File this under "more evidence that the West Coast doesn't take college football seriously." Here in the South, scores of thousands of car-flagged fans, following orders from game day police, drive on both sides of the road to the game and on both sides of the road going the other way after the game.
Not so in California, where instead of re-routing traffic to make it easier to get to and from the game, they're closing the bridge to the stadium. On opening weekend. For the national game of interest.
Fortunately, Kanu, who writes the Georgia blog Dodgy At Best, is here to help.
I just wanted to write you to let you know that the Bay Bridge, which connects SF to Oakland (and Berkeley), is going to be closed in both directions for the entire Labor Day weekend. I figured you may want to throw some information up as an FYI for any of your readers who might be traveling to the Cal game themselves.
More info on the bridge closure here.
What does this mean for traveling Vol fans? Well it depends. If they are flying into SFO or Oakland and staying in Berkeley or Oakland, they should be fine. If they fly into Oakland then they are already in the "East Bay" and the Bay Bridge will not come into play. If they fly into SFO then they can take the San Mateo bridge over to the East Bay and then go up to Oakland/Berkeley instead of driving up to SF and crossing the Bay Bridge.
If they are staying in San Francisco then they will not be able to drive from SF to Berkeley without doing a crazy circuitous route that will be an hour minimum. They can easily take BART from downtown SF to downtown Berkeley -- it's like $7 round trip and very convenient.
Anyhow, I'm rambling, but just thought I would give you a heads up to try to prevent any travel surprise horror stories next weekend. If you have any other questions/etc. then feel free to write me and let me know and I'll do my best to help.
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It looks like the bridge will be closed from Friday at 8 p.m. to Tuesday at 5 a.m.
. . . BART is very convenient and easy for getting from SF to Berkeley -- the station in Berkeley is right in the middle of downtown, where many good bars and restaurants abound and is about a 10-15 min walk to the stadium. The Telegraph Ave/Bancroft Ave/College Ave area is where many people hangout, and is 1/2 way between the Bart Station and the stadium, so if people pregame there they are only 5-10 min from the stadium.
Thanks for the info, Kanu. And because I do better with pictures: (RSS readers, click through for the groovy Google map.)
Map Game Day has mo' better.
Update [2007-8-21 19:12:28 by Joel]: Reader Doug emails to say that BART is indeed the best option and that they'll be running extra trains that day.