There’s a political mystery regarding the infamous bike and pedestrian lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge’s upper deck.

Caltrans reports that at last count only 140 cyclists cross the windy span each weekday. They occupy one of the bridge’s three lanes. The other two upper-deck westbound lanes are traversed on weekdays by 40,000 cars, trucks and buses in each direction.

Except for a handful of cycling advocates, there’s universal ridicule of the bike lane from the North Bay public and transbay commuters. There is opposition from both businesses and labor unions whose East Bay employees and members endure an unnecessarily long westbound commute to work or school on weekday mornings. There is also outcry from the Bay Area Council, the representative of our region’s largest employers.

Given that seemingly substantial political clout, the mystery is why are Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission refusing to act to remedy the mess? So far, the political system is failing. It’s another example of why many voters are disillusioned with elected and appointed officials.

The solution is obvious. On weekdays, shift the movable traffic barriers now separating bikes from autos to the side, as designed. Then, deploy the old bike lane for carpools and buses. On weekends, move the barrier to allow use by recreational cyclists and the occasional pedestrian. It’s a compromise which is the only route toward permanent progress.

Today, public transit on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge is minimal. That’s because there’s no advantage to commuting on buses that are stuck in the same traffic gridlock as autos.

Caltrans contends it’s not that simple. They claim it’ll cost almost $100 million to move the lanes on Interstate 580 on the San Rafael side of the bridge to be compatible with a new high occupancy vehicle lane. Caltrans usually has multimillion dollar excuses to explain why it doesn’t want to do something.

Many recall that the bridge was constructed with three traffic lanes on both eastbound and westbound decks. I’ve just filed a California Public Records Act request with Caltrans to produce the as-built drawings when the span was opened in 1956 to view the highway’s original layout to and from the bridge. We’ll learn if their excuse holds water.

Amazingly, 580 was then designed to handle three lanes in each direction from Highway 101 in San Rafael to its junction with Interstate 80 in the East Bay.

It’s undeniable that the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge’s bikeway is a fiasco. Why don’t MTC and Caltrans correct this obvious mistake? I think the answer is arrogance.

At MTC, the anti-car mindset held by some planners is partially behind the dilemma. There’s the pipedream that if driving is made difficult, commuters will give up their cars. Then what? Walk, bike, swim or take the twice-an hour Golden Gate Transit Route 580?

The only way to convince MTC to act is to threaten state funding. The obvious pressure point is the Assembly’s Appropriations Committee that controls funding for both MTC and Caltrans.

Amazingly, the committee’s chair is Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. The Democrat represents Richmond and Contra Costa County where most of the commuters trapped in the morning traffic caused by the bridge live and vote.

So far, she and other elected East Bay officials have distanced themselves from the bikeway controversy.

It’s time for Marin public and private sector employers and their employees’ unions to urge their employees and members to pressure Wicks and other East Bay legislators to act. She can tell Caltrans and MTC that they need to resolve the bikeway dilemma now. Wicks should promise that, If they continue to delay, the Appropriations Committee will take a red pencil to their next budget request.

Wicks needs to hear from her constituents. Then she needs to get in gear and collaborate with her legislative colleagues to demonstrate that California’s elected representatives can get things done.