May 1, 2024
Re: Richmond-San Rafael Bridge Public Pathway Pilot Project
Dear San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission Members:
We, the undersigned organizations, urge you to reject the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Caltrans staff’s BCDC permit amendment request to close the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge Trail all day every Monday through Thursday, for conversion to a car breakdown shoulder. Please join us in supporting permanent, 24/7 access for all between the East Bay and the North Bay by keeping this pathway open.
The opening of this multi-use trail in November 2019 was a joyous occasion, marking the culmination of decades of advocacy, and completing a critical 6-mile link in the Bay Trail between Contra Costa and Marin counties. Since then more than 377,000 biking, walking, and rolling trips have been made on the pathway for exercise, recreation, commuting, socializing, and more.
Report data on the four year pathway pilot project, shared by the Bay Area Toll Authority to the Contra Contra Transportation Authority at their December 2023 meeting, showed that as of Fall 2022 there was no increase in westbound car congestion compared to prior conditions in 2019. The report stated that the duration of the morning commute congestion was on average 30 minutes shorter in 2022 than 2019, with car traffic at 90% of pre-pandemic levels.
With regard to traffic safety the draft report showed that the number of crashes decreased slightly after the pathway was installed compared to before. Incident response times increased by 1.3 minutes on average, while the duration of incident impacts on bridge traffic went down by 2.5 minutes on average.
The draft report also showed that the pathway did not negatively affect air quality, which is primarily impacted by vehicle miles traveled, not by traffic congestion. Road dust, tire wear, and brake wear make up 83% of PM2.5 emissions from vehicles, compared to running exhaust which makes up 17%.
We recognize the hardships imposed on individuals from bridge congestion, many of whom are forced to drive great distances to access employment in the North Bay due to a lack of workforce housing options and robust public transit. Some mitigations to the congestion issues are already in the works at the main pinch-points including the toll plaza, the Richmond Parkway interchange, and the 580/101 interchange.
We also recognize hardships imposed on those who rely on public transit, but are currently only provided with a single bus line across the bridge with headways between buses of up to an hour, and no service after 10pm. And we recognize hardships on those who rely on bicycles, ebikes, and other devices who will have no crossing option at all if the pathway is closed.
Equitable and sustainable solutions to the bridge congestion issues involve addressing land use and housing affordability imbalances so as to not force people into arduously long commutes in the first place, and to significantly increase public transit service on the corridor to move more people without harmful increases in vehicle miles traveled. Closing the pathway for a breakdown shoulder as currently proposed, or for a third westbound car lane, will not contribute toward progress on these underlying causes.
Keeping the pathway open is in alignment with numerous adopted plans and policies on the regional and state level including the San Francisco Bay Trail Plan, the Plan Bay Area regional transportation plan and sustainable communities strategy, the Plan Bay Area 2050 transportation strategy, BCDC’s Bay Plan Transportation Policy No. 4, the Caltrans Complete Streets Directors Policy DP-37, and Executive Order N-19-19 signed by Governor Newsom.
We appreciate and share BCDC’s goals of increased equity, climate resilience, and access to the Bay shoreline, and we look forward to continuing to work together on real solutions to these issues.
Sincerely,
Robert Prinz, Advocacy Director, Bike East Bay
Warren Wells, Policy & Planning Director, Marin County Bicycle Coalition
Najari Smith
Executive Director
Rich City Rides
Bruce Beyaert
Chair
Trails for Richmond Action Committee
David Lewis
Executive Director
Save The Bay
Sarah Ranney
Director
Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter
Zoe Siegel
Senior Director of Climate Resilience
Greenbelt Alliance
Carrie Harvilla
Deputy Director
Transform
Jesse Voremberg
Trail Development Manager
Rails to Trails Conservancy
Sarka Volejnikova
Parks for People Program Director
Trust for Public Land
Kendra Ramsey
Executive Director
California Bicycle Coalition
Joshua F
President
National Youth Bike Council
Ken McLeod
Policy Director
The League of American Bicyclists
Dave Snyder
Senior Director of Infrastructure
PeopleForBikes
Doria Robinson
Executive Director
Urban Tilth
Toody Maher
Executive Director
Pogo Park
Dani Lanis
Chair
Richmond BPAC
Princess Robinson
Coalition Organizer
Richmond Our Power Coalition
Pam Stello
Co-Chair
Point Molate Alliance
Eric Aaholm
Executive Director
YES Nature to Neighborhoods
Emily Seelenfreund
Executive Director
BORP Adaptive Sports and Recreation
Abigail Montejo
Friends of the Richmond Greenway (FORG)
Eris Weaver
Executive Director
Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition
Kara Vernor
Executive Director
Napa County Bicycle Coalition
Christopher White
Interim Executive Director
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
Clarrissa Cabansagan
Executive Director
Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition
Coordinating Committee
El Cerrito / Richmond Annex Walk & Roll
Coordinating Committee
Walk Bike Berkeley
Preston Jordan & Nick Pilch
Co-Founders
Albany Strollers & Rollers
Chris Hwang
Board President
Walk Oakland Bike Oakland
Cyndy Johnsen
Board Member
Bike Walk Alameda
Andreas Kadavanich
Co-Organizer
Bike Fremont
Michael C. Williams
Trails Program Manager
Hayward Area Recreation and Park District
Alejandro Ramirez Jasso
President
Bike Hayward
Jeff Lyon
Bike Orinda
Kristin Tennessen
Bike Walnut Creek
JoAnne Lauer, Bruce Dughi
Co-Founders
Bike Walk Castro Valley
Kristi Marleau
Bike Dublin
Colleen Barclay & Pete Gang
Safe Streets Petaluma
Walter Niederberger
Move! Healdsburg
Dave Rhoads
Co-Chair
Walk/Bike San Rafael
Alexa Forrester
Co-Lead
Bikeable Santa Rosa
Nick Hoeper-Tomich & Elise Fortin
Head Coach & Team Director
Berkeley High Mountain Bike Team
Joe Grondahl
Head Coach
El Cerrito High School Mountain Bike Team
Liz Kroboth
President
Grizzly Peak Cyclists
Scott Bartlebaugh
Advocacy Director
Bicycle Trails Council of the East Bay
Maya Wolf
President
Berkeley Bicycle Club
Dan Leaverton & Alec Flett
Knackered Tyres bicycle club
Angela Navarro
Board Vice President
San Francisco Randonneurs
Sean Brandt
President
Dolce Vita Cycling
Glenn Kirby
President
Fremont Freewheelers Bicycle Club
Nora Vargas-Dye
Collaborator
California Field School
Michael Gustafson
Valley Spokesmen
Laura Lent
El Cerrito Trail Trekkers
Bryan Culbertson
Traffic Violence Rapid Response
Carter Lavin
Transbay Coalition
Taylor Peliska
Co-Founder & Head of Design Movemint
Neil Flock
Bimotal Inc
Cyane Dandridge Founder and Executive Director Tim Oey
ZeroW.org
SEI - Strategic Energy Innovations
Nick Peterson
Founding Member
Albany Climate Action Coalition
Ryan Branciforte CEO
OuterSpatial
Lauren Weston
Executive Director
Acterra: Action for a Healthy Planet
Lendri Purcell
President
Families Advocating for Chemical and Toxics Safety
Carleen Culled
Executive Director
Cool the Earth
Sonoma County Climate Activist Network (SoSoCAN)
Juliana Gonzalez
Executive Director
The Watershed Project
Dan Cohen
President
Full Court Press Communications
Anna Thiel
Bad Business Model Bikes
Jon Spangler
Chair
BART Bicycle Advisory Task Force
Jed Lee
Wellness & Environmental Justice Community Engagement Manager
UC Berkeley Student Environmental Resource Center