Are you familiar with the Bay Area by chance? The Golden Gate Bridge isn’t the only bridge nor are the hospitals in downtown SF the only accessible options. An ambulance is going to take you to the nearest emergency room that will meet your needs. On the north side of the bridge, there’s the entire Marin Health system. Across 580 you have the Berkeley, Oakland, and Alameda hospital centers. In the rare event that an ambulance is on the bridge prior to being aware there is a protest blocking traffic, odds are the protesters will let the ambulance through.

This round of protests was cleared out pretty quickly anyways. The November protest delayed an organ transplant by a few hours but did not put the patient in a life-threatening scenario per USCF Medical. Anything more urgent in the rare case a diversion isn’t possible and would require some sort of transportation across the bridge would use a helicopter, even during rush hour traffic.

I get your concerns about people’s lives being put in jeopardy are probably very real. Honestly, if I didn’t have experience working with local government and health districts that helped me understand what goes on during a protest blocking a major avenue, I’d likely be just as upset as you. However, dispatchers are trained and ready to work in a variety of tough scenarios, and protests blocking Golden Gate is absolutely one of them. Dispatch finds out about blockages faster than the public does, so guarantee they were already changing routes before the story even broke.