fflint
04-30-2007, 02:49 AM
Free transit offered to lure commuters away from destroyed highways
Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, April 29, 2007
(04-29) 18:03 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Rides on all Bay Area transit lines - including BART, AC Transit and the region's ferries -- will be free Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today, following the collapse of part of the MacArthur Maze.
Officials are scrambling to figure out ways to ease the impact on the region's roads after the accident, which occurred when a tanker truck carrying gasoline exploded around 3:45 a.m. and collapsed the connector to Interstate 580 from the Bay Bridge. The highway crashed down and landed onto the roadway that connects I-80 to I-880 and downtown Oakland, decimating two major interchanges in one of the Bay Area's busiest corridors.
Some of the region's largest transit agencies said today that they would also enhance service on Monday in hopes of giving drivers alternative ways to work.
BART announced that it would run longer trains all day Monday, which are expected to increase capacity by about 50 percent on the regional system. There will be no additional parking at BART stations, a spokesman said, but the agency will add several trains during the morning and evening commutes.
The Alameda/Oakland Ferry will also add a boat to double its service from the East Bay to downtown San Francisco. Spokesman Ernest Sanchez said the agency will double its capacity and speed up service by having one boat running directly from Jack London Square in Oakland to the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco, and another going from Alameda to San Francisco.
Normally, one boat goes from Oakland to Alameda, then to San Francisco. Sanchez said the schedule will remain the same.
AC Transit also plans to add extra buses that will go from San Francisco to the East Bay during the evening commute hours, a spokesman said.
Municipal Transportation Agency chief Nathaniel Ford said Muni would add service to connect Muni to other agencies if needed.
Most other transit agencies said they did not immediately plan to increase service but would work together this week to adjust to whatever needs arise.
Any future decisions will depend upon how commuters react to the changes, officials said.
"We need to see what happens," said John Goodwin, a spokesman for the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission. "As a consequence of the ripple effect through much of the region, this will be an enormous challenge for the transportation system."
Caltrans has already hired a demolition contractor to raze the section of damaged roadway, and has engineers working on the design aspect. Officials expect any fix to take weeks, but Caltrans director Will Kempton refused to estimate exactly how long at a news conference today.
People headed to Warriors and A's games were told to expect delays, but several tailgaters said this afternoon that their drive to Oakland was a breeze.
Mark Schilling, a certified public account from San Francisco, said it normally takes him 45 minutes to get from his home to the Oakland ballpark. Today, he and his 5-year-old daughter arrived in only 15 minutes.
"It was unbelievable, the first time there's been no traffic -- ever. I've never seen the bridge so empty," he said.
Ed and Mary Lane of Pinole agreed. The couple has been tailgating for 20 years and went out of their way to avoid the maze, detouring through Orinda on Highway 24 then back to I-880.
The detour took them an extra 30 minutes, they said, but the roads were pretty empty.
"I think a lot of people heard the talk about the freeway collapse and were scared off," Ed Lane said.
Detour signs have been placed along West Grand Avenue, one of the Oakland city streets being used to reroute drivers around the disaster.
Jim Allison, a spokesman for BART, said the agency is asking riders who can tweak their work schedule do so.
"Ride early or late, avoid the peak of rush hour," he said. "Many people may choose not to go to work or to drive in at 3 a.m. The good thing is that our system can count down to each and every person who rides day to day (and we can adjust service from there)."
Getting to BART may be half the battle, Allison said. Officials expect parking to be in high demand and are urging East Bay riders to use public transit, or get dropped off.
AC Transit has already rerouted buses heading over the Bay Bridge, said spokesman Clarence Johnson. The vehicles will exit on 12th Street in Oakland and run along Market Street, using the West Grand Avenue approach to the bridge, according to Johnson.
Allison said that BART riders who live in areas such as Fremont or Hayward could also drive across the San Mateo Bridge or Dunbarton Bridge to access Peninsula BART stations with free parking. Those stations include Millbrae, South San Francisco and San Bruno.
Officials at the Golden Gate Bridge District, the agency that oversees the bridge as well as Golden Gate Ferry service, said North Bay commuters who need to get to the East Bay can take ferries into San Francisco, then connect to BART there.
Spokeswoman Mary Currie said officials at the agency are waiting to see how commuters react before making any major changes on the bridge or to ferry service.
"We expect to see heavier traffic in the afternoon (on Monday)," she said. "The bottom line is we have six lanes (on the bridge) and we can adjust those if we need to."
Normally, there are three northbound and three southbound lanes during the afternoon commute, she said, but the agency could route four in the northbound direction if they determine there is a large increase in drivers leaving the city.
Currie encouraged people to use the agency's Sausalito ferry. The Larkspur ferry is already near capacity on most weekdays. There also is little available parking at the Larkspur station -- it normally fills up by around 10 a.m. -- but commuters can carpool to the Sausalito location and pay to park there, Currie said.
The agency runs more than 40 ferries a day from the North Bay to San Francisco and back.
The district is considering the possibility of adding ferry service or looking to expand parking at some facilities in the future, but will not make any changes on Monday, she said.
Caltrain and SamTrans have no plans at this time to adjust their schedules, a spokesman said. Officials for Vallejo Baylink Ferry could not immediately be reached for comment.
BART will reassess its plan after Monday's commutes, Allison said.
"I think we're primarily interested in getting a plan in place for tomorrow, then we will be talking to other transit agencies, particularly in terms of the long term. If this is something that's going to be weeks, we will see what we can do to create more parking, for instance."
There are no plans to extend BART hours, he said.
Sanchez, the spokesman for the Alameda Oakland Ferry, said the agency will also be monitoring the situation and will adjust as needed.
"Based on past experience, and that bridge is still open, we are not really expecting too much (impact)," he said. "We have free parking at both East Bay locations, so we should be OK there, but we will see what happens, and if need more we have more."
Johnson said AC Transit, like most of the region's transit agencies, doesn't have a large stock of extra buses or extra personnel that can be mobilized in emergencies.
"We'll have to figure out what we can do with our existing personnel," he said. "It's not an easy thing for us to do, but we'll do whatever we can. We have past emergencies to draw from that we can go back and see what worked and what didn't."
But Johnson and Allison said AC Transit, BART and other transit agencies are already discussing ways to coordinate their activities and work together as they did after the 1989 collapse of the Cypress Freeway structure following the Loma Prieta earthquake.
"Transportation, period, is so fragile," Johnson said. "If one network goes down, it's tough for other agencies to pick up that burden. Even for a collaboration of agencies it's hard for all the agencies to figure out a plan."
Carpooling will help ease the burden for all travelers, Goodwin said.
"It's incumbent on all of us to get more capacity with fewer vehicles, because the capacity to move vehicles has been slashed," he said.
Local cities were also scrambling to asses the potential impact on their city streets and services.
Caltrans officials are working with Oakland city officials to devise a plan for rerouting traffic, said spokesman Bob Haus.
"We want to make sure everyone's on board before we do anything," he said.
Across the Bay, San Francisco officials are also pondering how to deal with the impact on city streets.
"It looks like it's going to be a situation that will take a couple months to remedy,'' said Nate Ballard, spokesman for Mayor Gavin Newsom.
City officials are expecting increased traffic congestion on San Francisco roads leading to the Bay Bridge. One option they're looking at is increasing casual carpool pick-up points in downtown San Francisco, such as was done in the aftermath of the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.
Police Chief Heather Fong said the department will work with Muni to support the expansion of casual carpools. Ford, the MTA chief, said Department of Parking and Traffic officers would be also working with police Monday to ensure traffic is moving on and off the Bay Bridge in the city.
"I think tomorrow's really the acid test," said Goodwin. "At that point we'll see where there are holes that need to be plugged and get a better sense on how to plug them."
Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, April 29, 2007
(04-29) 18:03 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Rides on all Bay Area transit lines - including BART, AC Transit and the region's ferries -- will be free Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today, following the collapse of part of the MacArthur Maze.
Officials are scrambling to figure out ways to ease the impact on the region's roads after the accident, which occurred when a tanker truck carrying gasoline exploded around 3:45 a.m. and collapsed the connector to Interstate 580 from the Bay Bridge. The highway crashed down and landed onto the roadway that connects I-80 to I-880 and downtown Oakland, decimating two major interchanges in one of the Bay Area's busiest corridors.
Some of the region's largest transit agencies said today that they would also enhance service on Monday in hopes of giving drivers alternative ways to work.
BART announced that it would run longer trains all day Monday, which are expected to increase capacity by about 50 percent on the regional system. There will be no additional parking at BART stations, a spokesman said, but the agency will add several trains during the morning and evening commutes.
The Alameda/Oakland Ferry will also add a boat to double its service from the East Bay to downtown San Francisco. Spokesman Ernest Sanchez said the agency will double its capacity and speed up service by having one boat running directly from Jack London Square in Oakland to the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco, and another going from Alameda to San Francisco.
Normally, one boat goes from Oakland to Alameda, then to San Francisco. Sanchez said the schedule will remain the same.
AC Transit also plans to add extra buses that will go from San Francisco to the East Bay during the evening commute hours, a spokesman said.
Municipal Transportation Agency chief Nathaniel Ford said Muni would add service to connect Muni to other agencies if needed.
Most other transit agencies said they did not immediately plan to increase service but would work together this week to adjust to whatever needs arise.
Any future decisions will depend upon how commuters react to the changes, officials said.
"We need to see what happens," said John Goodwin, a spokesman for the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission. "As a consequence of the ripple effect through much of the region, this will be an enormous challenge for the transportation system."
Caltrans has already hired a demolition contractor to raze the section of damaged roadway, and has engineers working on the design aspect. Officials expect any fix to take weeks, but Caltrans director Will Kempton refused to estimate exactly how long at a news conference today.
People headed to Warriors and A's games were told to expect delays, but several tailgaters said this afternoon that their drive to Oakland was a breeze.
Mark Schilling, a certified public account from San Francisco, said it normally takes him 45 minutes to get from his home to the Oakland ballpark. Today, he and his 5-year-old daughter arrived in only 15 minutes.
"It was unbelievable, the first time there's been no traffic -- ever. I've never seen the bridge so empty," he said.
Ed and Mary Lane of Pinole agreed. The couple has been tailgating for 20 years and went out of their way to avoid the maze, detouring through Orinda on Highway 24 then back to I-880.
The detour took them an extra 30 minutes, they said, but the roads were pretty empty.
"I think a lot of people heard the talk about the freeway collapse and were scared off," Ed Lane said.
Detour signs have been placed along West Grand Avenue, one of the Oakland city streets being used to reroute drivers around the disaster.
Jim Allison, a spokesman for BART, said the agency is asking riders who can tweak their work schedule do so.
"Ride early or late, avoid the peak of rush hour," he said. "Many people may choose not to go to work or to drive in at 3 a.m. The good thing is that our system can count down to each and every person who rides day to day (and we can adjust service from there)."
Getting to BART may be half the battle, Allison said. Officials expect parking to be in high demand and are urging East Bay riders to use public transit, or get dropped off.
AC Transit has already rerouted buses heading over the Bay Bridge, said spokesman Clarence Johnson. The vehicles will exit on 12th Street in Oakland and run along Market Street, using the West Grand Avenue approach to the bridge, according to Johnson.
Allison said that BART riders who live in areas such as Fremont or Hayward could also drive across the San Mateo Bridge or Dunbarton Bridge to access Peninsula BART stations with free parking. Those stations include Millbrae, South San Francisco and San Bruno.
Officials at the Golden Gate Bridge District, the agency that oversees the bridge as well as Golden Gate Ferry service, said North Bay commuters who need to get to the East Bay can take ferries into San Francisco, then connect to BART there.
Spokeswoman Mary Currie said officials at the agency are waiting to see how commuters react before making any major changes on the bridge or to ferry service.
"We expect to see heavier traffic in the afternoon (on Monday)," she said. "The bottom line is we have six lanes (on the bridge) and we can adjust those if we need to."
Normally, there are three northbound and three southbound lanes during the afternoon commute, she said, but the agency could route four in the northbound direction if they determine there is a large increase in drivers leaving the city.
Currie encouraged people to use the agency's Sausalito ferry. The Larkspur ferry is already near capacity on most weekdays. There also is little available parking at the Larkspur station -- it normally fills up by around 10 a.m. -- but commuters can carpool to the Sausalito location and pay to park there, Currie said.
The agency runs more than 40 ferries a day from the North Bay to San Francisco and back.
The district is considering the possibility of adding ferry service or looking to expand parking at some facilities in the future, but will not make any changes on Monday, she said.
Caltrain and SamTrans have no plans at this time to adjust their schedules, a spokesman said. Officials for Vallejo Baylink Ferry could not immediately be reached for comment.
BART will reassess its plan after Monday's commutes, Allison said.
"I think we're primarily interested in getting a plan in place for tomorrow, then we will be talking to other transit agencies, particularly in terms of the long term. If this is something that's going to be weeks, we will see what we can do to create more parking, for instance."
There are no plans to extend BART hours, he said.
Sanchez, the spokesman for the Alameda Oakland Ferry, said the agency will also be monitoring the situation and will adjust as needed.
"Based on past experience, and that bridge is still open, we are not really expecting too much (impact)," he said. "We have free parking at both East Bay locations, so we should be OK there, but we will see what happens, and if need more we have more."
Johnson said AC Transit, like most of the region's transit agencies, doesn't have a large stock of extra buses or extra personnel that can be mobilized in emergencies.
"We'll have to figure out what we can do with our existing personnel," he said. "It's not an easy thing for us to do, but we'll do whatever we can. We have past emergencies to draw from that we can go back and see what worked and what didn't."
But Johnson and Allison said AC Transit, BART and other transit agencies are already discussing ways to coordinate their activities and work together as they did after the 1989 collapse of the Cypress Freeway structure following the Loma Prieta earthquake.
"Transportation, period, is so fragile," Johnson said. "If one network goes down, it's tough for other agencies to pick up that burden. Even for a collaboration of agencies it's hard for all the agencies to figure out a plan."
Carpooling will help ease the burden for all travelers, Goodwin said.
"It's incumbent on all of us to get more capacity with fewer vehicles, because the capacity to move vehicles has been slashed," he said.
Local cities were also scrambling to asses the potential impact on their city streets and services.
Caltrans officials are working with Oakland city officials to devise a plan for rerouting traffic, said spokesman Bob Haus.
"We want to make sure everyone's on board before we do anything," he said.
Across the Bay, San Francisco officials are also pondering how to deal with the impact on city streets.
"It looks like it's going to be a situation that will take a couple months to remedy,'' said Nate Ballard, spokesman for Mayor Gavin Newsom.
City officials are expecting increased traffic congestion on San Francisco roads leading to the Bay Bridge. One option they're looking at is increasing casual carpool pick-up points in downtown San Francisco, such as was done in the aftermath of the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.
Police Chief Heather Fong said the department will work with Muni to support the expansion of casual carpools. Ford, the MTA chief, said Department of Parking and Traffic officers would be also working with police Monday to ensure traffic is moving on and off the Bay Bridge in the city.
"I think tomorrow's really the acid test," said Goodwin. "At that point we'll see where there are holes that need to be plugged and get a better sense on how to plug them."
