The Long Term Follow-up is a New Tunnel Under the Bay For Buses or Trains From the Air Station to South of Market San Francisco
An article covering this idea of Bill’s was published in the SF Chronicle on Feburary 21, 2000
Spring, 1999
By Dr. Bill Wattenburg
An unorthodox plan is offered here that can substantially reduce projected traffic increases on the already overcrowded Bay Bridge. It is a workable southern crossing that can be achieved in a year, not ten years. It is a crossing that reduces auto traffic on the already overcrowded freeways leading to San Francisco and relieves the parking problem in the city. The first phase of this plan can be implemented within six months. It will take several thousand cars a day off the Bay Bridge immediately and tens of thousands within three years.
There will be no new bridges across the bay, no new train system within ten years. Buses and extensive car pooling will be the only way to handle projected increases in commuter traffic for at least the next ten years. But, even these will be stuck in traffic for at least an hour each day as they approach the Bay Bridge.
We need a mass transit system across the bay for buses and car pools, not just for people. Henceforth, “bus” will mean car pool van or bus.
Buses on ferry boats across the bay, not the Bay Bridge, are the only salvation. But where is the parking? Where is the ferry boat terminal? Obviously, where no one looked! The vast open areas and huge hangers at the former Alameda Naval Air Station. How do we use it? Fifty to a hundred-thousand East Bay commuters can easily park at the empty base and on the enormous unused paved runways. It becomes a central (and comfortable) staging area for buses across the bay.
How do we move the buses when the bridges are clogged? The way the smart people do it in the Northwest. Ferry boats for buses, not just people. Caltrans did this when the Bay Bridge was closed.
Where is there a port for the ferry boats in the East Bay? Obviously, the same naval base with abandoned docks just begging to be used for some high purpose.
How do commuters get to the Alameda Naval base? A new, short bypass roadway over the estuary from the Nimitz freeway would drop right onto the boulevards of the naval base. Caltrans can design it in a year. This freeway bridge can be built in a year from the time it is approved, providing local politicians and would-be environmentalists do not obstruct it forever.
In the interim, the Alameda tunnel can handle several thousand cars from the Nimitz right now. This traffic will be going opposite the rush hour direction for commuters from Alameda. It will not go through downtown Alameda because the entrance to the naval base is right at the west end of the tunnel.
Traffic congestion on the Bay Bridge has become intolerable. It will only get worse. A new eastern section of the Bay Bridge will not increase capacity. Legions of transportation planners on the public payroll sing the tired lullaby “use mass transit.” But they know that our present mass transit facilities cannot handle even the projected increase over the next five years.
Commuters will not leave their cars and transfer to buses or trains unless there is something more convenient that delivers them to their destinations in less time. They will not search for nonexistent parking spots in the East Bay, walk to bus stops in the rain, spend about the same amount of time on a crowed bus on the Bay Bridge, and then have to transfer to another bus in the City to reach their destinations.
BART can cram a few more people on the trains, but how do commuters get to the stations? BART parking lots are already full. This leaves buses as the only alternative. But, again, there are no central bus terminals with sufficient parking to serve commuters who must drive from residential areas that are scattered over a thousand square miles. And, at projected traffic levels, more buses loaded with commuters will only stand still with the cars trapped on the Bay Bridge for hours.
The only solution is mass transit for buses, not just for people. We must be able to get people to the buses and get the new buses off the Bay Bridge.
Last week I stood on top of the Berkeley Hills and watched the flow of rush hour traffic toward the Bay Bridge. I wondered where the cars on the East Bay freeways coming in from the south and north could possibly be parked so that commuters could board any form of mass transit that would take them across the Bay Bridge or, better yet, bypass the overcrowded Bridge entirely by some means. One vast open area grabs the eye immediately from this vantage point. It is the former Alameda Naval Air Station. And, it is located at almost the center of gravity for the mass of cars converging on the Bay Bridge. It is a little off to the side, but not far.
Convenient parking is the first requirement. A hundred-thousand cars approaching Oakland from the south could be parked easily on the runways and open spaces of the now abandoned Alameda Naval Air Station. The huge hangers alone could handle thousands right now. This naval base could be used immediately as a staging area which offers convenient and safe parking for transition to buses across the bay.
One ferry boat for buses would allow commuters from Alameda and east Oakland to begin using the naval base immediately. The present Alameda tunnel could handle a thousand cars per day because Nimitz Freeway commuter traffic diverted to the base would be going in the direction opposite the normal rush-hour flow through the tunnel. The west exit of the tunnel is right at the entrance to the base. These cars would never enter the downtown or residential areas of Alameda.
A new, short bypass bridge from the Nimitz Freeway (I-880) to the Alameda base would drop cars right on the boulevards of the base. This would allow tens of thousands a day to divert to the base.
There is no other centralized parking area possible in the East Bay that could handle even 10% of the cars that could be parked at the Alameda Naval Air Station today with very little capital investment required. Some of the huge hangers standing vacant could provide immediate parking for thousands of cars right now. Buses could pick up these commuters in covered areas.
I wandered around within these cavernous hanger buildings during the shooting of the Clint Eastwood movie “True Crime” last year. These hangers are begging to be utilized for some higher purpose that would serve all the citizens of the Bay Area. These sturdy structures are loaded with power and plumbing. However, their greatest asset is their open space that is nicely covered. And no one seems to have considered the best use of this space. Some small businesses are occupying the corner office areas here and there. But few commercial enterprises will ever be able to pay the long-term maintenance costs of keeping these huge buildings in good shape.
First, cafeterias and comfortable waiting areas could be installed in these hangers in a few months’ time. The largest buses can drive in and out and even turn around with no problem at all. A thousand cars can park close to and within each of these hangers right now with no new facilities. Inexpensive covered walkways leading to the hangers can be built in a year or less. This would provide another ten thousands spaces outside.
Many more people will spontaneously carpool if there are safe areas for people to enter cars and the cars do not have to be driven a long distance by unknown drivers. A car pool boarding area next to a ferry terminal satisfies this requirement. Drivers willing to share their car can pick up riders in the parking areas and drive straight to the ferry dock.
The former land fill area at the Berkeley marina could park ten to twenty-thousand cars approaching the Bay Bridge from the north on I-80. However, substantial new construction will be required to use this area. The Oakland Army Base is another large area that could be used.
Copyright © 1999 Dr. Bill Wattenburg
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