UCSF creates calendar to warn about Chase Center traffic

Chase Center, the new 18,000-plus seat arena on the waterfront that will host not only Golden State Warriors games but all manner of other concerts and public events, will open its doors in September—and then bedlam will break loose on Third Street.

Or not. The city is hoping that recent expansions to the T-Third Street Muni line and benevolence of fate will keep traffic around Chase Center events relatively minimal.

Because optimism is not a crime.

But the administration at nearby UCSF Medical Center—which has anticipated the worst—have created an online calendar specifically to warn visitors about traffic relevant to Chase Center events.

“The ‘transit first’ philosophy shared by Chase Center and UCSF encourages the use of public transportation. And, in partnership with Chase Center and the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency, UCSF is working to minimize traffic congestion,” says UCSF, adding, “However, on the busiest days, we still expect traffic congestion and provide this calendar to help UCSF commuters plan.”

The calendar has two settings: yellow days, which advise to “expect delays,” and red days, which are marked “expect major delays.” Behold:

On yellow days, expect traffic delays at Mission Bay due to Chase Center events with less than 10,000 attendees on a weekday, or any weekend event. All weekend events are yellow, since they do not impact weekday commute times.

Red indicates a day when there is a scheduled concert or event at the Chase Center that is expected to draw more than 10,000 attendees. Red is also used to mark days when there are two events happening with similar start times, one at Chase Center and one at Oracle Park, for example.

Out of the 30 days in September, the hospital warns the public that it expects heavy traffic on ten of those days and some delays on 14 others.

Seven red days and four yellow days are marked for October, and four and two respectively for November. Although those months’ calendars will likely fill up as the arena schedules more events. The 2019-2020 NBA season starts in October.

In July, in an effort to curb traffic, the city and the Warriors announced a “Transit Bundling program,” meaning that “all event tickets [to Chase Center] will serve as Muni tickets” as well. The team is covering the expenses.