Drive across Bay Bridge tops list of Bay Area’s worst commutes

As commuters along westbound Interstate 80 can probably confirm, Bay Area traffic congestion is at an all-time high, meaning more time crawling along behind the wheel, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s annual survey released Monday. less As commuters along westbound Interstate 80 can probably confirm, Bay Area traffic congestion is at an all-time high, meaning more time crawling along behind the wheel, according to the Metropolitan ... more Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close Drive across Bay Bridge tops list of Bay Area’s worst commutes 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

If it seems as if you’re spending more time behind the wheel than ever, it’s not an illusion. Since 2010, the amount of time Bay Area drivers endure crawling along in freeway congestion has soared 70 percent.

That’s the highest level of “congested delay” — time spent in traffic moving at speeds of 35 mph or less — since traffic experts began keeping track in 1981.

Those disturbing, if not entirely surprising, findings are included in the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s annual report released Monday on the Bay Area’s most-congested freeways — a report more commonly known for its rankings of the region’s worst commutes.

An analysis of traffic statistics collected in 2015 found that wretched distinction belonged to the 6-mile afternoon drive from northbound Highway 101 through San Francisco to eastbound Interstate 80 at the Yerba Buena Tunnel.

Following closely behind at No. 2 was the westbound I-80 drive from Highway 4 in Hercules to Highway 101 in San Francisco, which for the first time was noted for its gridlock all day long.

That stretch of I-80 has long been one of the region’s — and nation’s — lousiest commutes, particularly in the morning. But the evening commute joined the list in recent years, and in this report, the MTC found that traffic along that stretch now begins about 5:35 a.m. and ends at 7:50 p.m.

“This is the first time routine congestion on any Bay Area freeway segment has not been interrupted by a midday break,” the report stated.

As employment and population have steadily increased in the Bay Area in recent years, it’s no surprise that roads are becoming more crowded. The number of people in the Bay Area rose to 7.6 million by the end of 2014 — with 1 in 4 residents living in Santa Clara County. Employment was at an all-time high of 3.7 million in 2015 with nearly half of the jobs located in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Commuters found neither surprise nor solace in the news that traffic is as bad as it seems.

Angela Lam, 49, of San Francisco used to commute from San Jose to South San Francisco. Highway 101, she said, is “slower than molasses in January.”

“If I’m driving stick shift to the city, I might as well be in first gear the entire way,” she said, adding that public transportation isn’t much of an alternative.

“I can’t even do work on public transit because there’s no WiFi, so why would I take it?” Lam said.

Maurice Barnett, 40, lives in the East Bay and occasionally drives for Uber. He blamed the surge in traffic on “too many engineers.”

“People coming from all over the world for all the jobs we create here for the startup companies, that’s the main reason for the traffic change for the last five to seven years,” Barnett said. “It’s getting as bad as L.A. Even on the weekends you have traffic.”

Barnett thinks the solution is to add more cars to BART, extend service to more stops and encourage commuters to participate in carpooling.

Of the 10 most-congested stretches of freeway, seven have been parked there before, some for years. A handful made their unfortunate debuts this time, climbing from lower rankings.

The morning commute along southbound I-680 and northbound I-280 from east San Jose to Cupertino jumped to the No. 3 slot from No. 20 in 2014. The northbound afternoon drive on I-880 from Fremont to Hayward jumped to No. 9 from No. 16. And the afternoon commute on northbound Highway 101 from Menlo Park to Foster City made the cut at No. 10, compared with No. 12 in 2014.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, an MTC commissioner, said Monday that traffic is “awful and it’s getting awfuler.”

And the reality is that the transportation infrastructure in the Bay Area is just not keeping up with the rising employment, said MTC Chairman Dave Cortese, a Santa Clara County supervisor.

Liccardo, Cortese and other MTC commissioners took advantage of the report’s findings to urge voters to support Santa Clara County Measure B, which would raise $6 billion to improve Silicon Valley transit and fix roads, as well as BART’s Measure RR, which would raise $3.5 billion to rehabilitate the transit system.

“We must continue to invest in BART. We have to continue to invest in our bus system and our transit system. We have a lot of work to do,” said MTC Commissioner Scott Haggerty, an Alameda County supervisor. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the money to do it.”

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @SarRavani