RICHMOND — As Bay Area cyclists plan to participate in Bike to Wherever Day, frustrated commuters gathered Wednesday at the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to implore officials to remove a bike lane during much of the workweek in a move they say would help alleviate traffic.

Since 2019, a multimodal pathway pilot program on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge has acted as a four-mile connection for cyclists between Contra Costa and Marin counties 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Before installing the pathway, the third lane of the bridge had been a breakdown lane since the 1970s.

The pilot program has been lauded by some, including bicycle advocates, environmental groups and the Berkeley, Richmond and Albany councils who passed resolutions in support of the pathway last November.

But others have argued the bike path is underused and worsens traffic troubles for auto commuters, especially when accidents occur on the bridge during peak travel hours. Business leaders, elected officials and union workers gathered near the westbound toll booths Wednesday morning to reiterate their struggles and demand the breakdown lane return, at least partially.

“We cannot put the recreation and pleasure needs of a small few over the transportation and commute needs of those utilizing this bridge for work every day,” said Lauren Goode, a Richmond resident and a policy associate for the Bay Area Council, a business advocacy group.

More than a year ago, cycling advocates were bracing the breakdown lane to return.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission had planned to ask the Bay Conservation and Development Commission for permission to reopen the pathway as a shoulder for drivers or emergency vehicles to use during collisions or other issues that could stall traffic on Mondays through Thursdays. The lane would reopen to cyclists and pedestrians over the weekends and a free bike shuttle service would be available when the pathway is closed, according to an application summary.

A vote on that request by the Bay Conservation Development Commission was scheduled for April 3 but was postponed after the California Department of Transportation asked for more time to amend the application. Applicants now have until 30 days before July 12 to reactivate the permit amendment application before it is withdrawn permanently, according to a March 26 letter from the California Department of Transportation to the commission.

Those who support reopening the lane as a breakdown lane said the issue is an urgent quality-of-life matter.

Theresa Foglio-Ramirez, a daily commuter and member of Laborer’s International Union of North America Local 261 which represents construction workers in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties, said she leaves her home by 5:20 a.m. every day to avoid major delays because leaving just 10 minutes late can add 30 to 45 minutes to her drive.

“It’s horrifying,” Roglio-Ramirez said. “It takes away hours from my life. With the amount of time I’ve spent commuting, I could have earned another degree.”

A 2024 study by California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology and commissioned by the Department of Transportation found that 7% fewer cars are traveling across the bridge toward Marin County per hour and that peak hour traveling times can vary given that stalled vehicles can’t exit travel lanes.

But the report also asserts that those traffic changes haven’t significantly increased congestion on the bridge compared to 2015 and 2018 levels. Drivers are also slowing down, reducing emissions, and while collisions during peak weekday morning hours have increased by 40% on the bridge, collisions have decreased overall by 19%, the report found.

Meanwhile, about 90 people in the winter and 132 in the summer use the bike path during weekdays. Those figures jump to between 258 and 465 on weekends, the study found. Between seven and 15 pedestrians cross the bridge daily depending on the weather, according to the study.

Rather than pushing to close the path, Robert Prinz, advocacy director with the nonprofit Bike East Bay, said the issue should be focused on improving mobility for everyone, regardless of how they choose to commute.

He called on Marin County officials to invest more into infrastructure and lauded Richmond leadership for already doing so with projects like bike lanes from the BART station, Richmond Greenway and Bay Trail.

And other projects meant to improve vehicle travel, like the removal of toll booths on the bridge slated to begin this month, should move forward before the path is discarded, Prinz said.

“It’s about how people move and how they can get things done that they need to get done in the day,” Prinz said. “The question is how do we unlock it. We do that not by removing facilities. It’s by providing more opportunities.”