Top 10 traffic snags ranked
Afternoon drive out of S.F. to Treasure Island leads official Bay Area list of worst rides
For just the second time in the two decades that Bay Area freeway congestion levels have been tracked, the morning commute from the East Bay across the Bay Bridge is not the worst. It’s in second place.
The new honor — if that’s the right word — goes to the afternoon slog out of San Francisco from Highway 101 to the Treasure Island portion of the Bay Bridge. That 6-mile stretch can take an hour to cover, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission annual report, issued Monday.
And the newest hot spot is a stunner: The morning trek from Interstate 680 in East San
Jose to Interstate 280 in Cupertino was just another slow drive in 2014, ranking 20th. Last year it soared to No. 3.
“Silicon Valley is bursting at the seams and although growth is great, it comes with repercussions,” said John Ristow, who headed the Valley Transportation Authority’s highway planning department until retiring a month ago.
At a news conference Monday at San Jose’s Avaya Stadium, the MTC released the report, with four commissioners — Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese, Orinda City Councilwoman Amy Worth and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo — making a pitch for passage of the transportation measures on Bay Area ballots Nov. 8. These proposals would pay for more cars for BART, more service on Caltrain, more interchange projects in the South Bay, more express bus lines in Contra Costa County — and more filling of the potholes that commuters despise.
Overall, the report, which was based on 2015 commute information, showed how widespread that nasty creep-and-crawl traffic has become.
Nonstop congestion
The top 50 most congested list is at its worst since 2010. The westbound drive on I-80 from the East Bay (Highway 4 in Hercules), across the Bay Bridge and into San Francisco (Highway 101) may have slipped to second, but it made history with congested conditions typically extending from 5:35 a.m. to 7:50 p.m. This is the first time routine congestion on any area freeway segment has not been interrupted by a midday easing of traffic.
“It’s staggering,” Worth said. “It’s not only all day, but all weekend, too. And BART is packed.”
Added Ristow: “There were once blocks of time that you could try to avoid on freeways. Those heavierthan-normal drive times have expanded to earlier in the morning and later in the evening and have become much harder to avoid.”
Seven Silicon Valley freeways south of the San Mateo Bridge made the Top 10 list.
But the 680/280 drive was the one that worsened so dramatically over a year.
“Awful. It’s just become awful,” said Raji Trinh, of San Jose, who commutes from Alum Rock Avenue on 680 up to 280. “Going and coming.”
Also stunning was the amount of time freeway traffic fell below 35 mph throughout the Bay Area — an increase of 22 percent over the previous year. Better hit the concrete well before 7 a.m. on the way into work, and by 3 p.m. to get home to a warm meal.
The last time a freeway other than the approach to the Bay Bridge held down the MTC’s No. 1 spot was in 1999 at the peak of the dotcom boom, when the I-680 drive over the Sunol Grade truly became a parking lot. When the bubble burst, 680 fell far down the list. But it has come back: In the most recent study, it ranked seventh.
“If you want to waste a lot of time, drive 680 north over the Sunol Grade on a Friday,” Haggerty said.
Driven to tears
There was, however, a hopeful note in the report. Interstate 580 through the Tri-Valley has been ranked as high as fifth, but last year fell to No. 17.
No one is quite certain why; express lanes didn’t go into operation there until 2016.
But the daily grind has beaten down some drivers like Elaine Hennessy, of Walnut Creek, who weathers that No. 1 worst commute.
One night when she had to be home on time, it took her two hours after leaving her job in San Francisco at 6:30 p.m. to cross the Bay Bridge and trudge through the Caldecott Tunnel.
“It was so frustrating to be stuck in traffic, barely moving,” she said. “I really did shed a few tears.”