Golden Gate parking restricted at vista lot
Access to be limited next 5 weekends to ease backup
For the next five weekends, the vista point parking lot at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge will be closed from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. to most vehicles in an attempt to alleviate traffic gridlock, officials said Thursday.
Caltrans issued a permit Wednesday clearing the way for the Golden Gate Bridge District to severely restrict weekend access to the vista point through Labor Day weekend, said Priya Clemens, a spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge District.
The bridge authority had requested the permit months ago from Caltrans, which owns the vista point.
Beginning this weekend, car access to the popular outlook will be blocked from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The same restrictions will apply to the parking lot at the Welcome Center on the San Francisco side of the bridge, which is controlled by the bridge district.
Northbound traffic jams on the bridge have become a routine weekend problem with drivers sometimes waiting more than an hour to get into the parking lot, which only has 126 parking spaces.
“People get really frustrated that we don’t close vista point; it’s not ours,” Clemens said. “We don’t have the ability to unilaterally close it. We are asking for permission and are working with our partners.”
When the district first started to close the vista point last summer to test whether it would impact the traffic jam, they realized that traffic would flow much more smoothly, Clemens said.
The popular outlook will remain accessible to visitors by foot, public transit and bicycles, Clemens added.
Taxis and ride-share vehicles can only drop off at the Welcome Center on the San Francisco side of the span.
Personal cars will not be allowed to park in either lot.
The restrictions haven’t been met with any pushback from residents and community members, Clemens added.
“All we get are thankyous. We get angry emails when it’s open, and we get a lot of thank-you emails when we close it,” Clemens said.
Though the restrictions have been in place during past holiday weekends, including the Fourth of July, Clemens said the district has plans to apply the shutdown to the vista parking lot in the future.
“Our desire is to close more frequently,” Clemens said. “We still think the traffic can be bad in September.”