"It took nearly three years to open the Bay Bridge’s bike path on the eastern span. Until early 2017, impatient cyclists and pedestrians could only travel from Oakland to a spot short of Treasure Island while the old bridge was being demolished. And they’ll have to continue waiting to ride a bike, or walk, to San Francisco.

After years of studying how a bike path across the western span of the bridge would work, planners and engineers finally came up with a design and unveiled it in November. The cost has been whittled down to about $300 million after earlier estimates of $1 billion."

OK - let's see here. $300,000,000 vs $1,000,000,000 is an obvious bargain. So if 500 people decide to ride their bike for 44 minutes vs drive (or bus) across 7 miles of bridge, that would be 3,000 riders per week or 150,000 a year (I know I only counted 6 days and 50 weeks, but I doubt too many on a weekend would really want to ride when it is raining, foggy or windy). Assuming the bike path has an economical life of 50 years, that would be 7.5 million riders. So that would be a cost of only $40 per rider - but do bicyclists pay a toll or license? They don't pay gas taxes. And this doesn't include financing, maintenance or upgrades, and the $300 million doesn't include what they already paid for bike lanes on the east span. So assuming that was at least another $300 million, that brings the cost per trip to $80 per rider - round up to $100 for finance/bond costs. And double for maintenance costs to $200 per rider. And if only 250 ride per day that would be $400 per rider?

So why is California going broke? Can't wait to extend their "business" plan to the entire nation ...


I just read the article linked to the project: "Planners estimate that 10,000 cyclists and pedestrians will traverse the bikeway each day, matching the number of cars crossing the bridge during a peak hour." Is that a realistic estimate? They show 2.5 hours to walk across, so I really don't see that as a commuting option, not really sure too many would walk the entire distance just for fun.