This story was updated to include a link to the shuttle tracker. The new schedule for the Richmond-San Rafael bridge bike lane starts on Monday, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
Beginning Mon., Oct. 27, the bicycle/pedestrian path on the right side of the upper deck of the Richmond-San Rafael bridge will be used as a breakdown shoulder lane all day on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and on Thursday mornings.
The path will then open to bicyclists and others at 2 p.m. on Thursday afternoons; all day on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays; and on select holidays, including Memorial Day; Independence Day, if observed on a Monday; Labor Day; Thanksgiving week from Wednesday afternoon through Sunday night; and the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
A free shuttle operated by Code3 will be carry bicyclists, bikes and pedestrians across the bridge between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. on days when the path is closed and from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays. You can track the shuttle live online, and there will be QR codes posted at the shuttle stops, transportation officials said.
Designated shuttle stops will be at the Vista Point Parking Lot in San Rafael at East Francisco Boulevard and Main Street and the AC Transit Tewksbury bus stop at Castro Street and East Standard Avenue in Point Richmond. The shuttle can tow up to 10 bikes on its trailer for the 20-minute journey across the bridge.
Why are bike lane hours being restricted?
The change was approved by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) in August as part of a design alternative assessment now known as the Westbound Improvement Project. Transportation officials will collect data on motor vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian travel through the Richmond-San Rafael corridor to study the feasibility of establishing a part-time bus/carpool lane and a part-time bike/ped path on the upper deck.
The BCDC’s decision came after a more than seven-hour hearing, marking the end of an extended debate about the future of a five-year pilot of the bike and pedestrian lane between Richmond and Marin County — a lane that advocates say was appreciated by bicycle commuters and that opponents say worsened traffic congestion.
The new three-year pilot, part of Caltrans and the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC) Westbound Improvement Project, also extends a lane for high occupancy vehicles from Regatta Boulevard in Richmond to the toll plaza. In the current pilot, the HOV lane would end at the bridge’s Richmond access point, not extending across the bridge.
The 10-foot-wide path on the bridge’s north side is separated from traffic by a moveable concrete barrier, allowing its use to be varied. According to MTC data, there have been ​​413,889 bike trips across the bridge since it opened and 60,003 pedestrian crossings.
Eighty people spoke during the hearing’s public comment session, with the majority opposed to reducing the bike lane hours.
Richmondside reporter Joel Umanzor and intern Thomas Lyons contributed to this report.
I can’t begin to count the number of Marin appointments I’ve been late for and the hundreds of hours I’ve lost sitting in traffic because of a breakdown or minor accident that stopped traffic due to the lack of an emergency lane. And while I sit idling with hundreds of other cars I’ll see maybe one or two leisure riders cross on bikes. This is literally the bike lane with the largest carbon footprint anywhere in the country. I’m happy to see it go, but am stumped why it will remain on Friday which is still a heavy commute day (Mondays are the lightest). And weekends are absolutely the worst for traffic with backups for miles by families crossing over for leisure trips (I guess they should get bikes?).
Here we go again, the NRAish biking community coming out in huge numbers and the rest of us bus riders and car drivers just not showing up. It took a while but critical mass did get under control. Subsequently, this became their cause celebre. Maybe something good will come out of it as critical mass did bring changes in streets, bikes to rent, bike lanes etc…taking a lane away and causing long traffic jams is not one of them.
Richmondside editors, could you provide information about the app that will be provided for tracking the shuttle in realtime?
Hi, I heard back from MTC this morning. Try this link. They say they will post the QR code on their site and at the shuttle stops.
Bottom line is the majority of those bike riders & pedestrians were likely not full time working people who relied on commuting to an actual job & getting there on time. They were mostly retired folks out for a leisurely day. I look forward to not seeing my nearby streets backed up in the mornings!
I’ve only lived in Richmond for 10 years, and all of it in the Point, right downtown. The traffic was horrendous even prior to the bike line being approved, and (IMHO) its removal will not make it better (who remembers the nightmare of only tiny breaks in the roadway surface during the concrete repairs, which caused epic backups from fearful drivers slowing for no reason?).
I will take a small issue with an earlier commenter, who stated that Monday traffic is the lightest, but as every traffic reporter knows, “Friday-light” is a common description.
I feel that that far more of a(n) (ironically) negative effect, will be the extension of the west bound HOV lane two miles from the toll plaza entrance. And, because the pinch from multiple lanes to even three, still goes back to two lanes, for the pinch on the Marin side to San Rafael/Larkspur Landing; it’s fundamentally flawed…
In the many hundreds of occasions that I’ve crossed the bridge in the last ten years, most of that has been mitigated by my use of a motorcycle, which is truly the only way to pragmatically mitigate the crush, which I fully understand is not an option for most.
I ended my Bike East Bay membership when they advocated so fiercely for a bike path to nowhere, well technically from a refinery to a prison, that creates more pollution and congestion than any other “pilot” project in the Bay Area. I am glad to see some logic finally prevail, although it makes little sense to open the path on Thursday afternoons rather than on Fridays after the morning commute. Bicycling advocates seem destined to fall on their sword for this path, despite it serving a handful of rich Marin MAMILs at the expense of tens of thousands of working and middle class East Bay folks who keep the lights on, literally and figuratively, in Marin.
I think that it is interesting to include the 5 year total for cyclists and walkers (which are likely counted in both directions) but NOT include the total number of cars that have used the bridge in 5 years. In the fiscal year 2022-2023 alone, nearly 13 MILLION cars used the bridge. It is absolutely ridiculous to not include the fact that thousands of people are idling and slow rolling in their cars so that a small group of cyclists can cross.
Right now I average about 40 minutes every day (except Friday) from when I hit the bridge traffic to when I get to the toll booth. If three lanes are needed 7 days per week from 2:00-7:00pm (yes – every day) on the way out of Marin, then the Richmond side needs three driving lanes as well in the morning. A fairly small change to the Marin side with a right exit only lane would fix this intense problem. We do not need another multi year pilot.