Was it just us, or did you also think, as soon as the Bay Bridge closed, that the only things you wanted to do over Labor Day Weekend were on the other side of the bay? Well, all those days are now nothing but a hazy memory, with the bridge reopening a full 11 hours earlier than planned (at around 6 p.m. last night) and traffic flowing relatively normally (i.e., jammed, but no more so than usual) this morning.

That said, apparently some commuters are freaking out about the expanded FasTrak lanes, putting their vehicles in reverse into moving traffic and the like. (We must confess, as a FasTrak user ourselves, we did have an unseemly chortle last week pre-closure, as we passed a person who'd tried to jump the line in the FasTrak lane who then no one would let into the paying-toll lanes -- but it was of us to do so.) Caltrans says if you end up in a FasTrak lane by accident, just go through. You'll get a violation ticket, but if you subsequently sign up for a FasTrak, they'll waive the fee. They say they expect things to be smoother in a week (but we don't know if the non-FasTrak amnesty signup program will continue.)

The company that got the job done so fast? The same company that put back together the Macarthur Maze a month ahead of schedule too. C.C. Myers Inc. rules.

(Side note: Also -- apparently people have sex in BART stations all the time, but not this weekend.)

Picture of the Eastern Span repairs from the Caltrans Bay Bridge Info website.

And for those of you commuting by car today, don't you you spared the air? A truck overturned right at the 92/101 S interchange (those ramps are pretty steeply banked) around 4 a.m. this morning, and they didn't get the ramp reopened until 8.

On the other hand, be careful sparing the air today too -- a man hit by a T-Third is the fourth MUNI-related pedestrian death accident in two weeks (two of which were fatal).

Picture from CBS 5.

Well, first and most importantly! -- SFist MattyMatt's started a new job so he's been pretty busy at work and hasn't had time to post lately, for all folks asking about him in the SFist Tips column!. But he's still here, we promise! We miss him too! (Meanwhile, you guys can always check out his personal blog.)

And second of all -- goodness, what a terrible day on the commutes. It's like when the sun, the moon, and a bunch of other planets all line up in a syzygy: all K, L, and Ms got stuck due to inbound line damage in the West Portal tunnel on MUNI, and a train went out of service at 24th Street on the BART. Nightmare.

On the bright side, we managed to use all the transit tie-ups as an excuse for our late arrival at work today (we didn't get stuck in the mess, we just woke up late). How was your ride in? Maybe SFist MattyMatt will get a break at work and can give us the zingy in the comments!

Current status: BART up and running again; MUNI to come back within an hour or two.

Wow, they work fast at BART! When we started this post, there were 30 minute delays to cross the Bay, and by the time we finished, BART updated its reports to announce that they've fixed the issue with the Transbay Tunnel and all trains are moving again.

Turns out there was a crack in one of the tracks in the Transbay Tube (we thought the trains were running a little slow this morning!), so they had to run all the trains on one track while they fixed the other one, causing up to 30 minute delays and a break in service on Richmond and Fremont-bound trains.

But it's all good now, and everything on all lines is rolling again -- you should expect residual delays of 15-30 minutes as everything gears back up, but it should all be copacetic by the evening commute.

Bless the Chron's heart, they know kvetching about traffic is going to move a lot of papers on the newsstand -- so they go above the fold with their article about the twenty worst bottlenecks on the highway. As you'd've guessed, that horrendous interchange at Emeryville for 80/580/880 where you have to get over five lanes just to go south ranks high on the list.

We did very much enjoy the descriptions of the worst bottlenecks: whether it's the "disappearing lane" by the Gilman Street exit on 80, calling the Bay Bridge "a series of bottlenecks in which 20 lanes merge to five," or describing the problem on 880 at 23rd Avenue as "a bridge that looks lower than it is creates an optical illusion, which scientists say causes trucks to brake and slows traffic for miles," the despairing tone of the article is matched with the fact that almost half of the problems are described as "no fix in sight" or "no fix planned."

Our favorite bottleneck is the one on 101 North in Burlingame where the road suddenly turns west and the setting sun hits you right in the eyes as you make the reverse commute from your Silicon Valley job back to the city. Yours?

A transformer explosion and subsequent electrical pole damage at San Jose and Ocean has rendered the following lines extremely delayed: the J, the 26 Valencia, the 36 Teresita, and the 49 Van Ness. Plan accordingly, Optimus Prime.

The fire started around 4:19 p.m. and spread to some eucalyptus trees, so they stopped train service. The firefighters are in the station putting out the flames, and a bus is being set up to take Fremont-bound folks home.

When we were on the BART at around 5:10 p.m. today, they said full service was expected to resume in about 15-20 minutes, so if those predictions were right, things should be getting back to normal soon.

The envelope, please! Here's your list of the 10 worst commutes in the Bay Area, compiled by the Metropolitan Transit Commission.

1. I-80 W to the Bay Bridge, in the a.m.
2. E-580 from 680 to Dublin in the p.m.
3. 580 around Livermore in the a.m.
4. Marin 101 S from Napa/Sonoma to 580 in the a.m.
5. 101 into San Francisco to the Bay Bridge in the p.m.
6. 92 in Alameda from the San Mateo Bridge to 880, in the p.m.
7. Highway 4 in the p.m.
8. 101 from SF across the Bay Bridge, in the p.m. (why is this different than #5?)
9. Highway 4 in the a.m.
10. (tie) 101 N in Marin, and W 80 across the Bay Bridge into SF.

A few questions: a) Why are certain symmetrical commutes worse either in the morning or the afternoon but not both? b) Why does the evening commute out of SF across the Bay Bridge get three separate entries, when the morning commute into SF gets only one? c) Why isn't 880 on this? and d) You know it's bad when a bridge collapses and the number 1 worst commute actually gets

Your thoughts? What's your least favorite commute?

Picture of the MacArthur Maze repair by John Huseby from the Caltrans DOT Photography Department

Why are all the roads collapsing around here? A newly-installed piece of pavement on came loose at around 5 a.m. this morning, necessitating the closure of three lanes of traffic near Burlingame.

Take 101 to work this morning, Ed Jew! (yes, we know, San Francisco is northbound.)) At its worst, traffic was backed up about 7 miles, all the way to Daly City, but things should be moving normally by now.