Hayward-San Mateo Bridge Bicycle Access
LATEST UPDATE: Caltrans and MTC are going before BCDC this Thursday,APRIL 1st. Please come and speak at the public hearing: --= NEXT MEETING is at BCDC =-- Thursday April 1st 1 PM 425 Market, 2nd Floor Downtown San Francisco GOOD NEWS: The Bay Conservation and Development Commission showed tremendous support for equal access to the Hayward-San Mateo Bridge at the Public Hearing, January 7th, 1999. Caltrans has asked for more time in this issue. They still need to come back to the Commission for a vote as of late January. The January 21st date has been cancelled at their request. Indeed, they've now cancelled everything through March 18th and they may not be able to do that one at all either. Caltrans is running scared after totally stonewalling us for more than two years on this issue. They may delay indefinitely. We can assume that they are looking for some strategy to oppose equal access with. We'll be there.Good work, everyone!
THE MOST RECENT BULLETIN (and who to write to):
URGENT ALERT: MEETING JANUARY 7th in SAN FRACISCO
** CRITICAL MOMENT FOR BRIDGE ACCESS ** This just in: CalTrans is finalizing its plans to build a 5-mile bridge to more than double the potential capacity of the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge (from 4 lanes to ten lanes!). This would involve building a duplicate bridge four feet to the north of the existing bridge. Now is the perfect time to provide for bicycle and pedestrian access. Unfortunately, CalTrans has not proposed to include such access and in fact, has explicitly said it opposes such access. CalTrans must apply for a permit from the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), who's role is, in part, to ensure maximum feasible public access and maximum ultimate capacity. CalTrans' own EIR/EIS states that even if the bridge is widened, it will be at capacity by the year 2000 and just as congested by 2010. There is essentially no bus service across the bridge. Clearly, the region needs more options in order to cross the bay, in order to provide alternatives to automobile congestion on what has come to be known as the "S&M Bridge" due to the torturous experience most users have on a regular basis. It would frequently be *twice* as fast to bike the bridge as to drive it! The widening of the San Mateo-Hayward bridge is scheduled to come before BCDC (the Bay Conservation and Development Commission) on January 7th. A good showing there will help empower the commission to do the right thing and deny the permit until CalTrans accomodates bicyclists and pedestrians. An outpouring of letters and cards will also help the commissioners make the right choice. The cities of San Mateo and Foster City have already passed resolutions supporting this issue. The next step for this issue will be a vote by BCDC, most likely onJanuary 21stin Oakland. In the meanwhile, we need help in pursuing possible legal challenges to the project. COME TO THE HEARING: Thursday, January 7th, 1999 1PM in the afternoon 425 Market Street, 2nd floor (at Fremont) COME TO THE VOTE (tentative date):Thursday, January 21st, 1999We now do not know when the vote will be -- Feb. 4 is the earliest it could possibly be. 1PM in the afternoon 101-8th Street, Downtown Oakland (across from Lake Merritt BART, at the MTC building) WRITE A LETTER: Chair Tufts, Commissioners and Alternates Bay Conservation and Development Commission 30 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 2011 San Francisco, CA 94102 phone 415/557-3686 FAX 415/557-3767 VOLUNTEER: There's lots to do -- especially outreach. Looking for a few sharp environmental attorneys. STAY INFORMED: To ask BCDC to keep you up-to-date, call to ask to be placed on the interested parties list for all bridge and bicycle-related projects. BCDC has jurisdiction over all projects within 100 ft. of the Bay. ===================== Bike the Bridge! /bike/ Please send us a copy of any letter, if you can (but even if you can't, and can only write a quick hand-written note, plese do that!). Bike the Bridge! Coalition P.O. Box 15071 Berkeley, CA 94701-6071 Facsimile c/o (510) 486-1528 *** Please volunteer to help prepare materials and to call phone lists to get the troops out. IMPORTANT!! IMPERATIVE!! OUTLANDISH!!! +========================================================+ Check out the BTB!C website at /bike/ +========================================================+ To be subscribed to the email discussion list for bridge access issues, please reply to this message. Specify normal or digest version.
GOOD NEWS:
- With the initiative and help of
Scott Mace and the
Mid-Peninsula Bicycle Coalition as well as the
East Bay Bicycle Coalition, the following resolution was passed unanimously on February 2nd, 1998 supporting equal access to the San Mateo-Hayward bridge.
- With the help of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission's Design
Review Board (BCDC's DRB), we have been having meetings with CalTrans to
help figure out how to make the bike path even more economical.
- On June 15th, 1998 we (BTBC, EBBC, and MPBC) won unanimous
support for going forward with the bike path from the Foster City city council
despite concerns of Police and Fire Departments--who we are now working with to address their concerns. Scott Mace is now our Mid-Peninsula coordinator.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
HAYWARD-SAN MATEO BRIDGE WIDENING
What: The chance of the century to gain access
When: Ongoing through summer of 1998
What else: Write a letter to BCDC and your local representatives.
To write a letter requesting that the widening of the bridge include
bicycle, pedestrian and wheelchair access:
San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission
30 Van Ness Ave, Suite 2011
San Francisco, CA 94102
PHONE: 415-557-3686
FAX: 415-557-3767
Please call our voicemail for details. We can send you postcards or
flyers to do further outreach with.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bike the Bridge! Coalition, (510) 273-2988, /bike/
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
News articles regarding our push for
equal access:
- Published Tuesday, January 27, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News
------------------------------------------------------------
Cyclists push for bridge path San Mateo span:
Project should include alternative to driving, advocates say
By Marilee Enge Mercury News Staff Writer
Bicycle advocates are pressing Caltrans to build a cross-bay bike path as
part of the $182 million expansion of the >>San<< >>Mateo<< >>Bridge<< due
to begin this year.
Activists maintain that the state's transportation agency should offer an
alternative to driving across the seven-mile span, one of the region's most
congested commuter corridors, and they plan to bring the issue to a series
of public hearings this spring.
"During rush hour, you could bicycle across that bridge faster than you
could drive it," said Scott Mace, director of the Mid-Peninsula Bicycle
Coalition. "They can't keep widening that bridge. We think a bike path
would offer people a choice."
However, California Department of Transportation officials said the use a
bike lane on the bridge would get is not enough to justify the cost. One
estimate of $30 million for a shore-to-shore path is low, according to
project manager Lenka Culik-Caro, and engineers are working on a new
projected cost.
Caltrans has already completed its bridge plans, which call for expanding
the five-mile stretch between Hayward and the high-rise to three lanes in
each direction. The San Mateo approach and 1.8-mile section that includes
the high-rise are already six lanes.
Now the agency must present the design to the San Francisco Bay
Conservation and Development Commission for approval and a permit. The
state commission, with jurisdiction over construction in San Francisco Bay,
will consider, among other things, whether the bridge design provides
sufficient public access.
"By no means is it a done deal," said Jason Meggs of the Bike the Bridge!
Coalition. "There are strong laws in our favor. (Caltrans has) been
resisting equal access to bridges."
The group has sponsored a series of demonstrations on the >>Bay<<
>>Bridge<< in the past year to protest a lack of bicycle access. Of the
major spans on San Francisco Bay, only the >>Golden<< >>Gate<< >>Bridge<<
has a bike and pedestrian path, and most of the others ban bicycling in the
traffic lanes.
Culik-Caro said Caltrans is working to give bicyclists access to Bay Area
bridges, but building a bike path on the >>San<< >>Mateo<< >>Bridge<< isn't
practical. Since construction is planned on only a portion of the bridge,
putting a bike path all the way across would increase the project's cost
immensely, she said. Even if the bridge could be widened from shore to
shore, there is no bike access between Interstate 880 and the east side
toll plaza and no plans to add a path there.
This week, Caltrans asked the Bay Conservation and Development Commission
to postpone a Feb. 9 hearing until March so the transportation agency can
answer questions about the bike path. Cristina Ferraz, staff engineer for
the commission, said she asked Culik-Caro to answer questions about the
feasibility of building a path and "if it is not possible, the reasons
why."
The March hearing before a design review board will be open to the public.
Another public hearing will be held when the board's recommendation goes
before the full BCDC, Ferraz said.
(c) 1998 SJ Mercury--thanks for covering this issue!
[OLDER MESSAGES BELOW ]
Public Outreach Meeting, Hayward
EBBC and the Bike the Bridge! Coalition will co-host a public outreach
meeting on January 29, 1998 at 7:00 p.m. at the upstairs meeting room
in Miguel's Restaurant in Hayward, 22865 Atherton St. at "D" street.
Subject of discussion will be the upgrade work scheduled for the
Hayward-San Mateo Bridge, the February 4th environment committee
meeting of the Hayward city council, and the February 9th Design
Review Board meeting of the BCDC.
The following points shall be discussed:
1. The design approval process
2. Cost estimates and design options
3. A comparison to other bridge bike paths, proposed or existing
4. Coordination of advocacy efforts
[Messages from before December 1997 follow]
The issue of the Hayward-San Mateo bridge is coming up soon!
Please contact us ASAP if you wish to be involved with our efforts.