When a Bay Bridge bike path was first proposed by bike advocates, there were many who laughed it off. Countless news articles, like this one, describing the path as an expensive luxury few would use:
Plans now call for a 15-foot-wide bike/pedestrian lane to be part of the new Bay Bridge section that will cover the 2.1 miles between Oakland and Yerba Buena Island. The cost will be $50 million, and while no one knows how many cyclists will use it, none of them will be commuting to San Francisco because the bike lane will end mid-Bay.
Bicycle commuters: the few, the proud, the expensive.
Well, now the path has been built and we know the answer:
The new Bay Bridge is seeing a new kind of traffic jam: bikes, roller skates, strollers, dogs, scooters and a whole lot of gawkers.
Thousands have been flocking to the span’s bicycle/pedestrian path, which has become one of the Bay Area’s hottest attractions since it opened Sept. 3. Crowds are so thick that the two entrances are experiencing a sort of two-wheeled gridlock that almost requires its own FasTrak lanes.
The path doesn’t even reach Treasure Island yet. And just wait until it reaches all the way across the Bay…
Systemic Failure 
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