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Traffic chaos as Thanksgiving San Francisco exodus begins

A bridge is seen from above.
Cars drive on the western span of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco toward the East Bay on Aug. 14. | Source: Jeremy Chen/The Standard

Traffic jams appeared around the Bay Area Tuesday afternoon as drivers tried to escape San Francisco for Thanksgiving.

Caltrans highway cameras show heavy traffic on San Francisco highways, including Highway 101 South leading out of the city.

Traffic has already begun queuing on the approach to the Bay Bridge near the Central Freeway in San Francisco around 2 p.m. 

Traffic queues up onto a bridge.
There was heavy traffic eastbound heading onto the Bay Bridge Tuesday afternoon. | Source: Caltrans

In the East Bay, drivers heading both directions on Interstate 580 past Emeryville are seeing heavy traffic, with the worst traffic at the Interstate 80/I-580 interchange and where Interstate 880 meets I-580.

Traffic is heavy along State Route 24 eastbound between Temescal in Oakland almost all the way to Walnut Creek. Traffic is also heavy along I-580 eastbound between Castro Valley and Dublin.

Traffic appears heavy west of Yerba Buena Island but is flowing freely across the main spans of the Bay Bridge in both directions otherwise, according to Caltrans traffic cameras.

Heavy traffic streams on a highway.
Heavy northbound traffic streams past Emeryville along Interstate 580 Tuesday. | Source: Caltrans

Also in the East Bay, there is heavy traffic on Interstate 680 eastbound between the Mission Boulevard overpass in Fremont and where the highway meets Route 84 near Calaveras Road east of Sunol.

The Dumbarton and Benicia-Martinez bridges also have freely flowing traffic with no backups as of 4 p.m.

The Golden Gate Bridge is free of slowdowns, but some traffic is building on the northbound lanes leading onto the bridge at Lincoln Boulevard.

There was heavy traffic eastbound heading onto the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge as of 4 p.m. Tuesday, with moderate traffic continuing across eastbound.

Cars drive on a bridge.
Traffic along the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge is freely flowing after an initial backup on eastbound lanes leading onto the bridge. | Source: Caltrans

In the North Bay, a motorcycle crash just past Sir Francis Drake has the right lane blocked with traffic creeping all the way down from San Rafael to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Near the South Bay, Highway 1 eastbound past Santa Cruz is also showing heavy traffic as of 4 p.m., and Interstate 880 is seeing heavy traffic in both directions between San Lorenzo and Warm Springs.

For those traveling to Southern California for Thanksgiving, Highway 101 from Bernal Heights in San Francisco remains flowing most of the way down to Los Angeles, with some backups between Los Paseos and San Martin. Interstate 5 remains free of traffic jams as of 4 p.m. Inside Los Angeles, traffic appears heavy on most highways.

Heading toward Sacramento, I-80 eastbound traffic is heavy passing through Davis and I-5 traffic is heavy eastbound past Conway.

This is a developing story.