Community Corner

BART Strike Update: No Talks Scheduled, Commuters Prepare For Day Two

Transportation officials urge commuters to use carpools to avoid Monday's traffic nightmare

Are you ready to do that all over again?

There are no new talks scheduled in the BART contract negotiations, so East Bay commuters are gearing up for Day Two of the transit district strike.

Most are probably hoping it will be better than Day One.

By all accounts, driving to San Francisco from the East Bay on Monday morning was a nightmare.

At one point, KCBS Radio was reporting traffic had backed up on Highway 24 to Walnut Creek. The station also reported gridlock on Highway 80 from the MacArthur Maze to the Carquinez Bridge as well as from the Maze to Hesperian Boulevard in San Lorenzo.

Two-hour drives to get into San Francisco were reportedly a common occurrence.

Some commuters did take advantage of other modes of transportation, which are detailed in a BART strike survival guide put together by Patch.

The San Francisco Bay Ferry service experienced three times the normal number of passengers from Oakland and Alameda. At one point, there was a 40-minute wait to board a ferry.

BART also chartered buses to pick up commuters at four stations -- Walnut Creek, East Dublin/Pleasanton, Fremont and El Cerrito del Norte.

BART spokesman Rick Rice said the buses will be available again on Tuesday from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the East Bay and then 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. in San Francisco for the evening commute.

AC Transit put extra buses on the road and doubled the number of passengers on some routes. The agency and its drivers are still in labor talks. Their contract also expired at midnight Sunday, but so far AC Transit workers have not walked off the job.

One alternative mode that wasn't taken advantage of was carpooling. 

Randy Reutschler of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission said there were drivers at a number of East Bay carpool locations who were willing to transport an extra passenger or two, but they couldn't find anybody willing to carpool.

Reutschler noted that on average 92 percent of cars that travel across the Bay Bridge have solo drivers.

"One of the lost assets we have are the empty seats on cars going across the Bay Bridge," he said. "This is a real quantity and it's a real thing that people can do to ease traffic."

Rice said BART is hoping negotiations will start up again soon with the Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555.

"We're certainly ready, willing and able," he said.

Union representatives say they will be releasing a statement Monday evening about the strike.

Talks broke off at 8:30 p.m. Sunday with the two sides far apart on salary, benefits and safety issues.


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