Official Oakland-S.F. Bay Bridge righteous anger thread

[lunarpollen]

Go on, post your outrage here.

Anyway, I'm sure many other people have a right to be more outraged than me. I live in Sacramento. I've been looking forward to attending a show in S.F. tonight for a few months now. Mumiy Troll @ the Independent. The venue is notorious for starting shows "early" (i.e., actually at the advertised show time, which usually means one can get home in time to get enough sleep to get up the next morning for work with no issues). Anyway, the show starts at 8. There is one opening band I don't mind missing. My estimate is that MT will start at 9.

Under normal circumstances, it takes about 80 minutes to get from home to the Bay Bridge. Finding parking near the venue can take 15 minutes to a half hour or more (it's very random). It's good to estimate at LEAST two hours time span from departure to walking into the venue. Two and a half is safer.

Now, because the bridge is broken, I have to try and plan an alternate route that will avoid as much of the resulting traffic SNAFUs as possible. I am trying to give myself at least four and a half hours to get from my front door to the venue's. Which means I should try and be on the road by about 4:30. Which means I have to leave work early today.

I am still undecided about which route to take. One is to take I-5 south to Manteca, then cut across west on I-580 to Hayward, and make my way to the San Mateo Bridge and then head north into S.F. The other way is to take I-80 west like normal, except (in order to bypass the traffic mess that I'm sure exists around the bay Bridge) I'd take I-680 south at Fairfield, then 24 west at Walnut Creek to I-880 south in Oakland, and then south to the San Mateo Bridge etc. Google maps says the second way is a little faster, but Google maps often talks out its arse.

Not sure about the route I'll take to get home. Maybe the Bay Bridge will be open again by then? ha, whatever...

The Golden Gate route would take too long either way, traffic is completely FUBAR there because of the broken Bay Bridge.

[winston]

Hi, I lived in Davis for 10 years so I know your pain.

Is there anyway you can take a train? Get off in Richmond and take the BART from there. I don't know when the last train to Sac leaves, though.

Right now I live in Berkeley & work in Oakland by the Coliseum. I took 80 to 880 South to work this morning....definitely a cluster of cars as the 6 lanes of 80 get narrowed down to 3 at the 580/880 split where you'd get on the Bay Bridge. There's always a lot of traffic on 880 South after 3 PM.

The 680/24/880S sounds a bit more appealing BUT it depends on how traffic is through the Caldecott tunnel...sometimes it gets backed up almost to Walnut Creek at rush hour if the extra lanes aren't open on your side. It might be longer but taking 680 down to 580 near Pleasanton to the San Mateo could make more sense...there's rarely rush-hour traffic headed toward San Jose.

Dunno if this helps...the bridge closure complicates all the routes. My favorite traffic site is Sigalert.com. Best of luck.

[lunarpollen]

Maybe the 680 to 580 route will be the one I'll take. Thanks for the heads up re: Caldecott Tunnel. I had no idea (I've never driven that way so I know nothing!).

A train would not be feasible for this evening. On other days/times it could be.

I'm gonna check out sigalert.com now... thanks!

[lunarpollen]

Hmm according to Sigalert, the Golden gate route looks not too bad right now. But of course everything will change toward the end of the day... Bleh, I wish I had a computer in my car for real-time assistance...

[winston]

How was the show & the drive?

Also, curious about the Sactown scene these days (if there still is one). I played quite a bit there during the late '90s/early '00s midtown heyday.

[lunarpollen]

The drive there was OK, a little bit of traffic on 80 in east Davis, some traffic on 680 near Alamo, and bad traffic on 101 around Burlingame

the show was great, the band were in good form and spirits, and I got there early enough to grab a bite to eat first. The crowd wasn't as packed as the previous times, but it wasn't sparse by any means either. I think the bridge issue may have had a little to do with the lower turnout.

Sacramento is OK for live music. It's a bit hipster infested, too many boring bands around with ironic names trying too hard to be "indier than thou"... It also makes it hard to find like-minded musicians to form a band with, unless you are one of the aforementioned hipster types, or you want to do metal, commercial pop punk, or [insert trendy term here]-core... But it's still fairly easy to get shows, and venues aren't shy about original bands, unlike other local scenes where generic cover bands clog up everything.

[VroomVroom]

The closure is a huge bummer. Especially since there's so much construction work going on elsewhere. The 92/880 junction is a particular bowl of suck. I feel bad for the folks commuting in this every day.

Your deal tonight. How about a drive to (pick one) Fremont, Hayward, or even just Walnut Creek and then a ride on BART? I'm not sure which venue in the City you're heading to, but if BART doesn't get you close enough, there's always MUNI to complete the journey. Just a thought. Heading into SF on a Friday evening is always an adventure, and the bay bridge closure just takes it to a whole new level. Good luck and have fun...

[MadMan118]

RAWR!
There I let it all out.

[jazzbo]

I always take public transit when I can, but two days this week I had to drive from Oakland or Berkeley, home to SF. It takes a bit longer, but I took the San Rafael bridge to the Golden Gate both times. When I got to the tunnel in Sausalito, traffic was stop and go before the GG Bridge. Man, that view is awesome. It was very nice to be able to just sit back and enjoy it a bit.

[UncleFluffy]

101 between SF and 92 has been a parking lot the last few days.