Amid Saturday’s PG&E outage, social media was flooded with posts showing dozens of confused Waymos pausing at intersections as they fruitlessly attempted to contact central command, causing frazzled humans to navigate around them, which led to a temporary halt in service.

As Mission Local reports, Waymo temporarily halted service around 7 pm Saturday as reports swarmed the internet documenting the fleet’s autonomous vehicles creating traffic jams throughout the city during a major power outage that resulted in several rolling blackouts, per SFGate.

Per Mission Local, the Waymo vehicles appeared to stop in their tracks, as cars piled up behind them — at traffic lights that had gone dark as well as at four-way stops, as users noted in the Waymo subreddit.

“We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services given the broad power outage in San Francisco,” Waymo spokesperson Suzanne Philion wrote. “We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work.”

Commenters in the Waymo subreddit thread had a variety of observations from the meltdown, including seeing many near-misses with human drivers.

“The Waymo’s weren’t running through controlled intersections at full speed because they didn’t know there were traffic lights. Saw a bunch of close calls with human drivers,” wrote dwkeith.

“They’re running through intersections constantly right now. Or bricking in the middle. Either way hope nothing bad happens!” added karstcity.

When a skeptic scoffed at the estimate of idling vehicles as being in the hundreds, Mental-Reach-231 verified it was accurate, adding that Waymo significantly increased the severity of the traffic standstill.

“As someone who had to drive through the p-p show this evening, and the dozens of halted Waymos, with multiple intersections with multiple Waymos, I would suggest it’s not a far exaggerated number,” they explained. “And the suspension of service wasn't because of the traffic nightmare, it was because they couldn't provide vehicles because they were all stuck making a traffic nightmare exponentially worse.”

Potat0man69 said they observed plenty of Waymo vehicles navigate intersections adequately, but the chaos of the situation scrambled the whole system and threw the cars into a sort of panic mode when they couldn’t connect with Waymo’s remote assistance.

“There were many Waymo’s I saw able to figure out the lack of a light perfectly fine,” they wrote. “I think it’s just that these intersections were so chaotic that eventually the Waymo “brain” throws up its hands and asks for remote assistance (people taking the intersection out of order, Waymo getting cut off, people walking where they shouldn’t be, etc. essentially overwhelming the normal decision making process, making the car think it’s in an unfamiliar situation).”

“Smart concept to have it reach a point where there’s so much going on that it decides it could probably use a bit of help, bad execution to have it rely on something that could also be impacted by the same root cause,” potat0man69 concluded.

Per SFGate, PG&E has pinpointed a substation at 8th Street and Mission streets as the source of the outage, which has a history of problems, per NBC Bay Area. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie confirmed on social media that some customers will likely continue to experience outages “into the early morning hours.”

Image: AnnTrades/X

Previously: Massive Power Outage In San Francisco Leaves 200,000+ In the Dark, Disrupts Muni and BART

Confused Waymo Cars Block 101 On-Ramp In Potrero Hill, Then Go Down Closed Road

• New research from Stanford University has determined that wildfire smoke is the most detrimental consequence of climate change on Americans' health. Forty thousand Americans are killed by wildfire smoke per year, and the number is projected at 70,000 per year by 2050. [KQED]
• Santa Rosa police arrested Felix Carreon, 50, and Robert McConlogue, 46, both from Sebastopol, in connection with the fatal shooting of Mollie Schefer, 47, at her home in Santa Rosa September 9. One of Shefer’s dogs was also killed, and a second dog was suffering from a gunshot wound. [KRON4]

• A new addiction recovery facility called Wells Place will soon be opening in SF’s Marina District at the former Marina Inn location at Octavia and Lombard streets. Residents at the facility, which consists of double and single-occupancy rooms with a total of 60 beds, will be required to go to school or work while at the facility. [NBC Bay Area]

• The Cupertino Whole Foods, which was shut down in April due to multiple pest infestations, passed its inspection and is set to reopen its doors September 29. [KPIX]
• Three parks in the East Bay town of Antioch — Contra Loma Estates Park, Marchetti Park, and Jacobsen Park — are getting major upgrades, which were largely funded by a $2.95 million grant through Proposition 68. [Bay Area News Group]
• Juan Aguilar, 44, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on August 29 for the human trafficking, rape, and forcible oral copulation of a 15-year-old girl whom he kidnapped from Honduras and trafficked from his San Leandro home for two years. [Bay Area News Group]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

• SF’s first traffic report since the Upper Great Highway became Sunset Dunes Park shows congestion has shifted rather than spiked. Chain of Lakes Drive now sees 21% more cars, while traffic dropped along other routes. [Chronicle]
• After weeks of backlash and lawsuits, the Trump administration will release over $6 billion in previously frozen education grants — vital funds that support English learners, adult literacy, and after-school programs following pressure from GOP lawmakers and school leaders across the country. [Associated Press]
• San Jose and PG&E have reached a landmark deal to fast-track power for 10 data center and industrial projects, ending the city’s push for its own utility and aiming to spur growth while addressing environmental and transparency concerns. [KQED]
• A man suffered life-threatening injuries in a Saturday afternoon stabbing near Ocean Avenue and Lee Street in SF's Ingleside District; police arrested a suspect nearby and are investigating what led to the attack. [KGO]
• Sears’ Concord store will soon be the last one open in California, following the closure of the Burbank location — and one of just six remaining in the entire U.S. [KGO]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

The car-free stretch of Market Street east of 10th is going to be somewhat less car-free this summer when it starts getting clogged up with confused Waymos.

Mayor Daniel Lurie announced Thursday that the city is going to begin allowing Waymos a privilege that Lyft and Uber drivers don't have: the ability to drive all the way down Market Street to downtown.

"You will see Waymos in the coming days and weeks, mapping Market Street. And by early summer, we expect passengers to be able to get picked up and dropped off, giving more options for people getting downtown to shop, see a show, go see a museum," Lurie said in a morning announcement video. "We're really excited about this development... It's a big day for downtown."

The Mayor's Office also put out a release, saying, "Waymo’s arrival on Market Street will complement the city’s existing transportation options, including Muni, biking, and taxis, and will make it easier for residents, workers, and visitors to access the shops, theaters, hotels, and restaurants that anchor San Francisco’s downtown economy."

This news comes quickly after the news that Waymo is preparing to offer service to and from SFO as well.

ACT's Strand Theater, which opened on Market near Seventh Street just a couple of years before the pandemic struck, has had some trouble attracting patrons they say, especially elderly ones, who dislike the fact that they can't get picked up and dropped off by rideshares or other cars outside the theater — the apps will typically direct the cars to the not-so-terrific alley, Stevenson Street, behind the theater.

"We would love to have Market Street reopen to cars," says Jennifer Bielstein, executive director of ACT, speaking to KRON4. "We hear directly from potential customers that they will not come to the Strand Theater because they cannot be dropped off and picked up in front of the theaters."

This move will of course make the Mid- and downtown sections of Market Street more crowded again, with around 300 Waymos now operating in the city, and that is sure to upset cyclists and Muni bus drivers alike.

Local organization KidSafe SF is voicing their objections already.

"This plan will slow down Muni, add congestion, and undermine years of progress toward a more efficient and reliable transit system and a safer, more accessible Market Street,” says KidSafe SF co-founder Robin Pam in a statement. “With Muni facing service cuts this summer and a $322M deficit next year, San Francisco can’t afford to give up the gains in Muni efficiency we’ve already made."

Also, Dylan Fabris, the community and policy manager at San Francisco Transit Rider, issued a statement saying, "Mayor Lurie’s unilateral decision to give Waymo free rein on Market Street is dangerous, undemocratic, and inequitable. Allowing Waymo exclusive access to Market Street essentially creates a nearly two-mile-long City-sanctioned monopoly for the Google-owned tech company – all while the City is cutting vital Muni service on the same corridor."

The first months of the car-free Market Street program unfortunately coincided with the pandemic, which quickly negated the need for many to get downtown at all, and something that continues to have a substantial impact on businesses there. While keeping passenger vehicles — except for medallioned taxis — off of lower Market Street was solving a congestion problem that existed pre-2019, that long stretch of Market Street often feels desolate these days, except for the spots where car traffic has to cross it on the way to 101 or the Bay Bridge, like at Eighth Street, and at Battery/First.

The city and Waymo say they will "will work collaboratively to maintain safety and accessibility" on Market Street, but there seems a high-probability of secondary effects of bringing robotaxis to the mostly car-free corridor. If nothing else, the robot cars seem likely to get hung up in spots where much of the curb has been given over to a bus stop, and/or in the former gridlock spots where commuters are darting across Market before the lights change.

Related: Waymo Service to SFO Likely Coming Soon

Caltrans will close some highway off-ramps in SF Sunday night, as well as reroute some buses ahead of the Super Bowl.

The off-ramps scheduled to be closed are: US-101 Southbound, Cesar Chavez St.; US-101 Northbound, Cesar Chavez St.; US-101 Northbound, Mission St./Duboce St.; I-280 Northbound, San Jose Ave.; I-280 Northbound, Geneva Ave.; and I-280 Southbound, Geneva Ave. Motorists are advised to expect delays, according to the agency.

Additionally, SF officials are expecting celebrations in the Mission District and preemptively rerouting Muni buses starting at 5 p.m. Sunday. (That’s similar to during the NFC championship game.)  The buses will avoid Mission Street, 24th Street, and 16th Street, the popular spots for Niners fan celebrations and take alternate parallel streets.

Affected lines include the California, Powell / Hyde, and Powell / Mason Cable Cars; 12 Folsom/Pacific; 14 Mission and 14R Mission Rapid;  22 Fillmore; 27 Bryant; 33 Ashbury/18th Street; 48 Quintara/24th Street; 49 Van Ness/Mission; 55 Dogpatch; and 67 Bernal Heights.

Officials are also warning that neighborhood celebrations could cause congestion Sunday night, and they might have to restrict car access to Mission St. from Valencia to South Van Ness between 15th and 26th streets, as well as to 24th St. from 23rd to 25th streets between Valencia and Potrero.

Image via Muni on X.

Sunday is the San Francisco 49ers' pivotal NFC Championship Game against the Detroit Lions, and local transit agencies have prepared a whole plan with possible street and highway ramp closures, as well as Muni service changes, ahead of the expected hubbub.

The much-anticipated game is set to take place on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. SFMTA and California Highway Patrol's proposed changes are slated to go into effect shortly after halftime, contingent on the game's outcome.

Possible Street Closures and Muni Service Changes in the Mission

Two popular celebration spots, 24th Street between Potrero Avenue and Valencia Street, and Mission Street between 21st and Cesar Chavez streets, are earmarked for potential street closures from 5:30 p.m. through 10 p.m., or until the roads are clear.

"In anticipation of possible public reactions to the outcome of the game that may impact Muni service in the Mission District, the SFMTA has developed service contingency plans to be implemented if necessary," the agency said on its website.

Muni vehicles will still have limited access to certain locations in these areas, facilitating east- and westbound transportation, according to the agency.

In terms of Muni, several bus lines reroutes through the designated celebration zones are planned, starting at 5:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. These lines are:

• 14 Mission
• 14R Mission Rapid
• 27 Bryant
• 48 Quintara/24th Street
• 49 Van Ness/Mission
• 67 Bernal Heights

Riders can expect temporary adjustments, as Muni is planning to skip stops inside of the celebration areas and rout to alternate nearby streets.

Highway Off-Ramp Closures

California Highway Patrol has also tentatively scheduled several off-ramp closures for SF freeways "to enhance public safety due to an anticipated increase traffic and pedestrian congestion," from 7:00 P.M. until 12:00 A.M. on Sunday.

These off-ramps are scheduled to be closed:

• US-101 Southbound, Cesar Chavez St. off-ramp
• US-101 Northbound, Cesar Chavez St. off-ramp
• US-101 Northbound, Mission St./Duboce St. off-ramp
• I-280 Northbound, San Jose Ave off-ramp
• I-280 Northbound, Geneva Ave off-ramp
• I-280 Southbound, Geneva Ave off-ramp

SFMTA officials advise residents to stay informed through various channels, including their Twitter account for real-time updates or real-time Muni alerts. CHP is recommending drivers follow 511 on X  or look at Caltrans' real-time traffic map.

Feature image of 49ers' Deebo Samuel and George Kittle at NFC Divisional Playoffs at Levi's Stadium on January 20, 2024 in Santa Clara, California, via Ryan Kang/Getty Images.

A troublesome trend in Lake Tahoe, where “40 to 50” bears have been hit by cars this summer, with 20 of these collisions happening in just the last month.

This summer’s staggering surge in Lake Tahoe tourism, and a new tendency for bears to wander more aggressively into human areas, is producing a tragic trend. SFGate reports that 20 bears have been hit by cars in the Lake Tahoe region in the last month alone. And a representative from a bear awareness and protection nonprofit says that “40 to 50” bears have been hit by cars this summer, putting the region on pace for the deadliest year ever for bear-car collisions.

“Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be a record year, really,” Ann Bryant, director of that nonprofit Bear League, tells SFGate. “We’ve had many, many this year. A lot are OK — they’re limping but healing. But a lot die.”

The Bear League is the go-to organization for the California Highway Patrol whenever a bear-car collision is reported. They send a volunteer to the site to monitor the bear while Highway Patrol directs traffic, and the bear is often able to shake it off after a few minutes. But sometimes the bear does require treatment (and the Bear League can only provide treatment to bears who are less than a year old). And in some extreme cases, the the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has to euthanize the bear.

“I think it’s tourism, there’s just so much traffic,” according to Bryant. “I mean, it’s definitely a record year for visitors, and they don’t think about watching for wildlife. They just motor along, looking at pinecones and whatever. I’ve never seen it like this. And then there’s so much construction, and that makes people move in a hurry.”

The roads and highways that see the most bear-vehicle collisions tend to be Route 89 and I-80 on the California side, and State Route 28 in Nevada. Wildlife advocates worry that this will year’s total will surpass the 2007 record of 94 bear-vehicle collisions, as the forthcoming months of September and October are when these accidents usually peak.  

“This is bear country; it’s wildlife country,” Bryant tells SFGate. “We have to share the road with animals, and you have to always be thinking that there could be an animal right ahead. If you see one bear, it could be a Mama bear with cubs right behind her.”

Related: Tahoe Bear Hank the Tank's Reign of Terror Ends In Capture — and a New Home [SFist]

Image: BEAR League via Facebook

Photo: Georg Eiermann

You can cruise through traffic in the new express lanes that opened Friday morning on U.S. 101, and it’s free for carpools of three or more people, but it’s a $500 fine if you’re in that lane without a FasTrak.

Folks who drive U.S. 101 on the Peninsula have had a SoCal-style express toll lane available from the San Mateo/Santa Clara County line down to Sunnyvale since earl 2022. A new 20-mile stretch of express lane in San Mateo County soft-launched for “toll equipment testing” in November, but hits its full stride effective today.  KTVU reports the new 101 express lanes started today, and as seen below, this presents the possibility of much faster travel northbound and southbound between San Bruno and Redwood City. And commuters can now ride in express-lane comfort — which is free for carpools of three or more — all the way from San Bruno to Sunnyvale.

The NBC Bay Area video above is a nice explainer of a somewhat complicated FasTrak tolling system for the new express  lanes, which are meant to encourage carpooling, but solo drivers can still drive in that lane. “People driving in carpools with three or more people, as well as buses, will be able to travel free of charge in the express lanes,” as NBC Bay Area reports. “Customers driving clean air vehicles such as cars that run on fuel cells, battery, or plug-in hybrids that have a valid clean-air vehicle decal from the Department of Motor Vehicles will qualify for a 50% toll discount when the lanes first open.”

The express lane system is now in effect Monday-Friday, 5 a.m.-8 p.m.

The above map shows where the new express lanes are in effect, represented in the blue and white line (the green line is a South Bay express lane that was already in effect).

The cost is based on dynamic pricing that changes constantly, and road signs will flash the current cost. The method of determining this cost is as clear as mud. But per FasTrak, “Two-person carpools using a properly set FasTrak Flex or FasTrak CAV toll tag receive a 50% discount. Carpools of 3+ people and motorcycles may use the lane for FREE with a FasTrak Flex or FasTrak CAV toll tag. Eligible clean air vehicles (CAVs) traveling as a single-occupant receive a 50% discount when using a FasTrak CAV toll tag.”

Do you want to ride but feel you can’t afford it? Big government will hook you up! “The Community Transportation benefits program helps cover transportation costs for qualifying individuals in San Mateo County by leveraging income from the new express lanes to help low-income individuals,” Tasha Bartholomew of the San Mateo County 101 Express Lane Joint Powers Authority tells NBC Bay Area. “We can provide participants with either a $100 transit credit on their Clipper card or a $100 toll credit on a FasTrak flex transponder, depending on if they want to take public transportation or if they’re in their car.”

But you need a FasTrak toll tag to ride in that express lane, no matter how many people are in the vehicle. Riding in that lane without a FasTrak toll tag carries a $491 fine.

Traffic authorities around the Bay Area have been discussing pay-to-play express lanes for over a decade now, and there are now 155 miles of express lanes, primarily in the East Bay, on I-680, I-880, part of I-580, and on Highways 237 and 85. The I-680 express lane project is continuing to expand, but the express lanes on 101 are the first to require 3 or more passengers to qualify as a carpool.

Related: Bay Area Toll Authority to Crack Down on Unpaid Bridge Tolls With Penalties and Liens on Registrations [SFist]

Image: @101ExpressLanes via Twitter

Eight and a half years into the Levi’s Stadium era, Santa Clara and the 49ers seemingly still have not figured out the traffic situation near the stadium, and fans and sports media alike are calling Sunday’s game-day mess the “worst traffic jam in Levi’s Stadium history.”

Three day prior to Sunday’s 19-12 playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys, the City of Santa Clara put out a press release saying “Heavy traffic and delays are anticipated on major thoroughfares leading to and from the stadium, including Highways 101, 237, 880, Lawrence Expressway, Great America Parkway and San Tomas Expressway, as a result of the event. Expect increased traffic to begin around 12 p.m.”

Hey City of Santa Clara, it appears press releases alone are not doing the job here. The Chronicle’s writeup of the game noted that “Pregame traffic was snarled and gummed up worse than any time in Levi’s history, with cars taking up to 90 minutes to creep the mile from the freeway to the parking lots."

Of course, traffic problems have been a consistent nightmare since Levi's Stadium opened in 2014. Residents have long complained that they feel like “hostages” stuck in their homes because their roads are too clogged to travel anywhere, and fans attending events wonder why the local infrastructure is still not scaling up to what a stadium with a capacity of nearly 70,000 would require.

SFGate covered Sunday’s enormous 49ers traffic jam, and noted that “Niners Nation contributor Jordan Elliott told SFGATE that it took him more than an hour to travel the 1-2 miles from the freeway exit to the parking lot for the game. According to Elliott, there were no visible traffic coordination efforts to address the situation.”

Cheer up, Santa Clara residents, the 49ers’ next game on Sunday at 12 noon PT is in Philadelphia, and there will be no more NFL games at Levi’s Stadium until August 2023.  But Taylor Swift is coming in July (for two nights), Madonna is coming in October (for two nights), and Beyonce's likely to be coming too. The 49ers, and/or Santa Clara, should probably consider some traffic mitigation efforts real quick.

Related: Niners Best Cowboys In a Defensive Grind, Move On to NFC Championship Game vs. Philadelphia [SFist]

Image: @JannieGavile via Twitter

As the state of New York barrels ahead with congestion pricing to battle climate change and traffic, a similar plan for San Francisco has been shelved, likely to the relief of retailers and small business owners.

In the state of New York. new-ish Governor Kathy Hochul is still going full speed ahead on a controversial plan to charge a congestion pricing fee in parts of Manhattan, a plan which has been in the works for more than three years. It may surprise you to hear that San Francisco has been considering a similar model for roughly the same amount of time — a plan to reduce traffic, battle climate change, and improve public safety by charging somewhere around $6.50 to drive into downtown at certain peak hours.

So as Gov. Hochul suffers the slings and arrows of New York media piling onto the plan, the Chronicle asks a reasonable question. What happened to the SF version of congestion pricing?  

“It’s been paused,” San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) spokesperson Eric Young told the Chronicle. “That’s how we refer to it.”

That makes sense. Downtown was moribund during the pandemic some days with more coyotes than cars. And at the height of the pandemic, such a plan would have only milked essential workers out of more money.

But the congestion pricing idea did bubble up occasionally during COVID-19. SFCTA discussed the idea in a July 2021 meeting, and held public forums on the matter the following month.  

The congestion pricing would only apply two “zones,” one a downtown area, and the other a North Beach-Fisherman’s Wharf zone.

The current scheme for how this would work, per the Chronicle, is “electronically charging drivers entering the zone between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. a toll of $6.50 with a discounted cost of $4.33 for moderate-income people, $2.17 for low-income people and no charge for those with very low incomes.” They add that “Drivers with disabilities would pay $3.25. Drivers for ride-hailing service like Uber and Lyft would pay the full charge for each ride, and would likely pass the fee on to passengers.”

Still, is this a terrible time to consider such a thing, considering that most small businesses are by no means recovered from the pandemic. But this being San Francisco, the plan would reportedly take no fewer than five years before going into effect.

Related: Wiener To Push for Rush-Hour Congestion Pricing In San Francisco [SFist]

Image: Saketh Garuda via Unsplash

The Bay Area is setting records once again, but not for anything good. On a list of the ten cities in the United States with the most expensive commutes, half of the list is taken up by cities in California, and four of the ten are in the Bay Area.

The #1 most expensive city for workers trying to get to their offices, according to AutoInsurance.org, is Fremont, California. Over the course of a year, a person earning the median income in that city would spend 16% of their earnings on their commute alone.

“The average American spends a lot of time, money, and energy on commuting, affecting personal time," the analysis says. "Although commute costs vary from state to state and city to city, it’s concerning that many Americans lose money on their commute due to their location. You also have to factor in the cost of your car and auto insurance."

AutoInsurance.org got its data from the 2019 census and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — and it therefore may not still be accurate, given all that's changed around remote work.

The agency says the average travel time for people to get from their homes to their jobs in Fremont is about 36 minutes. That commute costs drivers about $60 a day, the analysts found, adding up to $15,005 over the course of a year.

Next on the list is San Francisco. There, it takes employees an average of 35 minutes to get to work – something that costs them about $52 every single day. In total, that amounts to $13,015 a year.

#6 on the list is San Jose, with an average commute cost of $9,813 annually. That breaks down to $39 a day for a 32-minute mean travel time.

The last Bay Area city to make the Top 10 list is Oakland. There, commuters spend 68 minutes in total going to and from work, for an average cost of $37 a day or $9,176 annually.

Outside of the Bay, Irvine’s stats are very close to Oakland, but it’s listed as the eighth most expensive.

“Irvine, California, is the eighth-most expensive city for commuters. Workers spend an annual $9,526, or a daily $38 getting to and from work. Most employees in Irvine work 38 hours a week for a reasonable pay rate of $48 per hour,” the report says.

The top 10 cities with the most expensive commutes are:

• Fremont, CA: $15,005
• San Francisco, CA: $13,015
• Jersey City, NJ: $10,602
• Arlingonton, VA: $10, 385
• New York, NY: $10,275
• San Jose, CA: $9,813
• Seattle, WA: $9,790
• Irvine, CA: $9,526
• Oakland, CA: $9,176
• Chicago, IL: $8,033

Four of the ten least expensive commutes are in Texas. That list for the least amount of money spent on annual commutes is as follows:

• Lubbock, TX: $2,874
• Laredo, TX: $3,200
• Tulsa, OK: $3,241
• Wichita, KS: $3,417
• Corpus Christi, TX: $3,447
• Norfolk, VA: $3,449
• El Paso, TX: $3,635
• Memphis, TN: $3,743
• Tucson, AZ: $3,843
• Cleveland, OH: $3,853

Photo: Saketh Garuda on Unsplash

Westbound I-80 is back open Tuesday morning after an overturned tractor trailer shut down all lanes near San Pablo Monday night for over an hour.

The accident happened around 7:30 p.m. Monday in the westbound lane of the interstate, near El Portal Drive, but subsequently all the westbound lanes were blocked. The roadway remained partly closed late into the night — and CBS News reported that the Sig Alert was not lifted for the area until 11:54 p.m. Monday.

A Redditor posted this photo of the traffic, writing, "'I'll leave after 10pm to avoid traffic. That'll be a good idea' I said. All lanes closed San Pablo 880S [sic]. Yay!" (It was actually 80 westbound, and 880 is nowhere near San Pablo.)

The California Highway Patrol told the Chronicle that the accident happened when the driver swerved in an attempt to avoid something in the road. The CHP did not mention what the debris that led to the crash may have been.

The CHP tells SFist it was a Harmon Trucking tractor trailer that overturned. The truck was reportedly hauling 75,000 pounds of lumber, which remained in the trailer rather than scattering out into the road.

The truck flipped to its left side, but the driver was able to climb out and was not badly hurt, the CHP says.

It's unclear how long it took to reopen more than one lane following the crash, or when traffic ultimately let up — but if you know this part of I-80, it's probably still trafficky!  SFist has reached out to the CHP for more information.

If you’ve driven on State Route 37, you likely know how regularly the Bay Area commuter throughway experiences major traffic backup. Now, the State of California plans to revamp the Highway 37 corridor through projects expected to cost over a quarter-billion dollars.

37 is the North Bay’s most heavily-trafficked highway in the east/west direction, leading not only to major and significant delays, but also occasional flooding during winter storms. People take the 21-mile route to work, but tourists from San Francisco also use it to get to wine country in Napa and Sonoma Counties. Four Transportation Back in December 2015, traffic authorities in three North Bay counties (Sonoma, Napa, and Solano) signed a Memorandum of Understanding aiming to address issues the highway will soon face, and now there are new plans to move forward.

As Caltrans explains, the rebuild is in its earliest planning stages, and construction work wouldn’t start for several years, if not longer. However, the State feels it’s crucial to either rebuild or reroute the road to avoid a projected rise in sea level that would cause significant flooding by 2040 and entirely sink the street by 2050.

Because the route goes over protected and important marshland, environmental studies into improvement projects have to take into account the sensitive ecosystem’s needs along with the goal of finding solutions to future traffic patterns and flooding.

There has been some work already to try to protect the road, which goes through the San Pablo Bay, one of the biggest remaining tidal marshes in the Bay Area. For the past 30+ years, agencies with both the federal and state government have partnered up with environmental conservation non-profits to restore the habitat.

“Caltrans has looked at over 120 miles of preliminary alignments for evaluation in the planning and linkages study,” the Agency says.

The Sears Point to Mare Island Improvement Project gives a couple options for the portion of 10.4-mile SR 37 that spans between Sonoma and Solano Counties. In that stretch, the highway narrows to one lane in each direction, creating a traffic bottleneck. The Improvement Project has several Alternatives for cross-sections. The first is to incorporate a reversible lane, so that peak periods could have two lanes going one direction and one in the other to account for extra traffic headed in a single direction. That could cost about $256 million up front, plus $2 million each year for maintenance and staffing.

The second Alternative proposes incorporating a new lane but also adding a fixed median. The extra lane would be chosen for either the eastbound or westbound lane based on peak commute times, and would cost around $306 million.

Other proposals are to either have two lanes in each direction with a reduced shoulder width, or four total lanes with regular shoulder width. Those would round up a bill between $325 million and $415 million.

Other ideas shift away from simply adding new lanes. Some believe the best option is to elevate the highway or to build a new levee system. There are also some concept designs to re-route the highway further north.

Some propose a bridge across the San Pablo Bay with a separate bike lane and pedestrian pathway. With that notion, the State would want to add in transit options like bus routes, or work-arounds for ferries and trains.

Top image: Sonoma County Transportation Authority

You may want to avoid getting in a car if at all possible in San Francisco this weekend — and you'll definitely want to avoid the Marina and downtown at all costs unless you yourself are going to a Giants game.

The late-pandemic, pent-up desire to get out and do big crowded things is likely to bring throngs of tourists into the city this weekend to watch the Blue Angels air show and/or go see the Giants square off against either the Dodgers or the Cardinals (depending on who wins tonight).

The traffic crush will begin with the all-day air show on Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Friday's playoff game at Oracle Park, which starts at 6:37 p.m.

ALSO, there's a Warriors preseason game Friday against the Los Angeles Lakers at the Chase Center starting at 7 p.m.

The Blue Angels will be roaring over the city for three days — and likely will do some practice flyovers before that — along with the U.S. Air Force F-16 Viper Demo Team, the Navy parachute team, and a United 777 doing "tricks."

There's then a second playoff game Saturday starting at 6:07 p.m. The games are, reportedly, nearly sold out.

As the Chronicle reports, BART is planning to beef up service over the weekend, and it's holding some "special event trains" in reserve which can be rolled out if there is a crush of passengers heading into the city for these events.

Next up, at the end of the month, we can brace for a whole lot of tourism for Outside Lands.

Photo: Jonathan Saleh