SF Supervisor to Launch Inquiry on Waymo's July Fourth Traffic Meltdown

Social media posts from people who ventured to the northern end of the city to view the fireworks described a “Waymo traffic nightmare,” where dozens of robotaxis blocked traffic, leading to lengthy delays.

Mahmood said due to the backlog of cars in part caused by Waymo, he was forced to walk an hour home from Fisherman’s Wharf, as public transit and rideshare were rendered useless.

“It was clear that they were compounding an already congested traffic situation and weren’t moving themselves,” Mahmood said.

Waymo declined to provide specific numbers on how many of its vehicles experienced issues or needed to be manually moved by staff on the night of the Fourth, but said some vehicles were caught in gridlock in select streets in the Presidio.

The company said that while many vehicles were able to navigate away when congestion cleared, others ran out of charge while idling and required a tow.

“On July Fourth, extreme traffic congestion in northern San Francisco disrupted normal operations for several Waymo vehicles. In coordination with local authorities and emergency services, our roadside assistance team worked quickly to clear our vehicles from the area,” Waymo spokesperson Chris Bonelli said.

The action comes as city leaders attempt to identify how the traffic jam turned the aftermath of the national holiday into an hours-long slog for spectators trying to return to their homes.

“Making my way home from Aquatic Park I think had to be my worst public transportation experience of my life,” said Stella Lochman, a 41-year-old San Francisco resident and self-described experienced Muni rider.

Lochman said around 11 p.m. on the Fourth of July, after waiting for the crowds to die down, she decided to take the 49 Van Ness/Mission bus home. She recalls waiting 35 minutes for the bus to come to a stop near Fort Mason, and when she was finally able to board the bus, she popped in an audiobook and settled in for the ride.

When she looked up 45 minutes later, she realized the bus had traveled less than one block. Lochman described a scene where drivers flouted traffic laws, contributing to delays for public transit.

“There was no one to control the traffic, so you had to be sneaky. And then the sneaky people were causing more traffic,” Lochman said.

Lochman said the entire bus was forced to deboard a few blocks later after a car sideswiped it. She then walked several blocks and caught a special Muni shuttle to Powell Street station.

By then it was 1:45 a.m., so she decided to ride bikeshare home, even though one of her arms is in a sling due to a broken shoulder.

In total, she said the three-mile journey from Aquatic Park to her home in the Mission District took three hours. She said a friend who drove home to Pinole got home faster than her.

“If you can get to Pinole faster than you can get to 16th and Mission, what is that teaching folks?” Lochman said.

On Monday, leaders of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni, apologized for the delays and said they would study what could have been done better to ensure the city can deliver on special events in the future.

“ We did everything we could to move as many people as possible and made adjustments in the field to our transit operations to pull additional service in to get people home as quickly as we possibly could,” said Viktoriya Wise, director of SFMTA’s streets division.

But Wise said the location of the event, at the far north-western corner of the city, was in a constrained area where transit is not as robust as places like downtown San Francisco or Pier 39. That made it a “very high mountain to climb,” according to Wise.

“Our transportation system simply could not handle the volume of people that arrived in San Francisco on Saturday,” Wise said.

Ahead of the event, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie encouraged people to take public transportation, walk, bike, or use ride-hailing services to see the fireworks, and he warned of delays getting out of the area and the city.

“We understand that with more than 100,000 people in the area, some people experienced delays getting home, and we will have conversations with our public and private partners to ensure the experience is smoother next time,” Lutvak said.

Mahmood is requesting city departments respond to his letter of inquiry within two weeks.

“It’s not acceptable that disruption of service, first responders and our public transit system is a side effect of autonomous vehicles on the road,” Mahmood said. “They have to be able to function within our existing transit infrastructure, and we still don’t have a large event protocol that clearly is working, and that’s something that I expect.”