Ever wonder what all your highway tolls are used for? Well, if a bill proposed by California State Senator Loni Hancock (D-Oakland) goes through, some of them might go towards a bike path on the Bay Bridge’s new West Span. Marc Caswell, the program manager for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, says that bike advocates have worked with Hancock on the bill, which has a good chance of passing.
According to the bill, “
Existing law provides that the [transportation] authority may increase the toll rates to provide funds for various purposes, including the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, repair, replacement, rehabilitation, and seismic retrofit of these bridges. This bill would include, among the projects that may be funded from state-owned toll bridge revenues, a major project on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge consisting of a bicycle-pedestrian-maintenance pathway linking the pathway on the replacement eastern span with San Francisco.”
So the bike path would essentially be just another part of the Bay Bridge‘s much-needed rehabilitation–albeit one that could make the bridge accessible to the one-third of San Franciscans that don’t own a car.
+SB 1061 Senate Bill
Via Streetsblog SF
