In the summer of 1996, Caltrans secretly cancelled the last vestiges of shuttle service for bicyclists across the Richmond-San Rafael (RSR) bridge. Cyclists were stunned to lose that crucial connection across one of the most important and beautiful spans in the bay area. The protests that followed were the genesis of the Bike the Bridge! movement.
Momentum which built around the RSR geared us up perfectly to meet the challenge of gaining access to not only the proposed new east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge but all the way across the bay to San Francisco there.
This effort also blended into the need for access on the San Mateo bridge, and many other issues such as fighting the proposed tolls on the Golden Gate Bridge, and winning bike racks on Golden Gate Transit buses.
Through our efforts, a massive study was undertaken to determine whether the bridge was safe for bicyclists to use the existing twelve-foot shoulder (three standard bike lanes wide). Although the Bay Area bicycle community was in complete consensus that the bridge should be opened immediately, we entertained this study as a means of better understanding bicycle use of freeways and toll bridges, and as a means of proving what we knew from our collective lifetimes of bicycling experience.
Although that study conclusively proved that bicycling on that wide shoulder would be safer than city streets, Caltrans and their enforcement arm, the California Highway Patrol (CHP), have refused to allow bicyclists to cross the bridge. Because of this, many people have been disilusioned with Caltrans and the CHP and have begun riding the bridges whenever they need to (which is often, considering the lack of other options). Yet Caltrans has even refused to take basic safety precautions such as covering the dangerous expansion joints which can catch an unsuspecting cyclist's wheel.
The most important thing you can do for access right now is to participate in the upcoming HUGE protest July 31stas part of BIKE SUMMER .
There are many other things that people can do to help. Please contact Jason Meggs, East Bay Coordinator, by email at jmeggs@LMI.net or by telephone, (510) 273-9288 (voicemail), 510/720-2818 (pager).
In Marin, you can also contact Debbie Hubsmith, acting Marin Coordinator, by email at debhub@sfbike.org and by phone at [check here soon].
In San Francisco, you can contact our SF Coordinator, Steven Bodzin, by email at bodzin@sirius.com or by telephone, 415/922-6197 (home), or 415/376-3397 (pager).
Please write your legislators, editors of newspapers, and other representatives about how important it is--and how easy it would be--to provide cycle access to the RSR bridge.
And please, come to the monthly protests when you can to keep up the pressure--it's a pleasant ride. You'll be glad you did!
If by some chance you happen to ride this bridge and receive a ticket, you may wish to apprise yourself of your rights and find out how to fight a bridge-biking ticket.
You may also enjoy reading about other's experiences by reading ride reports -- Transbay Adventures!
There's a new mailing list forum that talks about Bay Bridge actions, RSR actions, the Pedestrian/Wheelchair/Bicycle overpass over I-80 to the Berkeley Marina, and other hot issues for cycle access.
You can see the info about this list, and if you like,
go ahead and subscribe. Simply send a letter to the list-handler asking to subscribe. You can also subscribe automatically by sending the words
"subscribe ba-bridge-access" in an email to
majordomo@cycling.org.
You can also browse the archives.