Update on the Update- 511.org has the 411 on what commute will be like for the next few days-- it's pretty much like on Tuesday except not free. Check it out

Update: the afternoon's commute went smoothly as well, with people reporting that is was even better than it was before. The buses weren't that crowded, the traffic wasn't that bad, and BART ran smoothly.

The bad news is that all this free riding will end tomorrow. Other than that, we don't know yet if there will be any changes from yesterday.

The even worse news is that engineers say it could take anywhere from six weeks to several months to fix all this mess. The main hitch in reconstruction is that there's a shortage in available steel. Turns out there's so much work being done in California right now, there's not a lot of steel left over to handle something like this.

Original post:

And how is the commute going after yesterday's maze meltdown? So far, so good. Reports are that traffic into the maze was light, as probably everyone who commutes over the Bay Bridge, their dogs, and their fish knows what happened. It's still early yet so we'll see what happens tonight and until the overpass gets fixed.

And when will that be? Well, the structure that saw the worst of it, Eastbound Highway 80 to eastbound Highway 580, could be down for months. Eastbound Westbound Highway 80 to southbound Highway 880, however, will be closed until officials determine if they're safe enough. To help out, the Governorator issued an emergency declaration, making it easier to get the thing done.

There's no official game plan yet as to what will happen over the next weeks and months to deal with all of this. It seems that for now, everyone is kind of winging it as most of the plans out there are for today and for the next few days. The free rides, for instance, are just for today and not for the long haul. We'll see what happens in the upcoming weeks and months.

Here's what we know so far:
-BART will run extra trains to take more people. They will also add more trains during commute hours.
-BART parking will be free
-Muni will be running 79 buses during peak commute hours instead of 70
-Instead of one ferry making trips between Alameda, Oakland, and San Fran, there will now be four.
-AC Transit will run as is but they're getting the word out that the usually run at 40% to 50% capacity anyways, so hop on in.
-SFMTA will be monitoring the on-and-off ramps all day to make sure everything goes smoothly and try and control traffic flow
-Everyone is strongly hinting that people should step up and use carpool services.

There are also alternate routes given out in case you want to try and drive it anyways. You can read them here or here.

Photo courtesy of Luke Thomas