Thinking of Taking Waymo to Fleet Week? It’s Complicated
In an effort to prevent a repeat of the city’s July Fourth traffic meltdown, city transportation officials have expanded public transit service, restricted autonomous vehicle operations and discouraged spectators from driving to Fleet Week this weekend.
”Just be aware that parking is very tough. If you can take Muni or walk or we have lots of bike sharing,” said Viktoriya Wise, director of streets at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency at a news conference on Friday, pointing to a nearby Lyft bike rack.
Wise said the decision to restrict the robotaxi companies Waymo and Zoox from operating across a large swath of the Marina District, The Embarcadero and the entire Presidio — a practice called “geofencing” — was based on “lessons learned” from this year’s Fourth of July fiasco.
It’s the first time the city has ever geofenced Fleet Week, although the practice is common for other large-scale events, such as the Outside Lands music festival, according to SFMTA.
On the last Fourth of July, thousands of people streamed into the areas around the Golden Gate Bridge to watch a special fireworks show, bringing traffic to a standstill across a large section of the Marina District and surrounding neighborhoods as crowds left en masse.
In the days that followed, city officials said the mess was caused partly by autonomous vehicles that blocked traffic and drivers who illegally used transit-only lanes.
“We have had challenges with autonomous vehicles, and the congestion that they can create sometimes when they brick, for example,” Wise said, referring to when the cars freeze in place. “ We’ve since partnered with them to make sure that we do not have those kind of traffic [disruptions].”
Both Waymo and Zoox said they would comply with the geofence request from the city. The geofence began Friday, Oct. 9 and runs through Sunday, Oct. 11, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Ride-hailing companies like Uber or Lyft are exempt. The increased regulation of autonomous vehicle companies comes as Waymo steadily expands its fleet size in the Bay Area.
A spokesperson for the company told KQED there are over 1,300 Waymo vehicles operating in the region — more than quadruple the number when it expanded access to the public in 2024.
The city expects as many as 3,000 people to crowd the Marina Green alone at any given time — 1,000 more people than last year — according to a Fleet Week medical planning memo that San Francisco Supervisor Stephen Sherrill’s office shared with KQED.
This year’s Fleet Week is likely to be more popular than past years, Sherrill said at a September hearing, partly because the U.S. Navy’s aerobatic team, the Blue Angels, are set to return after last year’s government shutdown canceled them.
The SFMTA is increasing Muni service on routes that serve the city’s eastern and northern waterfront, where it expects people to watch the Blue Angels. Wise said the agency will have parking control officers in “areas where we expect the most crowding.”
“Make sure that you take the time to get to the events or wherever it is you’re going in the city,” she said.