There’s no bike lane on the western span of the Bay Bridge, so a few hundred bicyclists took that matter into their own hands and made the entire eastbound deck a bike lane Sunday, clogging traffic for about a half-hour.
We are guessing that it is not a coincidence that on Sunday, which was August 6, a few hundred bicyclists took over the Bay Bridge according to SFGate, and they just happened to do the same thing on August 6 of last year. KTVU describes the bike riders as “young bicyclists,” and social media posts from the bridge takeover indicate the crowd skewed younger than a Critical Mass ride.
I’m not sure if the above type of Instagram post is the kind of post where you’d want to publicly respond “We’ll be there!!!,” but some people did. This one seemed organized by an anonymous Instagram account called bayareatakeover2023 and has been promoting Sunday’s ride for nearly three months.
happy sunday fuck cars pic.twitter.com/HlbKkrmubB
— Safe Street Rebel (@SafeStreetRebel) August 6, 2023
According to SF Standard, the cyclists disrupted traffic on the western span of the bridge “for nearly a half an hour.”
Hundreds of bikers took over the Bay Bridge today 💨 pic.twitter.com/XgQlezoAuC
— BAY AREA STATE OF MIND (@YayAreaNews) August 7, 2023
California Highway Patrol confirmed that the incident took place, and there were apparently no arrests.
Bicyclists took over the eastbound lanes of the Bay Bridge Sunday 🚲@CHPSanFrancisco @CHPoakland @KPIXtv pic.twitter.com/XsC99uZGJt
— Betty Yu (@bett_yu) August 7, 2023
These rogue cyclists may have glommed on to August 6 as their annual day to pull this stunt, but similar bike takeovers have happened on the Bay Bridge in January 2021 and January 2023.
Image: bayareatakeover2023 via Instagram