While thousands marched for No Kings on Saturday, 85 young cyclists attempted to seize the Bay Bridge. California Highway Patrol intercepted the takeover at the Harrison Street off-ramp, where the group was riding into oncoming traffic. Nearly all of the cyclists involved are juveniles—the youngest is nine years old. Pinching shut the vital artery of the Bay Bridge is often done for political reasons. After all, disruption is central to effective civil disobedience.
No Kings could’ve justified disruptions had it caused any, but Saturday’s rideout left many scratching their heads, asking, Why?
When the Bay Bridge becomes a megaphone
Even Red Bull had better manners when they shut down the Bay Bridge. They halted traffic for 15 minutes twice one mid-August Saturday while skydiving athlete Sean MacCormac performed his stunts. When protesters blocked the Bay Bridge in 2023, it was a call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. CHP did not identify the protest as peaceful or civil disobedience, though it’s a textbook definition of the latter. “I would not call this a peaceful protest, when you stop tens of thousands of people,” a CHP officer said. Police detained, cited, then released around eighty demonstrators on the bridge that day. The Bay Bridge is quite the stage for spectacle. If you want to broadcast a political statement to the media, halting the lifeline between Oakland and San Francisco is one way to do it.
But what statement were the 80 cyclists cited and released last Saturday trying to make?
Whatever their point, they wouldn’t have made it very far to prove it.
Had the teenage cyclists made it onto the bridge, they would have ridden straight into oncoming traffic. What ride for cyclist safety advocacy does that? Creative commons image.
Last weekend’s failed rideout may be construed as advocacy for bike lanes on the Bay Bridge. It wouldn’t be the first time cyclists have taken over this bridge, demanding rights to space on the span. A 1998 protest had “cars backed up past the toll plaza and onto the Eastshore, MacArthur and Nimitz freeways.” (SFGATE) But those riders had the sense to bike with traffic. The 85 riders detained and cited last Saturday were heading the wrong way up the off-ramp, against traffic. That’s why I doubt this rideout was for advocacy—what sane cyclist protesting for biker safety would knowingly ride into oncoming cars?
Say you’re exiting the Bridge after taking in that sweeping cinematic view of downtown San Francisco. The ramp is a U-bend, meaning you can’t see what lies ahead. On the ramp where CHP stopped the group, drivers are still decelerating from freeway speeds. It takes an estimated 298 feet for a car traveling 50 MPH to brake. Between spotting an obstacle or person in the road and slamming on your brakes, 73 feet have already passed. Then it’s another 125 feet of rubber-smoking momentum before you come to a full stop. The only thing you can do amid all that tire screeching is hope whatever’s in your way jumps clear.
Putting one’s life on the line to protest political injustice is noble and admirable, and often illegal. Unfortunately for last weekend’s daredevils, the formula doesn’t work backwards. Thankfully, no one was struck or injured in the attempted takeover, because fate and the CHP intervened just in time. The rideout could’ve easily ended in tragedy, trauma, white tarps on pavement.
If you’ve witnessed it, you already know, and I’m sorry. Now, it likely doesn’t shock you how little I trust the cops. I would never put myself in their boots, nor ask that you do the same. However, I imagine that the amount of death they encounter routinely, and aren’t responsible for, eats up the soul. If they did react harshly to these teenagers’ reckless behavior, that’s probably why.
In April 2024, protesters shut down another landmark Bay Area bridge, the Golden Gate. Similar to 2023’s protest, demonstrators disrupted traffic on the San Francisco icon demanding peace in Gaza. 26 organizers shut down traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge for hours on April 15. Their subsequent catch-and-release echoed 2023’s outcome, but this time, Defense Attorney Brooke Jenkins wanted blood. She pursued criminal charges for all 26 protesters, dogpiling San Francisco’s already-overwhelmed caseload. Later that year, Judge Brendan P. Conroy dismissed 32 of the 44 charges against 26 Bay Area activists.
That was them. This is teenagers, with no reported political motive, creating trouble and the potential for death and serious injury. Kids, if you’re going to shut down an arterial freeway, do it for a damn good, worthwhile reason. Last weekend’s crusaders will have a tough time explaining themselves to a judge.
