Crazy crowds
By Austin Explorer on 1/10/2015
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Distance: 7.12 Miles Duration: 3 hours, 16 minutes
Coppertone and I thought that this day would be a great time to walk the bridge since they were closing traffic to install movable dividers on the bridge to aid traffic throughput. The thought was, with no car traffic it would be quieter and more pleasant.
The problem is that others thought the same thing. A lot of people. Worse, the powers that be closed the opposite walkway, so only one half of the non-car capacity of the bridge was open. That meant the one side that was open was crammed with pedestrians and cyclists vying for space. It detracted from the experience a bit because one had to be on the lookout for distracted tourists or speeding cyclists shooting by in both directions.
With all of those negatives, the experience of walking across the bridge was still breathtaking and worth the trip. Naturally, the farther one got from the end of the bridge the fewer people there were, so things thinned out quite a bit in the middle.
We saw a depiction of the suicide prevention barriers that they are planning to erect in the near future. Thankfully they are installed in such a way that views of the city, bay and ocean will not be hampered.