Hundreds of bicyclists ride across the newly opened bicycle and pedestrian path on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge's upper deck on Saturday morning, November 15, 2019 in Richmond, California. They were separated from auto traffic by a movable barrier. (Douglas Zimmerman/Special to the Marin Independent Journal)

Hundreds of bicyclists riders stop to take part in the ribbon cutting ceremony for the newly opened bicycle and pedestrian path on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge upper deck on Saturday morning, November 15, 2019 in Richmond, California. (Douglas Zimmerman/Special to the Marin Independent Journal)

The toll plaza is in the background as hundreds of bicyclists ride across the newly opened bicycle and pedestrian path on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge's upper deck on Saturday morning, November 15, 2019 in Richmond, California. (Douglas Zimmerman/Special to the Marin Independent Journal)



Former Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey receives a poster of the grand opening ceremony from Scott Haggerty, MTC/BATA Chair and Alameda County Supervisor. Hundreds of bicyclists ride across the newly opened bicycle and pedestrian path on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge's upper deck on Saturday morning, November 15, 2019 in Richmond, California. (Douglas Zimmerman/Special to the Marin Independent Journal)

Bicyclists ride along the pathway to the newly opened bicycle and pedestrian path on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge's upper deck on Saturday morning, November 15, 2019 in Richmond, California. (Douglas Zimmerman/Special to the Marin Independent Journal)

Thomas Schilling of Berkeley takes a photo of the map of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge Trail. He was among the hundreds of bicyclists riding across the newly opened bicycle and pedestrian path on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge's upper deck on Saturday morning, November 15, 2019 in Richmond, California. (Douglas Zimmerman/Special to the Marin Independent Journal)



Some of the hundreds of bicyclists ride across the newly opened bicycle and pedestrian path on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge's upper deck on Saturday morning, November 15, 2019 in Richmond, California. (Douglas Zimmerman/Special to the Marin Independent Journal)

A horde of cyclists from both sides of San Francisco Bay met at the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge on Saturday to celebrate the grand opening of the first-ever transbay bike lane linking their communities together.

On Saturday, cyclists got their first chance to ride across the bridge’s new pedestrian and bicycle lane on the upper deck that connects San Rafael to Richmond and beyond.

There was an air of excitement in the week leading up to the opening. Bjorn Griepenburg, policy and planning director for the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, said the opening fulfills a vision that people, elected officials and advocates such as the coalition’s late executive director, Deb Hubsmith, have had for decades now.

“It’s a major accomplishment regardless of how many people use it. I think it’s still indicative of the region’s commitment to healthy and active transportation,” Griepenburg said.

Led by multiple transportation agencies, the $20 million project that began in 2014 converted the unused third lane on the upper deck into the new bike lane. A movable barrier was installed by Caltrans both to provide protection from the westbound car commuters as well as to allow Caltrans to conduct maintenance when needed. The project included several agencies including the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA), Caltrans, the Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM) and the Contra Costra Transportation Authority.

Former Marin County Supervisor and MTC member Steve Kinsey was planning to be among the crowd of bikers on Saturday. While there were calls to open the bike lane through the decades, the serious push didn’t begin until the late 1990s, he said. The proposal was met with resistance by Caltrans for a long period, and it wasn’t until 2013-2014 that the Legislature and Caltrans leadership began to be more open to making the project a reality, he said.

“We continued to promote it for over a decade and reached as high as the director of Caltrans,” Kinsey said Thursday. “I think the turning point was when Caltrans realized that it’s not just a highway agency, it’s a multi-modal agency, and took that to heart after some very critical management reviews back in 2014 by the Legislature.”

Kinsey called Saturday’s opening “a very proud day for the folks that have been there from the beginning.”

The bike lane was originally set to open in the spring, but was delayed after concrete fell from the upper deck, requiring several months of emergency repairs by Caltrans.

Pilot study

The bike lane is part of a four-year pilot project that also includes the third eastbound traffic lane on the lower deck, which opened in 2018. Together, the two projects make up the $74 million Richmond-San Rafael Bridge Access Improvement Project.

Counters have been set up on each side of the bridge to count the number of bicycle trips. At the same time, Caltrans and UC Berkeley have been working on a study on how the new bike lane impacts westbound traffic in terms of travel time, delays, traffic on local streets, accidents and other incidents. That study is expected to last a year and be compared with a year’s worth of data already collected prior to the lane’s opening.

“We’re very keen to see how the path is used and when it’s used,” MTC spokesman John Goodwin said.

The advent of the electronic bike, or e-bike, also makes the new lane a viable option both for people commuting to work and for recreational trips for various age groups. Goodwin said the new lane won’t get as much traffic as the tourist destination that is the Golden Gate Bridge.

Studies aside, the new lane provides a key connection to the ongoing construction of the planned 500-mile San Francisco Bay Trail, an effort that began in 1989.

“This is not the work of a single generation but of multiple generations to bring the Bay Trail vision into reality,” Goodwin said.

Shared lane?

Several studies are set to wrap up next year that could influence a controversial decision on whether to open the bike lane to vehicle traffic as well.

Marin County supervisor and MTC member Damon Connolly is pushing for a shorter pilot test of the bike lane — a minimum of six months — to determine if the lane could be opened to shared use by vehicles during peak morning commute hours. Opponents of this proposal say the bike lane would be useless during weekdays during this time because bike commuters would not be able to use it.

Daily westbound traffic demand on the bridge has risen from 68,000 cars in 2013 to the current 82,000 cars, or a more than 20% increase, according TAM. Peak delays in the morning commute are around 22 minutes or more, with that number expected to increase to at least 27 minutes by 2020, according to the authority.

Opening a shared lane along with other methods to increase mobility through the I-580 corridor including facilitating better transit options, carpool lanes and electronic tolling on the bridge, Connolly said.

“This is not about single-occupancy vehicles against bikes. It’s to improve mobility overall,” Connolly said.

Ongoing studies set for completion in 2020 are determining whether the bridge could handle the weight of a third lane of vehicles and the movable barrier. The other study is assessing how a third lane of traffic could impact traffic in Marin.

“Really we’ll need to have a conversation about what does success look like,” Connolly said.

Though he supports improving traffic on the bridge, Kinsey said he believes that entrances into Marin from the bridge would likely require projects costing in the tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to make a third vehicle lane work. And these projects likely wouldn’t be completed during the four-year pilot test of the bike lane, Kinsey said.

“You have to be careful because the thought of whisking across the bridge only to find yourself waiting eight minutes at the Highway 101 interchange doesn’t prove anything and it has serious consequences for San Rafael,” Kinsey said.