Politicians in the Bay Area want to remove bike lanes from the Richmond-San Rafael bridge because they are worried about traffic congestion.
Cyclists say removing these bike lanes will put them in danger.
https://richmondside.org/2025/08/05/richmond-san-rafael-bridge-bike-path-final-vote/
https://bikeeastbay.org/rsr2024-2/
During the public hearing, commissioner Karl Hasz was spotted driving his car
Approximately 68 cyclist use the bridge per day (3 orders of magnitude fewer than cars. Perhaps if it were within 1 order, it would make a difference).
https://tombutt.com/richmond-san-rafael-bridge-bike-path-enters-final-year-of-trial-run-east-bay-times-12-2-2022/
https://abc7news.com/post/access-bike-path-richmond-san-rafael-bridge-limited-converted-breakdown-lane/17466859/
https://www.kqed.org/news/12017869/will-the-richmond-san-rafael-bridge-bike-lane-stay-its-still-uncertain
Pedestrian use is even lower https://www.kqed.org/news/12017869/will-the-richmond-san-rafael-bridge-bike-lane-stay-its-still-uncertain
So perhaps 5 cars are taken off the road, at most, vs 67,000 cars.
Thats really making a difference. Great use of resources.
How many years, at even a dozen cars per day, to amortize the carbon footprint of the concrete used, let alone the equipment (diesel fuel), steel, asphalt/macadam, etc?
This project was an environmental net negative, and will never become positive.
I’m all for such projects, but far too often the bigger picture isn’t considered, it’s just a feel-good. Let’s do what actually makes a difference, otherwise we’re making things worse.
How is it that 68 cyclists are 5 cars?
MTC data has different numbers: https://reports.mysidewalk.com/3374a0ca74
Regardless, adding a lane won’t work. The bottleneck is the 101, so you just get extra lanes to stand still in. And the toll gate as well.
The lane was already there btw, but it was an emergency pullover lane. It didn’t cost a lot of carbon to turn it into a bike lane.
If you want to talk bigger picture… they built a pedestrian/bike lane with zero access/amenities at either end (unlike the Bay Bridge). No staging area to load/unload your bike, no parking, no bathrooms, no water fountains. Good luck finding all-day parking on city streets in Pt. Richmond or… San Quentin.
Here are the directions: https://marinbike.org/news/getting-to-from-the-r-sr-bridge-pathway/
Once approaching/getting off the bridge, if commuting by bike, there is no direct connection to the Bay Trail. So anyone living in Marin and wanting to commute to, say, Berkeley or El Cerrito so they can get on BART (or even the Richmond Ferry) has to risk going through heavily industrial areas or dicey parts of Richmond. On the Marin side to/from Larkspur Landing, you had to ride unprotected on the shoulder of the freeway!
Only way to use it for commuters on either end would be to park and ride, but again, no parking and ride facilities. And there’s any wonder more people don’t use it? There’s wide open space at either end of the bridge to build staging areas, especially on the Richmond side right near the Toll Plaza, but nobody wants to make it easy. It’s such a gauntlet I’m amazed that many people use it.
The solution to traffic congestion is to make public transit and alternate forms of transportation more cost-effective, functional, and convenient. That includes offering easy transition/transfer points. It isn’t to open more driving lanes. They’ve known this since the days of Robert Moses in NYC, but keep doing it.
I am thankful for the article links, but how many edits are you at?