San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Bay Area drivers slowly return to life in fast lane
After a dramatic plunge in traffic, Bay Area drivers appear to be slowly easing up on staying at home and getting back on the roads.
Take traffic on the seven state bridges that cross the bay, for example.
In the days immediately after the Bay Area’s March 16 stayathome order, which barred all but essential travel, workday crossings on the bridges plunged by 40% to 50%, Bay Area Toll Authority records show. The biggest drop — more than 60% — was on the San Mateo and Dumbarton bridges, which connect the East Bay and Central Valley with Silicon Valley. Those commuters, many of them tech workers, appeared to be
“We are seeing about a 4% to 5% increase every couple of days.”
staying home and telecommuting.
The Antioch and Carquinez bridges, which handle more commercial traffic, both had only a 34% drop.
The Bay Bridge, the workhorse span that handles both commercial and commuter traffic, has seen a weekday traffic drop of about 46%. Weekend bridge crossings dropped by more than 70% after the shelterinplace order kicked in.
In the past week, however, traffic on the bridges has begun to edge back up.
“We are seeing about a 4% to 5% increase every couple of days,” Metropolitan Transportation Commission public affairs director Randy Rentschler said. “What can I say? People like their cars, especially in these times when mass transit has all the hallmarks of behavior to avoid, if possible.”
Weekend bridge traffic, which is usually driven by travel and entertainment events, has crept up steadily as well — even though those events aren’t taking place. Toll reports showed an increase of about 10% last weekend over Saturday and Sunday crossings earlier in the shutdown.
Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney said the trend can be seen on Bay Areawide highways as well.
“There has been a slight uptick recently, but traffic is still significantly light,” Ney said.
Rentschler said the perception of deserted Bay Area highways is a bit of an illusion.
“Our highways are very heavily traveled,” he said. “It doesn’t take many extra cars to create huge backups, and it doesn’t take many cars being off the roads to make drivers feel like they are nearly empty.”
The light traffic, however, has a hazardous side effect.
“People are speeding, and they are doing it at greater speeds,” California Highway Patrol spokesman Officer John Fransen said.
The CHP reports that 543 drivers were ticketed across the state for driving in excess of 100 mph in the first 10 days of the statewide shelterinplace order. That was a jump of 125 tickets over the same period last year. The CHP didn’t have a breakdown for how many of those tickets were issued in the Bay Area.
“It’s not like people need to speed,” Fransen said, “with the light traffic, you can get wherever you are going a lot faster than before.”
Locally, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency reports that after an initial drop, traffic on city streets is holding at about 50% of normal as well.
Anecdotally, however, people report seeing traffic across the city on the rise as, apparently, more people venture out for work or play.
“I was driving home on Geary, and traffic was about 1 inch away from being back to normal,” event planner Stanlee Gatti said after a recent trip across town. “There was so much traffic you would have thought it was a regular day, until you see that all the stores are closed.”
Budget buster: A justreleased report on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on Oakland’s already shaky city finances predicts a devastating tax shortfall — so big, in fact, that insiders say it will probably lead to drastic service cuts and layoffs of city workers.
“The size and scale of these revenue shortfalls is like nothing Oakland has ever before experienced,” city Finance Director Adam Benson wrote in an April 21 report to the City Council.
He estimated that the pandemic will result in a budget shortfall of $80 million over the next 14 months. In real terms, Benson said, the shortfall was equal to the cost of 320 police officers for one year — that’s about half of the city’s police force — or funding for 27 fire stations 24/7.
“This problem will not be easily resolved and it will not be fixed by tinkering at the margins. It will require significant action by city leaders,” Benson wrote.
City Councilman Noel Gallo said Oakland was already putting together a list of cuts in parttime and temporary workers, with more likely to follow.
“We were already facing a deficit,” he said. “This just makes it much worse.”
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said: “Like every other city, Oakland will have to make difficult choices. We are also going to tap into our rainyday fund immediately, because it is raining and it is raining hard on every city in the country.”
Then and now: The health concerns brought on by the coronavirus has forced everyone to relearn what constitutes correct behavior. KGO
Randy Rentschler, Metropolitan Transportation Commission public affairs director
TV executive news producer Leetha Yee offered a list of a few things that just weeks ago were mandated by either the law or political correctness, but are now deemed health hazards.
Bringing your own reusable bags has been replaced by orders to use paper or plastic bags. Sorry, trees.
Likewise, reusable coffee cups are out, and paper cups are the order of the day at coffee shops.
Squeezing into public transportation has been replaced by a caution not to get onto a crowded bus.
Instead of conserving water, we’re being told to wash our hands and everything else, all of the time.
And the call to pick up carpoolers when crossing the Bay Bridge has been replaced by the call to observe social distancing by driving alone. Maybe even with cruise control.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KGOTV morning and evening news and can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 4157778815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle. com. Twitter: @philmatier