BART, Muni, and Safe Streets Advocates Helped ‘No Kings’ Rallies Succeed
Roughly 30,000 people took BART to the “No Kings” rallies in the Bay Area. “Saturday saw 149,582 trips, which is 31,000 more trips than the previous Saturday–a 26 percent difference,” explained BART’s Michelle Robertson. “We anticipated the increase in ridership and ran a majority of 8-car trains on Saturday. We also had extra staffing at stations.”
Streetsblog had hoped to spend some time on both sides of the Bay, but the crowds coming out of Lake Merritt BART, where the No Kings rally started in Oakland, were overwhelming, as seen in the lead image.
Oakland police were out controlling traffic, with help from safe-streets advocates with various organizations. The advocates decided to keep a low profile, but nonetheless helped diffuse situations with impatient drivers and kept everything safe and flowing.
KTVU is reporting that 10,000 people marched in Oakland. Many of those who didn’t get there by transit came by bike, going by the number of bikes in the crowd and attached to basically every bike rack in the city.
Meanwhile, the Chronicle is reporting that some 50,000 people attended the march in San Francisco. Muni told Streetsblog they don’t have ridership numbers yet for Saturday, but they added trains in anticipation of large crowds [Update: 10/21–Preliminary ridership data for Muni Metro rail service indicates approximately 17 percent more rail riders on Saturday 10/18 than on a typical Saturday in September]. Although the main demonstration and march went from Embarcadero Plaza to Civic Center, another demonstration was held at Sunset Dunes, the city’s newest car-free space. Many of the advocates who helped get Sunset Dunes created helped organize the demonstration there.
KTVU’s Betty Yu posted video of the “No Kings, Yes on 50” human banner on Ocean Beach. That image was featured in news outlets around the country:
San Francisco Senator Scott Wiener, also a long-time transit geek and safe streets advocate, posted this on Twitter about it:
BBC and other outlets, meanwhile, are reporting an estimated 7 million people demonstrated nationwide.
Streetsblog will drop in a few more pictures below. Readers should feel free to add more in the comments section.
The post BART, Muni, and Safe Streets Advocates Helped ‘No Kings’ Rallies Succeed appeared first on Streetsblog San Francisco.
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