If riders don’t return to mass transit, or the major bus and train lines can’t meet demand, then the weekend’s revelry could come with a major downside: traffic of epic proportions.
Transit officials are trying to open the pressure valves. In August, BART expanded its Saturday schedule from 6 a.m. to midnight, running trains every 15 minutes on most lines.
By Oct. 1 BART was carrying about half the riders it saw on a typical Saturday prior to the pandemic — an “amazing” feat for the regional rail spine, spokesperson Alicia Trost said.
BART is also considering strategies to beef up Sunday service, which remains limited to three lines with 30 minutes between trains. This Sunday, crews will replace a critical segment of rail between Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill stations, spokesperson Chris Filippi said. He recommended that riders in that area drive to Orinda or Lafayette stations to bypass what could be a 10- to 15-minute delay.
The agency will also place three special-event trains “on standby” Sunday, Filippi said, running them on an “as-needed basis” if people swarm in to watch the Blue Angels or the Italian Heritage Day Parade.
In past years, these spectacles attracted so many onlookers that traffic crawled in the northern part of the city. A person walking up Columbus Avenue might duck into a bar, have a drink, come out and see the cars lined up in the same place. This year’s Italian Heritage Day will close several streets in the North Beach area, starting at 8 a.m. Sunday.
As tourists spill into Fisherman’s Wharf and the Marina District for Fleet Week, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency plans to extend service on its F Market & Wharves streetcar line, supplementing the vintage vehicles with shuttle buses to the wharf and Ferry Building.
Muni will run express shuttles from the 16th Street BART Station to Chase Center for the Warriors’ Friday night preseason basketball games on Oct. 8 and 15.
Additionally, the agency will try to control the flow of traffic into Mission Bay by closing King Street in the eastbound direction between Second and Third streets, 2½ hours before the first pitch of each Giants game. Crews will reopen the road from the start of the game until the seventh inning, then shut it down until the post-game crush starts to dissipate. SFMTA will also charge $8 for special event parking near Oracle Park, to ease congestion and dissuade people from driving.
Caltrain boosted weekday service to two trains an hour in September, and will provide extra trains for Giants fans attending the playoff games on Friday and Saturday. The added post-game trains depart from Fourth and King Street station, 15 and 25 minutes after the last out. And for those seeking a scenic ride over choppy waters, San Francisco Bay Ferry will offer direct service to the Giants game from terminals in Oakland, Vallejo and Alameda.
Since many Bay Area commuters are as smitten with ferries as they are with baseball, the agency will deploy its Blue & Gold Fleet MV Bay Monarch boats for these special trips, accommodating up to 787 passengers at time.
City dwellers attending the weekend festivities might also opt to travel by bicycle, owing to a pandemic boom of bike lanes that striped the landscape green. The paths leading from the Mission District to Mission Bay — now a nerve center for Bay Area sports — could be particularly inviting.
For years, San Francisco took pride in its ability to move people efficiently, whether to ballgames, music festivals, protests or marathons. The pandemic upended that delicate transportation network, allowing challenges to pile up, while people enshrined automobiles as a form of protective armor.
But now, as the Bay Area comes back to life, officials hope its transit systems will quickly rebound — and that people can be weaned off cars.
To ease that transition, BART has altered its sales pitch. Since ridership is down, Filippi said, the station lots have “plenty of parking.”
Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
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Why this weekend could bring traffic of epic proportions to the Bay Area - San Francisco Chronicle
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