Should cyclists continue to have full access to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge?

The dedicated bike lane on the upper deck of the Richmond-San Rafael bridge has been a bone of contention between cyclists and motorists since it opened as a four-year pilot project in 2019. While its life has been extended to a fifth year, its days may be numbered.

Next month, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission may reduce the bike lane to a weekends-only feature, a move the cycling community opposes. Since it opened, the bike lane has remained accessible to cyclists and pedestrians 24/7, accounting for more than 370,000 bike trips and 45,000 pedestrian trips. However, an oversight committee of the Bay Area Toll Authority, which is part of the  Metropolitan Transportation Commission, voted unanimously in May to modify the pilot project by limiting the bike lane to Fridays and weekends, and returning it to an emergency shoulder Monday to Thursday.

MTC submitted this modification to the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the government agency that issued the permit for the pilot project in 2018. The commission is expected to vote on the modification in January. 

The cycling community has united to keep the lane open. On Nov. 16, hundreds of cyclists traversed the bridge to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the bike lane.

Closing the lane would have an impact on Zach Kaplan, who joined the ride with other members of Grizzly Peak Cyclists. He frequently crosses the bridge on weekdays and would prefer to pedal rather than drive over it. 

“Right now I have weekday errands I can do by bike, and I would have to drive there,” he said.

Every year since 2019, Rich City Rides, a Richmond-based cycling advocacy group, has organized rides as a celebration and an opportunity to advocate for making the bike lane permanent. Some cyclists this year rode with posters affixed to their bikes saying: “We need 24/7 access to get where we are going,” and “People are greater than cars.”

The public is in danger of losing the bike lane, Najari Smith, founder and executive director of Rich City Rides, told the crowd at the start of this year’s ride. “The threat is being made by transit officials, and we are here to say, ‘No. We will fight for our right to travel as we see fit,'” he said, to cheers and applause. 

At the ride, Bike East Bay and Marin County Bicycle Coalition asked people to sign petitions to keep the bike lane open 24/7. The petition has collected more than 3,000 signatures.

Richmond City Council passed a resolution supporting the permanent bike lane, calling transportation a human right that people without a car should be able to access.

MTC data shows that there are about 350 bicycle and pedestrian trips over the bridge on a typical weekend day, which is more than double the bike and foot traffic on a weekday. 

Nate Miley, a member of the Bay Area Toll Authority’s Oversight Committee, believes the number shows the bike lane is “trying to accommodate a few people and jeopardizing the greater safety.”

“I don’t think it’s for the greater good,” he said during the May meeting, and abstained from the vote.

Motorists greatly outnumber cyclists on the bridge, so their concerns should be prioritized, said John Grubb, Bay Area Council’s chief operating officer. “We don’t want to be putting bikes against cars, but eventually you have to make decisions about which people you are going to help,” he said. “Do you help 40,000 people or do you help 70 to 100 bikers?”

Cyclists see that as a flawed argument. Susan Nawberry, who participated in the November ride noted that better infrastructures will invite more people to bike.

“If you add an extra lane of car traffic, cars will come and use it. If you add a bike lane, you increase bike traffic,” she said.

Linking the SF Bay Trail

The lane is part of the 350-mile-long San Francisco Bay Trail. The MTC aims to build over 500 miles of trails that ring the bay and span seven toll bridges. The bike lane closure on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge would set a bad precedent by reducing the Bay Trail, said Robert Prinz, Bike East Bay advocacy director. “It’s only ever been increased,” he said. Prinz believes it would be against the Bay Conservation and Development Commission’s charter if the commission approves the modification plan.

“That really calls into question what the motivating factors are at BCDC as well as whether or not they can be trusted on future decisions,” he said. 

The commision was created in 1965 to protect the environment and maximize public access to the bay. The commission’s San Francisco Bay Plan, which was updated in 2019, says, “Transportation projects on the Bay shoreline and bridges over the Bay or certain waterways should include pedestrian and bicycle paths that will either be a part of the Bay Trail or connect the Bay Trail with other regional and community trails.”

The 5.5-mile-long double-deck bridge carries eastbound and westbound traffic on Interstate 580 from Richmond to Marin County. Each deck accommodates three car lanes. Now cyclists and pedestrians use the rightmost lane on the upper — westbound — deck, with a barrier separating the bike lane from the two car lanes. About 35,000 vehicles use the upper deck daily, on average, according to research by Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology at UC Berkeley.

The research found that westbound congestion occurs during morning rush hours on weekdays, with backups that can extend for more than 3 miles between 7 and 7:30 a.m. By reducing the bike lane to weekends only,  the MTC hopes to determine if an emergency shoulder would ease congestion.

Lisa Klein, the deputy executive director of MTC, has said the data is inclusive as to whether the bike lane might increase traffic accidents, including sideswipes, and incident response time. The UC Berkeley research found no evidence that the bike lane caused longer response times for accidents.

Opposing weekday bike lane

One of the main opponents of keeping the bike lane permanently open is the Bay Area Council, a nonprofit whose mission is to “make the Bay Area the best place to live and work.” More than 330 companies are members, and its board of directors consists of executives of large companies including Chevron, AT&T and Amazon.

In 2021, the group launched a campaign to close the bike lane during the week, which includes a petition that has collected about 18,000 signatures. 

The campaign contends traffic congestion on the bridge is “the number one source of non-wildfire air pollution in the city of Richmond.”

Grubb said the group has received complaints from many Marin County employers about bridge traffic affecting their workers’ commutes. Grubb said it can take drivers 24 minutes to cross the bridge, and even longer if there is an accident.

“The 24-minute backup will become one hour or even an hour and a half while they have to wait for that accident to get cleared. And it happens so often that they have to plan for their trip to take that long,” he said.

The group has been advocating for a third car lane on the bridge, and Grubb said it has received positive feedback for it from some BCDC commissioners. 

“All of them said they have never heard from more people than they had on this issue, and basically all of those they are hearing from are on our side,” he said. “So they have heard thousands of people who have written them notes and supported opening the third lane.”

The Marin County Board of Supervisors sent a letter to BCDC in November, asking it to close the bike lane Monday through Thursday. “The viability of the East Bay-Marin County commute over this bridge is crucial to our local economy,” the supervisors said.

Prinz said the decision-makers should look beyond the numbers to the symbol the bike lane represents.

“If the metric being used is like the number of bikes versus number of drivers, you know that we’re never going to win that one because there’s so much infrastructure that’s already set up to serve drivers,” he said. “We don’t have much infrastructure to set up to serve bikers.”

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