100 Cars Blocked the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for an Illegal Sideshow Over the Weekend

Please don’t do donuts here.Photo: Dllu / Wikimedia Commons

Early Saturday morning, approximately 100 cars blocked the eastbound lanes of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in California. It wasn’t due to a crash or construction: Drivers were blocking traffic to burn rubber and do donuts across the eastbound lanes of the bridge. As the State of California attempts to crack down on these so-called sideshows, this incident on the Bay Bridge is the latest in a steady trend of high-profile events of reckless and irresponsible driving.

According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the eastbound half of the Bay Bridge was blocked near the main tower east of Treasure Island at around 1 a.m. on Saturday, December 3rd. The San Francisco Standard reports that less than 20 minutes later, before law enforcement could even arrive on the scene, the bridge was clear.

Videos of the sideshow that were on Instagram aren’t unusual at this point. Several cars were seen drifting recklessly around the roadway. However, the location was certainly unique: The Bay Bridge is a vital crossing that about 22 million vehicles traverse every year. The caption of an Instagram post implied that the Bay Bridge’s lower deck was also illegally blocked off.

Sideshows are becoming an increasing problem for California. In July of this year, Los Angeles authorities had to shut down a brand-new, half-a-billion-dollar bridge due to constant disruptions from street racers and sideshows. There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for California’s chaos. In September, California governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2000 into law. When the law comes into effect in 2025, courts will be able to suspend a driver’s license for six months if they’re found to have participated in sideshows or street racing in parking lots.