Expected freeway traffic horrors don’t develop

The nightmare commute scenario that many feared after Sunday’s East Bay freeway inferno still had not materialized by Wednesday, with many motorists opting to take public transit rather than drive.

Traffic congestion was down Monday and Tuesday. The amount of time drivers were stuck in traffic moving slower than 60 mph was down 8 percent around the entire Bay Area, according to Caltrans data. Congestion on Oakland freeways, meanwhile, was down by more than 50 percent, the data showed.


Traffic on the Bay Bridge was down between 18 and 14.5 percent early this week. Some commuters may have taken other bridges — on Monday, for example, the San Mateo Bridge saw an 8.6 percent jump in traffic. Yet by Tuesday, only very slight traffic increases — less than 2 percent — were seen on the San Mateo, Dumbarton and Benicia bridges.

BART ridership, meanwhile, spiked dramatically, hitting an all-time record on Tuesday. The number of BART commuters was up 10.4 percent Tuesday and 5.2 percent Wednesday morning; no figure was available for Monday, when fares were waived.

San Francisco Chronicle