July 4th Events And Traffic Tips

Happy Fourth of July! KCBS Radio traffic reporter Bob Pryor has put together another comprehensive Major Timesaver guide to family-oriented events and handy-dandy traffic traffic tips for getting around the Bay Area. 

Thu, July 4 starting at 10am: San Jose’s ‘Rose, White and Blue Parade’ takes place in the Rose Garden and Shasta/Hanchett neighborhoods. The parade should be over by noon. It will be followed (from 12:30-3:00pm) by picnicking and a festival on The Alameda between Hanchett Avenue and Shasta Avenue. Organizers say they expect 30,000 parade spectators.

• Pro tip: VTA will re-route Lines 21, 61, 62, and 522.Any of those lines will get you to the parade area.

• Areas and roadways affected: In San Jose’s Rose Garden/Shasta/Hanchett neighborhood, complete list of street closures and times is here.

Thu, Jul 4 from 5pm-10:30pm: At San Jose’s Discovery Meadow: Independence Day show and fireworks. Entertainment will run from 5:00pm to 9:45pm, followed at approximately 10:00pm by the fireworks spectacular.

• Pro tip: VTA’s Convention Center light rail station is about a 7-minute walk from Discovery Meadow and the 902/Mt. View light rail line will get you from Diridon to the Convention Center in about 6 minutes. Since this is the Downtown area, there are also several garages available for paid parking -- but heavy traffic and street closures will make driving a challenge.

• Areas and roadways affected: In Downtown San Jose, from 6pm to 11pm, several streets (and a couple of Hwy-87 off-ramps) near the Hwy-87/I-280 interchange will be closed. Full listing of closures is here.

EAST BAY:

Thu, Jul 4 from noon-10pm: 4th of July at the Berkeley Marina. Fireworks are at 9:30pm. Prior to that, there’ll be a full afternoon and evening of live music and other performances, along with an Adventure Playground for the kids, faire food stalls, gourmet food trucks, etc. Event is alcohol-free and admission-free.

• Pro tip: Up until about 6pm, you can take AC Transit #51B from the Ashby BART station into the marina until the road closes to make room for pedestrians. To leave on AC Transit after the fireworks, simply walk out over the freeway overpass to University Ave and 5th Street. 

• Areas and roadways affected: Parking in the paid Marina lots south of the Doubletree Hotel is likely to be very crowded, despite the $20 cost.

Sat, July 6 and Sun, July 7 from Noon-10pm: Oakland's Burger Boogaloo, hosted by John Waters, takes place at Mosswood Park on Broadway at West MacArthur Blvd. Headliners acts include The Jesus and Mary Chain, Scientists, Dead Boys, and Shannon and the Clams.

• Pro tip: It’s about a 12-minute walk from the MacArthur BART Station to Mosswood Park, or about the same time it would take you if you were to hop off BART at MacArthur and take AC Transit’s No. 57 bus to the same destination. AC Transit’s Line 51A will also bring you within about a 3-minute walk of Mosswood.

• Areas and roadways affected: Most of the increased traffic on Broadway and MacArthur is likely to happen before the noon start or after the 10pm end of the shows. 

PENINSULA:

Thu, Jul 4 from Noon-3pm: Half Moon Bay hosts the 49th Annual Ol’ Fashioned Fourth of July Parade on Main Street between Filbert and Mill Streets. Adding to the festivities this year are several new additions including the Red, White and Blue Community BBQ in the City Hall parking lot from 12pm to 3pm, a libations tent selling wine, beer and mimosas and live music 

• Pro tip: Best advice is that if you want on-street parking close to the parade route, you should probably get there well before the noon start time.

• Areas and roadways affected:  There will be a lot of people angling for good parking spots near Main Street and possible extra traffic on Hwy-1 and Hwy-92.

SAN FRANCISCO:

From 3pm to 8:30pm, Muni will provide extra service to connect people from the Muni Metro Subway, BART, Ferries and Caltrain to both viewing areas:

• Along Market Street, from Van Ness to the Pier 39 viewing area.
• Along The Embarcadero, from the Caltrain Station to the Pier 39 viewing area.

Return express shuttle service will run from 9:15pm until 11:30pm. Shuttles will board at two locations:

• Kearny and North Point streets for service to the Ferry Building and the Caltrain station
• Van Ness Ave at North Point for service to the Civic Center Muni/BART Station area (Hyde St at Grove St)

Once the crowds disperse, regular Muni service will resume. This can take at least a half hour. To expedite transit flow following the fireworks, southbound traffic on Polk Street between Bay and Union streets will be restricted to buses, taxis and bicycles only from 9pm to 1pm. Northbound traffic on Polk Street will not be affected.

• Pro tip: Expect those northern-waterfront road closures, and if you’re looking for the F-Market streetcar line, keep your eyes peeled for a bus, because that’s what the F-Market will be. Same goes for the E-Embarcadero line after 2pm. The Powell-Hyde, Powell-Mason and California cable car lines will also switch to buses starting at 5pm, 8pm, and 9pm, respectively. Let's hope Karl The Fog leaves the fireworks area in the clear.

• Areas and roadways affected: Entire northern waterfront in San Francisco and freeway routes in and out of the city.

Sat, July 6 and Sun, July 7 from 10am-6pm: In San Francisco’s Fillmore District will be the annual Fillmore Jazz Festival takes place on Fillmore Street between Jackson and Eddy Streets. Billed as “the largest free Jazz festival on the West Coast," it can draw more than 100,000 people. In addition to Fillmore Street bring closed, smaller stretches of Washington, Clay, and O’Farrell Streets will be blocked off, with the closures running from Saturday at 12:01am to 11:59pm on Sunday.

• Pro tip: This page gives full details on the street closures and MUNI re-routes. There are several large parking garages conveniently located in the Fillmore/Japantown area, but, this being San Francisco, reviewers give them wildly varying grades on their prices and their safety/security.

• Areas and roadways affected: With such a long stretch of Fillmore Street shut down, there’s likely to be significant crowding on the parallel streets of Webster, Steiner and Pierce. 

NORTH BAY/SOLANO:

Thu, Jul 4 from 4pm-10pm: At Santa Rosa’s Sonoma County Fairgrounds: ‘Red, White, and Boom’ Independence Day music and fireworks. Gates to Carnival Area Lawn open at 3:30pm, live music starts at 4:00. There’ll be food, kids’ activities, and of course fireworks at about 9:30pm. Access to Brookwood parking lot will be via Bennett Valley Rd. No parking in neighborhoods allowed.

• Areas and roadways affected: Likely congestion on Hwy-12 and Bennett Valley Road as the evening progresses and especially after the fireworks end.

Ongoing daily through Sun, Jul 7 from 11am-11pm: The Marin County Fair takes place at the Marin County Fairgrounds in San Rafael, located adjacent to Lagoon Park. The fair theme of Over the Moon is a nod to the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing: There will be a lunar-related virtual reality experience, art entries that include decorated moons and paper moons, photos of the moon, a space station museum exhibit, etc.

• Pro tip: To encourage people to take transit to the fair, Marin Transit is providing cost-free local transit rides on all their fixed-route and Connect services, county-wide, during the fair’s run; details are here. SMART Train has also added an extra late-night northbound train run to accommodate fair-goers who want to enjoy the fair until closing time; details here. There’s also a very low-cost shuttle that runs from Marin Commons to the fair.