To quote Marisa Tomei by way of Mona Lisa Vito, “Imagine you’re a deer…” Only instead of prancing around “Ala—f–king—bama,” the deer in question was trotting across San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge over the weekend, heading north towards Marin and Sausalito… in the car lanes, not the pedestrian path! Luckily for the doe, official bridge & highway patrol shut down traffic on the entire northbound side of the bridge and had a car follow the little lady until she’d safely crossed into the new county. Luckily for us, a commuter stuck in traffic on the southbound side took video of the fawn as she made her way down a runway cleared out for her use. You know what the stalled drivers called the situation? STAGnation! (Nope, not sorry. Not in the least.)
After last year’s toll increase, it now costs just a quarter shy of $10 to cross the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco from Marin. That price, too, will only get higher; a five-year plan approved by the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District (GGBHTD) in 2024 will see at least $0.50 annual increases through 2028.
There remain just two sure-fire ways to cross the Golden Gate Bridge into SF without paying a dime: become a pedestrian or saddle up on a bike or scooter. (Mind you: Only people riding bikes or scooters can use the Golden Gate Bridge’s pedestrian sidewalk after sundown — a longstanding policy implemented to mitigate suicide attempts atop the bridge and other safety concerns.)
But it’s 2026. Anything is possible (for better and worse). This evidently means we can expect wild fauna foregoing human norms and crossing the aforementioned bridge … on the road … putting one hoof in front of the other.
“Bit of a reverse commute eh,” reads the caption for an Instagram post published by [at]juliansnellgrove, showing a video of a deer crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. The doe, which was trailed by a GGBHTD vehicle that created a safe, traffic-free passage as it trotted into Marin, is filmed looking visibly distressed as it crosses the 1.7-mile-long suspension bridge.
The video of the wayward deer has been liked tens of thousands of times across Instagram and hundreds of comments across social media, half-seriously applauding the hoofed creature’s cost-saving adventure.
“He heard the grass tasted better in Sausalito, so he switched sides,” reads one comment. The jury’s still out whether or not that’s true, but he did save $9.75 to graze on the Marin hillsides, regardless.
I’ll always stop for footage of animals strolling through human activity and, in cases like this, bringing that human activity to a standstill. We’ve more than earned being inconvenienced every now and then. Still, I can’t deny I got a little extra excited about this one coming from my home town. I’m just glad it was clear blue skies instead of SF’s signature fog, so the doe was easily spotted! As for the bigger questions— like what was that little doe a-doin’, or why did the deer cross the road? — I can only presume it’s the familiar tail of another lifelong San Franciscan getting squeezed out by the takeover of Silicon Valley tech moguls who continue to make that great, free-spirited city ever more unaffordable and corporate. Not that Marin is much cheaper, but the grass, indeed, might be greener. Or maybe she’s just weighed down by the same rotten world as the rest of us and was heading towards Napa Valley to dull the pain with a little vino. She wouldn’t be the first in these trying times, I judgeth not.
Wildlife having to deal with human encroachment must use bridge to get to the better grasses.
So nice to see a deer on the highway that’s alive!
Oh deer me!
It’s good to see someone alerted the traffic department, so the doe wasn’t hurt.
Fingers crossed she won’t be tempted to get back into SF via the GGB.
She was born in SF? Is that it? But where?? I hope she’s OK now.