BART Ridership Spiked During Freeway Closure
- BART saw a surge in riders when a major Bay Area freeway was temporarily closed, transit officials say. - Officials reported noticeable weekday increases on affected lines, highlighting BART's role as essential infrastructure. - The surge prompted discussion about transit capacity and contingency planning for future closures (patch.com).
BART picked up tens of thousands of extra riders when San Francisco shut a 1.6-mile stretch of eastbound Interstate 80 for a weekend in April. (bart.gov) On Friday, April 17, BART logged 182,570 paid exits, up 16% from the previous Friday and nearly 25,000 more trips. Saturday hit 139,700 trips and Sunday 98,850, both up 46% week over week. (bart.gov) The freeway closure ran from 11 p.m. Friday, April 17, to a planned 6 a.m. Monday, April 20, on eastbound I-80 between 17th and 4th streets in San Francisco. Caltrans reopened the route at 11:13 p.m. Sunday, about seven hours early. (dot.ca.gov 1) (dot.ca.gov 2) Caltrans urged drivers to use public transportation during the closure, and BART said it absorbed the extra demand while running its standard five-line weekend schedule. The agency said the spike showed how rail service can backfill when a major road link is out. (dot.ca.gov) (bart.gov) The surge landed as BART was already climbing. The agency said April ridership was running about 10% above the same point a year earlier, after March set several post-pandemic highs. (bart.gov 1) (bart.gov 2) In March, BART recorded 5,403,140 exits, its highest monthly ridership since the pandemic, and averaged 200,697 weekday trips. Its busiest day was March 25, with about 227,300 exits. (bart.gov) (bart.gov) Daily figures show the system was already carrying more than 200,000 riders on several weekdays before the I-80 shutdown, including 218,059 trips on Thursday, April 16, and 210,870 on Monday, April 21. BART says those daily counts are preliminary and updated manually on weekdays. (bart.gov) The ridership bump does not erase BART’s budget problem. The agency says remote work and weak downtown office occupancy have left it with a structural deficit of $350 million to $400 million a year. (bart.gov) For one weekend, though, the Bay Area got a live test of what happens when freeway capacity disappears: more people got on trains, and BART had room for them. (bart.gov)
