Most of you have heard, by now, of the fiasco that was Bixby Bridge this weekend. This was Saturday, by Adam Slawter. At 6:30 pm, it was backed up from Bixby to Palo by cars going south. That is 2.2 miles of idling vehicles.
This is the video taken by Tim Huntington on Saturday at 2 pm of the cars headed south, as he was heading north: https://vimeo.com/338490145
This was what it looked like early – as in 9 am – on Sunday, in the rain. Martha Diehl took these photos. Note the door opening into traffic immediately before another vehicle in the last photo.
Imagine that there is an emergency, which is much more likely with the influx of clueless people from out of the area. What happens then? How do emergency vehicles navigate through this quagmire? They can’t. How are the Cal Fire engines and others supposed to get to us when there is a fire this summer? Or cliff rescue, or serious injuries? This is a life-threatening situation that must be resolved.
Monday, a temporary solution presented itself. MCSO stationed THREE officers here at Bixby and they managed to keep traffic moving, at least until early afternoon, one source told me. So we need to pressure the County to assign 3 officers every weekend and holiday to manage the traffic at this bottleneck.
On the brighter side, CABS was there educating and interacting with the tourists on Monday morning, raising the awareness of our visitors to treat Big Sur with respect.
(Photo by Patte Kronlund)
(Photo by Lisa Kleissner)
Let us start preppering our Supes to take action, now! We don’t need to come up with a “perfect” solution, I don’t have one. But we could try a variety of things to see what will work, short of painting the bridge puke green. We could experiment with running shuttles, or the current MST buses, allowing only them to park, or to drop off and pick up visitors to the bridge from a staged area north and south. The County of Monterey could pass an ordinance, for health & safety reasons, prohibiting parking on both eastern and western sides and OCR, assess BIG fines, and enforce it! If you have another idea, I am all ears. Toss those ideas out there, no matter how crazy they seem. It might just give someone else the inspiration they need to find a solution that will work.
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I still think a locally owned bus company. Bus em to the Bridge!!!!
Oh, that's too crazy.
Just remove all turn-outs, cover with big boulders.
Station a CHP there for a month (or whatever) to move traffic along.
The idiots will soon get the idea, social media will publish the update.
I believe you meant to write, M.S.T. [Monterey-Salinas Transit] ..not MTS?
I did. Thank you. I made the correction.
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Imagine if the weather would have been nice. It would have been even worse if you can begin to imagine that. This situation has passed what would be considered ridiculous and is now at a dangerous level. When is enough, enough. I heard when the waived tourist through Bixby it just moved the nightmare south to Hurricane Point. Then there's Point Lobos and McWay Falls and now Soberanes. It's all so exhausting to think about. This has been happening in other parts of the world for some time, what has been there solution? I'm going to start by writing Mary Adams, The Monterey County film commission etc.
Make Highway 1 from Rio Road to SLO a toll road for all but locals.
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They could start by having a 365 day moratorium on filming movies, Netflix series, commercials highlighting Bixby Bridge. The Big Little Lies series had a big impact on that location. Call or write to the Monterey Film Commission at (831)646-0910 to let them know they need to stop promoting this are. Spoke to a CHP officer that was at Bixby all weekend and he said their agency is super frustrated with what is happening in Big Sur and feels drastic measures need to be taken to protect public safety. He himself was almost hit by two vehicles yesterday while doing traffic control. I’ve been saying for years now that the increase volume of traffic is going to get so much worse. This weekend was ridiculous! Let’s stop marketing Big Sur and start managing it instead!!!
I strongly agree with Lyndall - make it a toll road. The Govt. (or some other entity) could start with weekends and the summer months. Issue passes to all the locals and charge everyone else $$ to access the area. In other words, treat it like what it essentially is, a national park(way). Big Sur might have to incorporate to accomplish this or at least consistently and viciously lobby the state and/or local government bodies - maybe even institute road blockades now and then. A few of you might get arrested, but in the end it might just be worth it. Or, all Y'all can continue to do nothing but moan about it and live with the consequences that 'action' brings.
What are the locals doing on the Highway at 3pm on a holiday weekend, anyway? It was just as bad, maybe worse, in 1970. And before. The weekend traffic jam backed up two-lane Highway One to Santa Cruz and Gilroy. The crush in Big Sur Valley was memorable. No?
I say make Big Sur a National Park. All of it. Big Sur has not fared well under the pressure of tourism and the all-too-numerous entrepreneurs, legal and otherwise, scheming to make a buck off them.
And how has Yosemite fared as a National Park?? No better, only worse.
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We were just up in Yosemite. I disagree. It was fabulous. The park is like a toll road, there are gates and fees, which has been suggested by many here. The parking and turnouts are well improved, strictly delineated. There are restrooms, Visitor numbers are limited. The accommodations are very nicely done and accessible to all classes. The vistas are preserved...there is no roadside clutter from the seemingly endless (and tasteless) expansion by residents.
It was heartening to see many people parked at the Boronda trailhead, for example. So some visitors are getting out into a better Big Sur experience,
It is a little sad the we residents here would eventually be forced to sell to the park. But for what Big Sur is, it should seriously be considered as perhaps the best thing to do.
It is easiest to blame the outsiders, certainly. Yes there is sometimes a crowd at Bixby Bridge, McWay. But what about the five cars always coming and going from a neighbor's one-bedroom cabin. The sixteen party production trucks often lining the highway here in what used to be a sleepy Big Sur neighborhood. The weekday morning crush of apparently hundreds of contractor pickups and housekeepers racing down the highway. At least six of the two dozen parcels hereabouts are now blatant non-conforming commercial enterprises: Rent-a-resorts, short term rentals, glamping...ugh. It has been uninterrupted growth for my fifty years here. It is not turning out well.
Kate, that is my rant. I totally support your efforts and forum discussion.
Good to know, as I have heard from Big Surians who now live up by Yosemite what a nightmare it is up there. Also, the concessionaire we have here, are barely taking care of its areas of responsibility, so I am not confident it would change.
STRs are part of the problem and will be addressed separately, and as soon as I can get an article researched a bit more thoroughly and written. Maybe next Tuesday for Tourist Tuesday.
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BTW, Hawkwatcher, Pete Wilson and Alan Cranston tried to make Big Sur a park in the early 80’s, long before STRs and residents banned together and went before Congress and blocked it. It will still not be met with any degree of enthusiasm.
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Lyndall has it right, I believe. I haven’t lived here as long as many, (7 years) but my family was here for decades and I visited often. The huge increase in traffic started in 2012, exploded in 2013 as I recall, and has gotten worse every year— with the exception of Christmas 2014, the dates lined up for about a 10 day holiday, no snow in Tahoe and gorgeous sunshine here. 8 mile back- ups on Highway 1, just a never ending fiasco. CHP so ticked by the end that they didn’t ticket me for passing someone on a double yellow , just commiserated. They need to be specially funded for this area in the meantime, instead those tourism bucks just disappear into the Vacuum of County Govt.
Wally n Cats, great idea but CalTrans will not use boulders to block a turnout Without a toll road I think we need a sign that says “ Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here”