Nightmare at Bixby Bridge in Big Sur

And here is a screen shot of the chp website re Bixby from yesterday, thanks to Marcus Foster:

73F48BE3-496F-4A4A-A9D1-8D06740E08D5

From the CHP website. “OO” means out of vehicle. This “RDWAY” is Highway 1 through Big Sur. So, translation from chp speak to human is “People are getting out of their vehicles and leaving them parked in the middle of the highway.

Incident:  00177   Type:    Traffic Hazard   Location:   Sr1 / Bixby Brdg  Loc Desc:  SR1 / BIXBY BRDG    Lat/Lon:  36.372378 -121.902408   
Detail Information
12:08 PM 2 [3] GETTING OO VEHS AND LEAVING THEM IN RDWY
12:08 PM 1 [1] VEHS 1124 IN RDWY

 

 

 

38 thoughts on “Nightmare at Bixby Bridge in Big Sur”

  1. Sounds like this spot needs a dedicated CHP right there to ticket them immediately and send them down the road. I would hope the tickets given out should pay for the cost of the extra personnel!

  3. Kate, it’s amazing how often this is happening yet, no one is there to enforce these violations!!

  4. Point Lobos is just as bad since State Park has made a 200+ parking lot out of Highway 1.

  7. This had better be cleared up by the time I head to the Henry Miller Library for their short film festival’s Grand Finalé tonight! I’d hate to have to start pushing cars over the edge to get by.

  8. Sadly, this is nothing new. Visitors park their cars on the highway at Soberanes too and take a walk, take pictures, and then slowly stroll back. Another accident waiting to happen is the blind corner at Soberanes as you approach from the South. Folks should not be allowed to park on the east side of the highway in a small pullout across from the unsightly set of stairs that were recently built on the west side. Have seen so many near misses there, not just with pedestrians but also when the vehicles pull out. And yesterday, despite the “No Parking” signs at Point Lobos, a whole line of cars parked next to the entrance on the west side. It will take more law enforcement to keep up with all of this. Regarding the back up, red taillights could be seen south of Soberanes as late as 8:45 PM last night. Lots of visitors had a long trip back home or to their hotel. I also saw a man getting out of his car, his pants soaking wet. I think he was not able to make it to a restroom and was stuck in traffic. We really need to figure something out. This is not good for anyone.

  10. Had a couple friends tell me it took them 20 minutes just to get through Bixby Bridge area yesterday on their way to work. It was less than 10 years ago that most people drove over Bixby and didn’t even notice they were on a bridge. Social media and Monterey Film Commission have now made it a bucket list spot with the worst infrastructure of any major attraction in the world!

  11. Kate, I thought a shuttle service would be starting from Rancho Canada State Park by now and this would be another spot for a surplus of cars that could park there while sightseeing in Big Sur and more.. Any updates?

  12. I’ll sign the petition. 😉

    This is a problem of the entitled generations. We locals with a memory pre-1990 would have never parked along Big Sur Highway . . . except in one of the turnouts.

    😪

  15. Ahh, it looks like Rancho Canada Park is under the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District.. like Corona, and Garland RP, headslap.

  17. This is a dangerous situation, I drive to my home from town often and narrowly miss hitting cars parked over the highway lines, pedestrians stroll on road as if they’re in Disneyland rather than a major thoroughfare. Where is law enforcement ??

  19. I heard second hand that southbound traffic was backed up to Garrapata Beach due to congestion / madness at Bixby Bridge about an hour ago. I was helping friends move in Sycamore Canyon today and the top entrance off highway was unbelievable when I left just now. I just shake my head in disbelief as to what this place has become and that it is going to get much worse each summer season.

  21. The entire Monterey Peninsula is oversold. You can thank the Chambers of Commerce in Carmel, Monterey and Pacific Grove for spending lots of their tax dollars on advertising. To those wondering where the law enforcement is regarding the ridiculous and dangerous traffic conditions mainly on the Coast Highway south…the truth is…they don’t have the personnel to handle the problem. Tourist dollars are the mantra for Peninsula Cities…and Big Sur businesses. Profits are high, especially when anything is happening in any of these communities and that translates to “all of the time” now. The problem? The Sherriff’s Dept. and the CHP do not benefit from these revenues and the staffing issues for both departments is a struggle. In other words…they don’t have the money (either one) to park a unit at Bixby Creek Bridge, Point Lobos, Soberanes etc. etc. Throw in the influx of the STR’s, and you have a developing Cluster (F#) beyond imagination. The Goose that laid the Golden Egg is suffering from terminal cancer.

  22. Well then, it is time to switch some of the advertising funding spent by MoCo from MCCVB to the Law Enforcement agencies who can enforce. CHP is state-funded, so perhaps we put our pressure on them. Call it in on your mobile, 911, and it will go to CHP and they can respond.

    https://bigsurkate.blog

  23. Maybe some of the tourist $ could be used to invest in an auto transporter, and when it’s full of the infracting cars, drive it back north to town, unload, and do it again all day long!

  24. I was down there on Saturday and coming north around 2pm there was at least one car parked just over the fog line next to the southbound lane and traffic was backed up to the crest of the hill just south of Notley’s Landing.

    Ironically, when I went south earlier (around 8am) it was quiet and I noticed a bunch of temporary “no parking” warnings at both Notley’s Landing and the Bixby pullout – I didn’t stop and read them, but suspect the summer moratorium on filming at Bixby is coming to a swift end after the Labor Day weekend.

  26. The situation seems to be a lot like Yosemite Valley – A highly attractive piece of Americana to visit being loved to death. Maybe the same solution should be applied on the heavy use days … busses only for non residents/employees/suppliers. That would mean no through traffic at those times, but it wouldn’t be fatal.

    It would also be necessary for a few public restrooms to be part of the solution.

  28. As a resident and merchant here I’m always trying to find a logical compromise concerning our tourist situation. Face it, there would be very, very few residents in our area (I for one) if it wasn’t for our tourism. If someone is snapping a photo out of their car window at ten miles an hour I bring myself to say a little inward “thank you” for allowing me to live in Big Sur.

    With that said, the situation at Bixby HAS gotten out of hand. It is time ….well past the time….to let the state know that the site is now the cause of citizen endangerment, both for people in vehicles and on foot. It’s amazing more accidents haven’t occurred. Yes, the delays are annoying but, frankly, the dangers are even worse.

    I don’t profess to know the answer but, as Rick said a line or two up, “any real solution will lie in Sacramento”. Time for some serious letter writing and phone calls.

  29. With the amount of trash that has been left on the ground at Bixby over this three day weekend, it goes to show that a majority of the people visiting this site really don’t give a shit about our home or the environment.

  30. I went up Plaskett Ridge Monday late morning. Picked up a garbage bag of trash. I found two campfires still warm and dealt with that. I did not pick up the huge amount of human excrement and toilet paper. Some campsites I had to be careful where I walked. Many of the hills were rutted with vehicle roads. Not “it just happened” but established roads. Signs and barriers were destroyed or driven around. This is Big Sur today. Beautiful isn’t it…

  32. Unbelievable amount of garbage and new graffiti at Bixby this morning when I drove by. On the way back down the coast this afternoon there was a wedding proposal going down right on the bridge with a blindfolded woman and people filming it. Bixby is only 24 feet wide and any new bridge in California has to be a minimum of 32 feet. They should remove the benches on the bridge that may have been a good idea in 1937 and not allow pedestrians on bridge. Common sense solution to start!

  37. Yes, Karl – even the SFGiants aid in the frenzy posting Monterey Bay Aquarium promos digitally by having giant Octupi coming out of McCovey Cove to catch an imaginary Hr lol.

  38. Pingback: Horseshoe Bend – Arizona’s Bixby Bridge | BigSurKate

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