Golden Gate Bridge madness
 

Just visited the Golden Gate Bridge and the non-car traffic situation is a complete mess. Hoards of pedestrians and bikers trying to squeeze on a narrow strip along the east side of the bridge.
A very unsafe situation that actually led me being shoved hard against the railing result in numerous cut and bruises. I had to go back to the Welcome Center to plunder their first aid kit and later another round from the hotel med kit.

Sorry to hear. It is indeed a tight squeeze with bike and pedestrian traffic. It's much better after 3:30 pm on weekdays and throughout the weekends and holidays when the west sidewalk is open to cyclists.

Pedestrians are well-advised to hew close to the east railing (toward Alcatraz) and keep an eye out for cyclists. Local cyclists like me are rarely a concern if you stay out of the bike lanes. We know the drill. But there are loads of bike renters who are unfamiliar.

It's clear that the bike lanes and the pedestrian areas are completely inadequate, particularly on a rare nice summer day, on the weekend.

A long term solution would be to build - as they are doing expensively and VERY slowly for the Bay Bridge. But, in the short term, it really cannot be difficult, with a combination of signage, surface alterations and enforcement, to keep bicycles to the bicycle lanes and pedestrians to their areas.

Yes, the Bay Bridge bike path has been an agonizingly slow work in progress. Mid-October they now say.

As for the Golden Gate Bridge, I think it would be very helpful to paint green bike lanes like they have on many area streets now. That would help keep the cyclists and the pedestrians where they're supposed to be.

Who is the owner of the Golden Gate Bridge? Is the owner criminally negligent when accidents happen on his/her/its bridge?

Yea, it's a serious problem but I still continue to ride across every other month or so.

My experience on the Brooklyn Bridge was similar, particularly where the street vendors take up quite a bit of space.


My recollection is that the GGB authority/district owns the bridge. Sure, if the accident were caused by owner's negligence (not if your case).