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Bay Bridge Commute

Yeah, I like the far right carpool lane the best (the bus lanes). I hafta fight over to the left though as I get off on the first l/s exit in SF.
 
Jenn said:
Last night - the moon was AMAZING - I had great views from the Bryant on-ramp all the way across the bridge to Mills for my swim - nice view over the Mormon temple til it disappeared below the East Bay Hills.

This morning, I got through the toll plaza at 9:21 toll plaza sign time - and there was a CHP on motorcycle lanesplitting at speeds exceeding 70 mph, zig zagging around in traffic from one side to the other. WTF was that about?

I stayed behind him and after the tunnel, he pulled up alongside some motorcyclist on a red Honda Hawk GT NT650 and was talking to him, riding side by side - and then pulled off and did some other loop-de-loop maneuvers at high speed. Left me scratching my head.
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I think I went through right before you. There was a CHP car zigzagging to slow down traffic—I was wondering the same thing—"What the hell?"—but it turns out they were simply creating open space to allow a few trucks with what looked like pieces of the old bridge to pull in from the right, just before the tunnel (on the way in to SF). Maybe something to do this?
 
Jenn said:
...Got on 24, passed a guy on a BMW with a yellow helmet in the 24/580/80 merge mess... then felt something - reached back - bag seemed closed. Guy with yellow helmet caught up to me in the left hand carpool lane making hand gestures.
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:laughing I was wondering who that was. Guy in yellow helmet was me.
 
Jenn said:
Say - you didn't happen to see where my shirt went, did ya?
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Maybe right at the beginning of the carpool lane? I was trying to get your attention for a bit, and you were probably confused, since I don't know universal "Hey! Your backpack is open!" sign. :laughing

RightCoastBias said:
My money was on you, Surj.
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Yeah. It's funny how much I see people I know on my commute, especially you.
 
Jenn said:
I looked - twice. :(
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Yeah, I saw that you stopped after the second look. I guess the patting my back, waving towards the sky made sense? :laughing
 
Jenn said:
LOL - no - I meant I looked on the roadside twice for the shirt. Stupid thing actually only cost $8.83 on clearance at REI... grrr. I can't believe how much time it took to go back and look - it just seemed like it SHOULD have been right on the side of the road, right?
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:laughing Yeah... no wind or anything down there. At least it wasn't your favorite shirt, given to you by the Easter Bunny himself or something. Was it?
 
Coming from Berkeley to/through the Caldecott around 6:00-6:30 lately, I agree. Seems lighter lately. I thought it was vacation related, and then I just stopped thinking about it.

(not exactly BB-commute material, but you already read it, so you can't have your money back)
 
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Jenn said:
HA! You're a wise guy, huh?

A propos your first comment, however:

a) I love the 4th bore and I want to marry it. It's almost as good as the Devil's Slide tunnel!

I have noticed that on the West-bound direction, most people seem to aim for the 4th bore, leaving the 3rd bore practically empty!

b) Why hasn't the addition of the 4th bore reduced the traffic backup in the East-bound direction?
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I've noticed the empty third bore too. Kinda cool, although I too dig the fourth bore. I'm guessing the eastbound traffic is still whacked because of the traffic from various sources coming together on the approach and folks freaking out about choosing between tunnels. :dunno

Old school Bay Area metal fan nerd moment: every time I see the "Fourth Bore" sign, Death Angel's "3rd Floor" from 1988's "Frolic Through the Park" pops into my head, with the lyrics changed to "Welcome to the fourth bore!" \m/ \m/

[youtube]nCL-Hsytk3s[/youtube]
 
pshelton said:
I commute on the BB every day. A lot of other posts talk about the left lane being for going really fast or passing only.
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Before the 6 billion dollar thing was put up, I found the far left lane was good for a couple of reasons;
Less headwind
If you broke down, you could park up against the curb and wave frantically, and if you were lucky there might even be a call box nearby. But that was in the 70's and I rode bikes that always chose to break down on the west bound ramp. (Brits....)

now that they have actual shoulders where you can stop without getting creamed, maybe I will get me an old Brit and see how many times I can cross without stalling....or maybe not.
 
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Jenn said:
b) Why hasn't the addition of the 4th bore reduced the traffic backup in the East-bound direction?
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The commute direction always had two bores available so in effect, the additional bore did nothing to alleviate the congestion of the commute direction, but it did alleviate congestion in the reverse commute direction.
 
The mile or so on 24E before the tunnels sucks now though, there is no shoulder so it's very tight. Its been too narrow between cars to safely split so I've been crawling along with traffic until after the tunnel.
 
Toast said:
The mile or so on 24E before the tunnels sucks now though, there is no shoulder so it's very tight. Its been too narrow between cars to safely split so I've been crawling along with traffic until after the tunnel.
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Yeah, this does suck. I hope they finish up whatever they're doing soon. Wait - what are they doing?
 
Also this happened. I saved the clip as an explanation for my non-rider friends as to why I actually look forward to my commute over the bridge every day.

[youtube]nD0DxyWrHFM[/youtube]
 
U26A1 said:
Also this happened. I saved the clip as an explanation for my non-rider friends as to why I actually look forward to my commute over the bridge every day.

[youtube]nD0DxyWrHFM[/youtube]
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That is awesome. Reading this thread has made me wonder how many Barfers I see a day either when I am riding or caging across the BB.
 
Surprised that no one has posted in this thread in a while—seemed like the BB commute was a hot topic for a while.

Anyway, since I see some of you BB riders quite frequently, thought I'd cross post this idea Revnort and I had—Bay Bridge Breakfast Barfing. Basically, stop off on Treasure Island on your way in or out of the city in the morning. Giving it a shot for the first time this Friday!
 
Surj said:
Surprised that no one has posted in this thread in a while—seemed like the BB commute was a hot topic for a while.
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I think my stalking curiosity of who I am passing or getting passed by, scared everyone off. hahaha :rofl
 
I bet this morning was a hoot on the upper deck. I am lower deck in the morning so the wind wasn't quite as bad.
 
Mr Pepsi said:
I bet this morning was a hoot on the upper deck. I am lower deck in the morning so the wind wasn't quite as bad.
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Actually, when I was going across, at about 9, it wasn't bad at all. I was kind of shocked....As soon as I got off of the bridge though, is another story completely
 
SirSkankin DBA said:
Actually, when I was going across, at about 9, it wasn't bad at all. I was kind of shocked....As soon as I got off of the bridge though, is another story completely
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Me too—not as bad as expected. I was over on 880 this morning, though (usually take 580) and seemed pretty windy there.
 
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