco officials say they want more data, including incidents in which robotaxis shut down in the middle of the street or block bike lanes. So far, the companies have been silent on this matter.

The companies could do themselves a big favor by doing more outreach

“More transparency and improvement on issues the public cares about are essential,” Koopman said. “This technology will not succeed without trust, and it is much easier to lose trust with a single bad event than it is to regain it afterwards.”

Cruise and Waymo say they are in constant dialogue with police, fire, and emergency services and have created training programs for first responders to “safely interact” with their vehicles. They also say that every incident is used as training data to be uploaded to the rest of the fleet to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

“This is just the beginning. It’s far from the end,” Aaron Peskin, president of the city’s Board of Supervisors, told The San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday. “We need to get it right and we are trying to partner with Cruise and Waymo, which hasn’t been real smooth. They are very secretive.” Peskin said the city documented 55 incidents involving driverless cars interfering with first responders so far this year.

The next phase is likely to be highly litigious. Peskin wants the city to “slow down or walk back” the expanded rollout of robot cars. That could include requesting another hearing or another vote from the CPUC. Failing that, the city could sue the commission, which is under the authority of Governor Gavin Newsom.

Cities will always be at a disadvantage in these types of fights. California, in particular, has shown a willingness to set aside local concerns about traffic, labor, and safety for the unimpeded progress of Big Tech companies. In 2020, voters approved a ballot measure to allow companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash to continue treating their workers like independent contractors rather than employees.

Cities will always be at a disadvantage in these types of fights

You can tell that many San Franciscans are sick and tired of playing guinea pig to these tech companies. First came Uber and Lyft. Then the electric scooters. Now, it’s the driverless cars. The weariness came through the testimony of dozens of people who waited hours to say their piece during the CPUC commission.

There was plenty of support, too — people who were disabled or distrustful of human drivers or didn’t want to appear to be burying their heads in the sand when new technology becomes available. After all, disruption and inconvenience tend to go hand in hand, said Raj Rajkumar, a robotics professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Think of the advent of indoor plumbing or the installation of natural gas lines or building roads and highways.

“All were major societal changes and caused a lot of inconveniences and discomfort, but we cannot live without them today,” he said. “Negatives get the news headlines and strong passions attract the most attention. But day-to-day convenience and usability for many customers (assuming that this comes to pass) will begin to triumph.”

Opponents are not likely to take these major changes lying down. In the weeks leading up to the CPUC vote, several videos went viral of people placing orange cones on the hoods of the vehicles, effectively disabling them. They called it the “Week of Cone,” and it was meant to demonstrate how easy it was to confuse these supposedly high-tech vehicles.

Their message was simple: if it’s so easy to stop a driverless car dead in its tracks, why should they be trusted to operate freely in a busy city?

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David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

A Cruise autonomous taxi in San Francisco.

New York
CNN
 — 

San Francisco residents were caught off guard this weekend after Cruise self-driving cars caused a traffic jam, according to social media posts. The obstruction came a few days after California regulators approved robotaxi companies to operate their driverless cars 24/7 throughout the city.

Videos posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, show at least 10 Cruise vehicles not moving with their hazard lights blinking in the city’s North Beach neighborhood, near where the Outside Lands music festival was happening. One account, FriscoLive415, said the incident was a “complete meltdown.”

Witnesses told CNN affiliate KPIX-TV that the driverless cars were blocking intersections Friday evening for about 15 minutes, causing concern that driverless cars could impede emergency vehicles from accessing the area.

Cruise responded on X, writing that the music festival “posed wireless bandwidth constraints causing delayed connectivity to our vehicles.” The company added that it’s “actively investigating and working on solutions to prevent this from happening again.”

“We apologize to those who were impacted,” Cruise said.

Cruise didn’t immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.

The company recently posted on X that its vehicles had surpassed four million driverless miles, and the company is now exceeding one million driverless miles per month.

“They’re deploying hundreds of cars on our streets. They should take a timeout and a pause, until they perfect this technology,” Aaron Peskin, the President of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, told KPIX-TV. He represents North Beach on the board.

Peskin also told the Los Angeles Times that he’s concerned about an emergency if this happens again. “Our houses in North Beach are made of sticks,” he told the newspaper. He added that he’s pursuing “every means” to have the state’s decision reversed and might seek a court injunction.

The incident came a day after the the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates self-driving cars in the state, voted 3-to-1 in favor of Waymo and Cruise expanding their operations. That means residents and visitors to San Francisco will be able to pay a fare to ride in a driverless taxi, ushering in new automated competition to cab and ridehail drivers.

Cruise spokesperson Drew Pusateri previously told CNN that the 24/7 driverless service is a “historic industry milestone” that puts Cruise “in a position to compete with traditional ridehail, and challenge an unsafe, inaccessible transportation status quo.”

Despite the state’s approval, local officials also expressed their dissent.

The San Francisco Police Officers Association, San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association and the San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798 all wrote letters to the CPUC expressing concerns that autonomous vehicles could impede emergency responders.

“The time that it takes for an officer or any other public safety employee to try and interact with an autonomous vehicle is frustrating in the best-case scenario, but when they can not comprehend our demands to move to the side of the roadway and are stopped in the middle of the roadway blocking emergency response units, then it rises to another level of danger,” wrote Tracy McCray, President of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, “and that is unacceptable.”

The San Francisco Fire Department has recorded 55 incidents of driverless vehicles interfering with their emergency responses in 2023 as of last week, the department confirmed to CNN.

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A busy night in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood proved too much for Cruise cars on Friday.

Several social media videos showed nearly a dozen robotaxis stopping in the middle of the street or trying to maneuver out of tight spots around Vallejo Street, Grant Avenue, and Columbus Avenue.

Cruise told NBC Bay Area on Saturday that it was suffering from wireless connectivity issues, which caused delays to cars. It added it’s working to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

This traffic jam coincided with San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music Festival which is going on about four miles away at Golden Gate Park.

On the social media platform X on Saturday, Cruise said that a “large festival posed wireless bandwidth constraints causing delayed connectivity to our vehicles.”

See more

Hi @friscolive415 – A large festival posed wireless bandwidth constraints causing delayed connectivity to our vehicles. We are actively investigating and working on solutions to prevent this from happening again. We apologize to those who were impacted.

— cruise (@Cruise) August 12, 2023

New York resident Valerie Jacobson, who was visiting San Francisco on Friday, says it was a confusing mess.

“As we were walking back to our hotel, there was this huge jam up of about ten cars and I looked and there were no drivers in them,” Jacobson recalled.

“One of them was like pretty much stuck up against one of the sidewalk sheds and trying to maneuver out of it but couldn’t,” she said. “There was also a huge lineup ahead of it. One of them was stopped at the top of the hill for no apparent reason. This had created a huge backlog.”

Witnesses of this incident told NBC Bay Area they noticed the traffic snarl just before 11 p.m. on Friday.

One witness provided this photo to NBC Bay Area of several Cruise robotaxis stalled on Vallejo Street in San Francisco’s North Beach just before 11 p.m. on Friday August 11.

“Other than being an inconvenience, it’s dangerous,” said San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who said he immediately received complaints from his constituents about the robotaxi jam.

The incident happened the day after the California Public Utilities Commission ruled in a 3-1 vote to allow Cruise and Waymo to expand robotaxi operations in San Francisco and part of San Mateo County 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Cruise is owned by General Motors and Waymo is owned by Alphabet.

“There was just a total meltdown,” said Peskin of the incident Friday, “which shows that San Francisco’s government that petitioned for an incremental approach –that we’re right.”

“These things are not ready for prime time,” Peskin said of the autonomous vehicles.

He also said the notion that wireless issues caused this backup “is scary as heck if you think about the fact that moving these vehicles out of traffic requires cell service.”

Peskin worries about what would happen if a natural disaster, for example, knocked out cell service. He referred to autonomous vehicles as “amazing devices,” but is among the local leaders arguing that “they should not be expanded until the technology has been worked out.” 

Peskin noted that local leaders are pushing at the state and federal levels, calling for more oversight of driverless cars.

In the meantime, he has an ask directly for California’s governor.

“At the end of the day, the five members of California’s Public Utilities Commission are appointed directly by the Governor of the State of California, and I think Gavin Newsom needs to do something about this before somebody gets killed,” Peskin said.

A busy night in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood proved too much for Cruise cars on Friday.

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• A group of around 100 motorcyclists illegally staged a sideshow on the Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland
• It caused all westbound lanes to come to a standstill as drivers performed stunts including wheelies – there were similar incidents last year
• Traffic was disrupted for about two minutes before resuming

A group of about 100 motorcyclists brought traffic onto the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Saturday afternoon when they engaged in an illegal sideshow.

The bikers were caught on camera performing dangerous stunts including slamming wheelies that brought all westbound lanes of the bridge to a standstill.

The uncomfortable spectacle led to a traffic jam. Some drivers stuck in traffic got out of their cars to capture the chaos.

The bikers could be seen performing donuts while smoke from the burned rubber filled the air.

Others revved their engines intimidatingly and drove in circles while trying the patience of other motorists who could do nothing but watch.

A group of about 100 motorcyclists illegally staged a sideshow on the Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland. The motorcycles’ tires could be seen squeaking, generating smoke from the burned rubber. A motorcyclist was seen performing donuts on his motorcycle in the middle of the road causing all westbound lanes to come to a standstill as riders performed stunts including wheelies – similar incidents occurred last year

Drivers stuck in their cars watching remained surprisingly calm with no honking to be heard.

A woman who recorded the scene explained how common such depictions are after she was caught up in something similar last month.

‘I just got caught by another guy on the bridge last month…Bay culture for sure!’ User lalasantola wrote on her Instagram.

This is not the first time such an event has occurred on the Bay Bridge, as several incidental events have been reported on the bridge in the past year alone.

At one point, ATVs were also involved in the incident.

The California Highway Patrol confirmed the disruption lasted about two minutes before traffic was able to move again.

So far, it’s unclear if there have been any arrests or subpoenas in connection with the stunt.

Other motorists could only watch until the mob of motorcycles drove on. Bikers blocked traffic across the bridge for several minutes while performing stunts. Bikers seemed in no hurry to move on as they caused disruption on Saturday afternoon The city of Oakland isn’t the first time such an event has happened on the Bay Bridge, with several sideshows on the bridge in the past year alone were reported. The situation took a dangerous turn after dark when a group of about 15 bikers entered the Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland and headed eastA biker weaved into and out of traffic on the bridge and Oakland

The lawlessness displayed on the bridge is emblematic of the city’s drug and crime problems elsewhere.

San Francisco is still riddled with crime – especially against property – in part because the police are too weak.

It doesn’t help that the city is being ravaged by fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid.

Addicts say users flock to San Francisco because drugs are readily available and the police just watch them get high. An estimated 620 people died there last year from an overdose.

Add to this the constant fear of crime, committed in large part by addicts who are frighteningly unpredictable.

The number of homeless people in San Francisco was nearly 8,000 as of February last year, the second highest number since 2005, according to the official government census, which takes place every three years.

Drug addicts and homeless in SOMA (South of Market) neighborhood, San Francisco Drug addicts and homeless in SOMA (South of Market) neighborhood, San Francisco Tents are surrounded by modern skyscrapers in an affluent neighborhood of the city

Various liberal politicians and city leaders have tried to implement numerous policies to stem the many problems created by the growing homeless and drug addicted population.

One specific harm reduction policy that failed was the opening of the Tenderloin Center last year to help alleviate the city’s drug and homelessness crises.

It cost taxpayers a whopping $22 million and was intended to be a “safe place” for addicts to “get high without getting mugged” and without fear of a fatal overdose.

Users should also be directed to help centers, although in the first four months of operation it only referred 18 of the more than 23,000 people welcomed to the site.

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Note: GJEL Accident Attorneys regularly sponsors coverage on Streetsblog San Francisco and Streetsblog California. Unless noted in the Story, GJEL Accident Attorneys will not be consulted for the content or editorial direction of the Sponsored Content.

induced demand? What is that?

Pretending that induced demand—a well-documented phenomenon—didn’t exist was the unintended theme of Saturday’s celebration of the opening of the “Managed Lanes” project at 101 in San Mateo County (aka freeway widening). More details on KQED’s $600 million project:

The San Mateo 101 Express Lanes Project officially opened with a dedication ceremony on Saturday. The 22-mile express lanes, stretching along Highway 101 from the San Mateo/Santa Clara county line to Interstate 380 in South San Francisco, are designed to reduce traffic congestion and encourage carpooling and the use of public transit along one of the busiest thoroughfares on the peninsula Promote San Francisco. “The opening of the freeways in San Mateo County has been in the pipeline for years [and] it finally came to fruition,” said San Mateo Rep. Kevin Mullin, representing District 15. “It’s good for the economy, it’s good for the environment, and it’s a win-win for everyone involved who’s taken the years to get this project off the ground.”

Of course, Mullin’s claim that it’s “good for the environment” is complete nonsense. If officials wanted to help the environment, they could have converted existing lanes into toll, HOV, and bus lanes instead of adding more lanes.

Most advocates would probably rather be somewhere else on a Saturday than standing in the middle of screeching lanes full of car pollution. But Mike Swire, a peninsula advocate and member of the San Mateo County Transit Authority’s Citizen’s Advisory Committee, Max Mautner, co-lead of Move San Mateo, and Darryl Yip, who is leading opposition to further 101 expansion between 380 and 101 San Francisco, went down to try and fight off the gaslights.

Mautner, Swire and Yip came to protest the ribbon cutting: image from Swire’s Photostream

And since KQED quoted Swire as saying the 101 project was “the worst local environmental decision in recent memory” and “the highway widening has never worked,” it had the desired effect.

Officials, meanwhile, “discussed the environmental and equity impacts of the project,” Swire wrote in an email to Streetsblog. “No mention of global warming, air pollution, traffic violence, or induced demand. Many prominent politicians are there and speak – e.g. B. Newly-elected Congressman Kevin Mullin, Progressive County Supervisor David Canepa, and Newly-elected Rep. Diane Papan (the main sponsor of the project).”

Sure, as long as people in these low-income communities hold their breath.

Photo by Caltrans of their latest expansion project

As Streetsblog previously reported, stakeholders in widening the 101 (and other roads) sometimes even tacitly admit that their projects aren’t working — and are actually making things worse. Despite this, they continue to do the work, knowing full well that it will harm the environment and lead to more accidents and other destructive effects. Advocates must keep challenging this evil until they stop.

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Rush hour traffic crawls along Highway 101 into San Francisco, California on Thursday morning, March 30, 2023. (Photo: Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

There’s a new mystery thousands of Bay Area commuters are trying to solve. Downtown offices that were once teeming with techies and lawyers are deserted. BART’s ridership is down 60% after many passengers fled the system three years ago and never returned.

So why are the freeways full again?

Radio stations ping with morning traffic jam updates: The MacArthur Maze is a mess, I-880 a nuisance, and the 101 a zoo — though remote working has led to a colossal shift in travel patterns and taxpayers have spent billions of dollars providing buses, Trains and other alternatives to driving. Ultimately, the long-term solution to resurgent congestion is perhaps the least-common idea yet: making it even more expensive to commute by car.

“It’s a paradox, isn’t it?” said Alexandre Bayen, an engineering professor at UC Berkeley who studies traffic patterns. “We’re busy. It may not be the exact same times, under the same circumstances. But we are working at full capacity.”

Commuters travel across the Bay Bridge towards San Francisco on Thursday, March 30, 2023 during the morning commute in San Francisco, California. (Photo: Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Perhaps nowhere is this more visible than at the Bay Bridge. While overall bridge traffic is still down about 10% compared to 2019, morning commutes from Oakland to San Francisco are often worse than before the pandemic. Riders fill the bridge during rush hour, and morning travel speeds are 32% slower than four years ago, according to congestion data tracking speeds from Treasure Island to the Fremont Street exit in San Francisco. But the afternoon commute is still easier for many — speeds at the Bay Bridge average 34% faster exiting San Francisco.

Even reverse commuters feel some pain. Ian Brown, 47, is driving from San Francisco to Los Gatos for a job at Netflix. “You kind of got used to putting it in cruise control and going 75 mph,” he said. “Maybe three or four months ago you’ll turn the corner and the traffic will stop. It’s all about reactive driving again.”

RELATED: Bay Area drivers face DMV registration bans amid mounting express lane debt

Regional data shows the return to traffic chaos. INRIX, a traffic analysis company, found that Bay Area congestion has fully returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2022. The region ranks 15th in the world for traffic congestion, with drivers spending an average of 97 hours in traffic last year. There is a caveat to the study’s conclusion: congestion on the city’s roads remains low, while the freeways have filled.

Increasing highway congestion is particularly confusing when you consider not only remote work but also historically high gas prices and recently increased bridge tolls, factors expected to discourage driving.

“I think traffic will only get worse,” said Bob Pishue, author of the INRIX study. “There’s a lot of demand and not enough street supply.”

Rush hour traffic crawls along Highway 101 into San Francisco, California on Thursday morning, March 30, 2023. (Photo: Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

Traffic patterns also underscore a new system of winners and losers – at least when it comes to road transport – brought on by the pandemic. People who work from home, more often employees who can shop at lunchtime or hit the gym, see far less congestion. Workers who have to do their jobs in person — like plumbers, nurses and teachers — are back on congested roads.

But why do autobahns fill up so quickly?

Michael Manville, a professor of urban planning at UCLA, said Californians find many reasons to keep driving even as they commute less. One reason is that driving became even easier when COVID-19 and remote working emptied the streets. That only enticed drivers to fill the freeways until the congestion returned.

“Traffic jams aren’t just annoying — they’re a deterrent,” Manville said. “When the traffic eases, people will see that the freeway is empty and they will get in their cars and go somewhere else.”

At the region’s most notorious bottleneck, the Bay Bridge, commuters pack their journey into too few hours, exacerbating congestion. East Bay drivers driving down the peninsula from the Bay Bridge witness some of the region’s worst morning commutes, with westbound I-80 speeds dropping 44% compared to 2019 as they approach Highway 101 .

If upside-down work patterns can’t end traffic congestion, is there an answer to the region’s traffic woes?

Rush hour traffic crawls along Interstate 280 into San Francisco, Calif. Thursday morning, March 30, 2023. (Photo by Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

One solution to highway congestion is to get people out of their solo driving habits and into trains and buses, or carpooling. In 2018, voters across the Bay Area voted to increase their bridge tolls to now $7 on promises of freeing highways from congestion. Funds are flowing to send BART trains to San Jose, expand ferry service, and build a network of express lanes. These measures are intended to make the region’s ailing local transport system a viable alternative to car travel.

But changing driver behavior is a difficult task. A common refrain, supported by research, is that voters often approve public transit funding in the hope that others will use the system and make their commute easier.

Some public transport advocates say commuters’ reliance on one-person vehicles and aversion to public transit has hardened over the past three years. They point to concerns about the reliability and safety of BART, as well as an ongoing stigma that riding public transit poses a health risk. For others, commuting to work a few times a week means they’re more likely to grit their teeth in traffic, even as congestion mounts.

“People still commute,” said Emily Loper, vice president of the Bay Area Council, which tracks return-to-office trends. “You just choose to drive more than before.”

Now, transit planners in the Bay Area are landing with a controversial idea: Really reducing congestion is less about encouraging transit ridership and more about making it more expensive to drive.

At the heart of the plan is a two-year study commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission into imposing a per-mile charge for driving on freeways in the Bay Area. Some plans under study also include charging on roads adjacent to freeways or a toll for downtown access in San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland. The study should pave the way for the implementation of a new motorway toll system in 2035.

Without a new “stick” to add to the “carrot” of improved public transport, drivers will stay on the streets and the collective misery of congestion will only worsen, Anup Tapase, chief planner of the MTC, said during a meeting at the MTC Month.

It is a method of reducing traffic congestion that has gained traction among many experts.

But in the Bay Area, there are deep concerns about the potential impact of congestion charges on the region’s low-income communities. The move could also spark an uprising among voters who are already paying the highest gas prices in the country.

“The word freeway has a very deep meaning in Californian culture. People believe that driving on these roads is a right,” MTC committee member Frank Welte said at a meeting earlier this month. “Any motorist who now drives for free on a freeway, who starts paying a toll, will see it as treason and theft.”

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MARIN COUNTY (CBS SF) — Authorities in Marin County confirmed a two-vehicle crash Saturday that left three people hospitalized with their injuries.

On Saturday at around 12 pm, the Marin Area office of the California Highway Patrol received a call regarding a two-vehicle traffic crash with one vehicle rolled onto its roof. The accident happened on Point Reyes-Petaluma Road, west of Nicasio Valley Road.

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CHP-Marin Area officers, as well as the CHP’s Golden Gate Division Air Operations, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office and Marin County Fire Department responded to the accident.

Marin County crash (CHP Marin)

CHP said their preliminary investigation indicated a Chevrolet Corvette was traveling west on Point Reyes-Petaluma Road behind several vehicles. The driver of the Corvette attempted to pass three slower moving vehicles at one time, traveling at a high rate of speed.

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At the same time, a Toyota pick-up truck at the front of the pack was attempting to make a left turn into a dirt parking area. The driver of the Corvette failed to see the truck turning left. The front of the Chevrolet collided into the left side of the Toyota, causing the truck to flip.

After the collision, the three occupants of the Toyota were transported to the hospital with minor to moderate injuries. The driver of the Corvette sustained minor injuries and was treated on scene, CHP said.

Authorities said the initial investigation indicated drugs and/or alcohol did not appear to be a factor in the collision. The driver of the Corvette will be cited for the unsafe driving maneuver.

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“If you are traveling in West Marin, please remember to drive with caution and care. Get to where you are going safely. There’s no need to rush,” CHP said in a Facebook post about the accident.

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