I live in Oakland (near Lake Merritt) and work in Marin, so the commute this morning (which is usually never a problem now that the Richmond Bridge work is done) was unaffected, aside from the rubberneckers looking at the damage (and boy, howdy, it was a sight! I don’t blame anyone for doing a double take).
But I’m not looking forward to the commute back, since the destroyed 880 connector is going to syphon all that traffic somewhere along the 80/580 Eastbound corridor (and the frontage roads, too, I’m sure, along Berkeley & Emeryville).
Me? I’m going to get off in El Cerrito, take Solano all the way up 'til it connects to Shattuck, and run along the length of that 'til I hit the 24/580 onramps (beyond the destruction area), which shouldn’t be too bad to take home (though obviously lots of stoplights along the way).
But at least once a week, I go to SF after work (this week, it’s Tue, Wed & Thur), and that is going to be ugly. Yesterday I was in Millbrae around 5 before I heard the extent of the damage (I don’t have a radio in my car), so I took the Dumbarton to the 880, crossed over the 238 to the 580, and got home in an hour (which is actually really good for a weekend). Aside from a mile worth of slowdown near Hayward, it was problem-free, so I’m thinking of doing something similar if I end up in the City in the evening (I’d replace the Dumbarton w/the San Mateo, of course).
Given how horrible the Bay Bridge Eastbound back-up can be under more casual circumstances, the idea of stop-&-going along that route only to have to do additional switchbacks and side detours once I’m across the bridge is too much. I’ll cover the additional distance rather than face that particular hell.
Glad nobody was killed, and maybe CalTrans will be able to get it fixed sooner than any of us expect, but I’m not holding my breath. Yikes.
So how is your day-to-day going to change now?
p.s. I should note that public transit doesn’t go to where I work, so that wouldn’t be an option even if my job didn’t require me to have a car for transporting items regularly, which it does.