19 thoughts on “NB Highway One backed up 20 miles”

  1. New ad campaign:

    Visit Big Sur for the scenery! Stay because you’re stuck for hours in twenty miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic on a one-lane road leading to a single stoplight.

  2. CHP needs traffic control at Rio Road until the highway widening project is completed. No good comes from people stranded on the highway for hours. Medical emergencies, bathroom emergencies, potential for road rage…
    Not to mention locals that are shut down.

  3. Let’s just hope no one has any kind of emergency and needs to get to the hospital…

  5. It was backed up from Rio rd to somewhere between Palo and Rocky Creek Bridge when I came through headed south at 7pm today — 11 miles or so of fully stopped traffic. I would guess that it took a good 4 hours to get through. This is madness, definitely no chance that an ambulance could have gotten through.

    No CHP anywhere to be seen except one cruiser on a pull off by palo, no traffic control of any kind at Rio.

  6. Left Highlands at 9:30 at night and sat in 45 min to Rio and that was with a CHP officer waving people through. Astonishing lack of concern by our county officials. Thankful for CHP!

  8. Whoever made the decision to do this road work at Rio. right through summer should never be allowed to make another decision in their life. I only hope this is not the new norm for weekends through the summer. Even if its half as bad as last night, its still no good. I have no idea what is going to happen when there is a true emergency and the ambulance needs to get to the hospital. Flying out is not always an option depending on weather conditions. Something will have to be done about it. I just hope it doesn’t cost someones life for something to change.

  9. 2:45 yesterday Sunday it took me 45 minutes to get from Van Ness in the Highlands to Soledad & Munras. When I got home I was astounded to see the traffic. It must have taken those people 3 hrs. to get to Rio Rd. Yikes!

  10. I drove by Julia Pfeiffer Burn yesterday afternoon and it was ridiculous. Many of the cars parked well over the white line, people doing eight point U turns in the blind curve, people walking in highway, hundreds of people packed like sardines on lookout trail, toilet paper in pullouts, etc.
    It was actually really a sad thing to see what the “new” Big Sur has become.

  12. Yes, someone sent me this WSJ article. Poor NZ is struggling, too. The Chinese middle class now account for 80% of the global tourist boon, per this article.

  13. Good Morning. Northbound Traffic is backed up past Ribera/monastery beach at 11:30 am Monday morning

  14. Employees heading north after work Sunday still encountering significant back up at 10 PM. Myself heading north at midnight I noticed quite a few cars in random places along the side of the road which I would assume had ran out of gas. This backup certainly sets the bar for this summer’s upcoming events.

  17. Boy, am I glad my wife and I drove down from Monterey to Big Sur on Saturday rather than Sunday. We encountered less traffic than I would have expected for a holiday weekend, and encountered no issues going NB through the Rio Rd intersection at about 8pm on Saturday.

    There definitely were more cars parked alongside the road and in turnouts than the last time I was in Big Sur in the summer of 2014. I also noticed cars now parking alongside the dirt road just north of Bixby Creek Bridge – it’s not clear to me whether that road has been widened to allow this, as I didn’t attempt to venture up that road in my Challenger!

  18. Most of this traffic has traveled here from the north. In a couple of months the Hwy will be open from the south with hordes from the south travelling north. The only true fix has come and gone with the Hatton Canyon Freeway rejection. There would have been no redlights on Hwy 1 at Rio, Carmel Valley, Ocean and Carpenter. Two lanes travelling north with no stops. Can you imagine!

  19. I believe the adage is, “Build it, and they will come.” In a certain sense, gridlock might put the brake on increased tourism here.

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