Video shot on Sunday, May 26, 2024 from 3 to 4 pm by Marcus Foster
If you are a resident of Monterey County or own a business in Monterey County, the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau wants to hear from you. Please take their survey re tourism in Monterey County here:
https://survey.us.confirmit.com/wix/1/p577935877521.aspx?vend=99
We are traveling via vehicle through Utah to Colorado. The crowds are HUGE. But the State parks have found a way to keep the crowds controllable. They implemented a 2-hour window pass. Arches and Rocky Mtn State park. Look it up. It may work here during high season.
This is a terrible mess, so dangerous. These people need to be ticketed.
Well done, Marcus. Thank you for putting together this piece which hits home pretty hard. If this impactful and honest piece does not help get the attention needed to take action I can’t imagine what will.
The complete disconnect from where they are is frightening. And it’s everywhere, even here in Texas.
Perhaps the extensive tourist marketing industry can provide direction as to how to address this dollar driven disaster…..out-of-control and un-enforced.
Please thank Marcus for this, Kate! I took the survey you linked and gave them a piece of my mind lol. The situation at Bixby is dangerous and unsustainable. There is no infrastructure there to support this level of tourism on Highway 1, and that problem is not unique to the bridge although it is almost always worse there. All the Old Coast residents have gotten from the local tourism agencies this year is that stupid little red sandwich board sign from (I think) See Monterey that says to keep the road clear. As you can see from the video, it’s suuuuuuuper effective lmao. Just about as effective as the No Parking ones or the Parallel Only ones. People just ignore them.
The comment below I posted on Kate’s Facebook page yesterday and it was from my drive to work on Saturday. Yesterday it was not quite as bad. It was nice to see two highway patrolman officers handing out tickets. That’s a great way for that agency to make a lot of money. Not sure what the answer is if you blocked it off and put a resident access gate at Old Coast Road although because old Coast Road is I County Road that’s probably not Possible. it would most likely move the nightmare somewhere else, perhaps hurricane point. I remember 20 or 30 years ago. It was really just the tour buses would stop there for a quick photo op.
Yesterday was so ridiculous, it just gets worse and worse. No law-enforcement, a complete free-for-all, cars parking wherever blocking the highway, completely choking the entrance to the Old Coast Road crossing the HIGHWAY without looking. I feel that either there’s going to be a serious injury or death and or there will be an emergency where a firetruck or ambulance can’t get through. Unfortunately, this is most likely what it will take to get the attention of the individuals “officials” that have the ability to solve or at least try and solve this problem, today I’m leaving an hour earlier than normal again to arrive at work on time. Hopefully this video that will be posted will get somebody’s attention that doesn’t realize or has not experienced first hand how ridiculous this Bixby Bridge situation is.
I think they need a CHP/SO mobile sub-station there for week-ends, holidays, and warm sunny days! No money in the budget for that? Well, START WRITING TICKETS! The coffers should fill up fast! The lack of law enforcement at Bixby and Soberanes is appalling, and dangerous.
Personally, I don’t think the MCC&VB really is interested in what we have to say, so I’ll skip that part … but I did think that perhaps to help with the situation at Bixby, it would be to have the MCC&VB to pay for 3 or 4 part time CHP officers during certain hours of the weekdays and say fulltime from say like 11:00-6:00 on weekends and holidays for “crowd control” during the summer while the work is being done by Caltrans, just like the film crews that have to pay the CHP for crowd control during filming.
I would also suggest that with the OCR being within the work zone area that residents be given a large bright florescent “I LIVE HERE” pass to hold out their window while there are traffic control (CHP) out directing traffic, that way the CHP could flag in the residents while they block others to keep Highway One flowing smoothly!
A couple weeks ago I saw Rob O’Okeefe, the President and CEO of See Monterey, on the news stating the “little” Monterey needs to compete for tourism with the “Big Four”. San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego. Compete with their traffic?
This is a dangerous mentality that I feel is going to destroy this place. I understand that commerce rules everything in America and the importance of the hospitality industry in Monterey County. We just need to make sure there is a balance with visitation that doesn’t overwhelm our infrastructure and the residents quality of life and why many of us choose to live in this uniquely beautiful area. And that we don’t ruin the main reason tourists come to the Monterey Peninsula and Big Sur, to get away from the congestion and urbanization of home to enjoy nature and this wild and rugged coast.
OMG! I imagined BAD–but this is so much worse! My heart aches. When will advance reservations be instituted?
it seems the only solution currently is to have 12 hours a day Law/traffic Enforcement on the ground moving and directing traffic along – this is hideous that there is no budget for more law enforcement – just to remind : the hotels in Big Sur collect TOT , when we opened Treebones and i asked what that collected money was used for i was told it was used for the extra things tourism brings like law enforcement , trash collection , road repairs – what a scam that is , none of that money comes back into Big Sur – it’s hundreds and hundreds of thousands $ ‘s a year – where is it ?
Remote controlled cameras scanning license plates. Mail tickets to registerd owners. Hefty fines….
This is horrible. Heartbreaking and unbelievably frustrating.
I’d like to put this on Tripadvisor for what not to do while visiting Big Sur. The day trippers won’t see it but people planning days/weeks long trips to California will. It can also be pinned to the Big Sur page.
I don’t want to it with out permission.
I think Marcus and I would love to see this go viral.
One more thing. If anyone has been to Kauai this how bad the end of road at Hā’ena State Park became. We stopped going for years. Then the 2018 floods wiped out everything up there. The State of Hawaii rebuilt and it’s now on a reservation system. It’s paradise now. I know this is a different situation given it’s a California State Highway. The State, not just Monterey County needs to fund workers that are onsite during the summer and weekends that regulate parking and hand out tickets.
I’d like to send this to John Laird with permission. This is bigger than Monterey County. This is a California State problem.
The cat’s out of the bag but there should be zero images of Bixby on any California tourism material.
I sent it to John Laird, and now am suggesting to Marcus that he send to every single CCC member, and I found the emails and sent it to him.
This is absolutely unacceptable. I haven’t visited since 2016 and this is heartbreaking. I can’t imagine who thinks it is a good idea to visit on a holiday weekend anyway. Overtourism and careless travelers have become such a frustrating problem. Roped off, limited time, paid parking, enforced?! I certainly don’t know what the answer is, but something needs to be done to protect the natural wild beauty of our California coasts, for residents and visitors alike.
This is is ane! How sad… And dangerous!!!!!
Insane! Lived south of the Bridge quite a ways, but it was always possible to drive north to enjoy the highway and the views, from our car, with respect for road rules and others. That has died now for the general public. Very sad and sorry for the locals. Help is hopefully on the way! Elizabeth Appel
make it a (hefty) toll road for non-residents, by reservation only, by lottery.
Guessing the long line of northbound cars is because of the single-lane/traffic signal near Rocky Creek Bridge where Hwy 1 washed out this spring. The rest of the scene: mind blowingly awful
Not a single one of those people would put in the effort to hike or bike to that location, that is the main factor of how little they care about where they are or what they are doing, the situation just devolves into mimic monkey activity enabled by automobiles, one car stops they all stop and as the video shows the beauty of nature just becomes another parking lot.
This statement of fact in the video is disheartening and proves the 90 miles of coastline is misrepresented.
“It is sometimes hard to beleive that the most popular destination in big sur has become a man made concrete bridge.”
They close the road for one of the best marathons in the world, why not close the road for a 90 mile hike and bike only weekend and see what type of visitor will put in the time and effort to appreciate the beauty of nature.
A hike and bike only weekend would need to follow the “leave no trace principles.”
https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/leave-no-trace.html
Having driven the Coast from town to Big Sur on Memorial Day weekend, all 3 days Saturday, Sunday, Monday it was a crazy scene and dangerous, definitely a public safety issue. Although on Sunday 2 CHP officers were there writing Tickets this made quite a difference in keeping the traffic somewhat flowing. I got through in half the amount of time that it took on Saturday. On Tuesday after the weekend, there were only about a dozen cars six along the highway and another six up the old Coast Road and it was pretty quiet and mellow, so it goes to show that we really need law-enforcement there on the weekends particularly on any holiday weekend or major holiday . With all of the tax revenue that is collected through property taxes, DMV fees, etc. etc. etc. I can’t believe that they can come up with an excuse of not having the resources to post law-enforcement there on these busy weekends. I do believe that the video that Marcus produced is going to hopefully make a difference and open up the eyes of some of the officials that could push through the decision to deal with this ridiculous problem.
Correction on above post. The CHP officers were actually there on Monday not Sunday. Sunday was probably the worst day.
Possible solution.
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors met Wednesday to further discuss the possibility of two new tax increases that could be put on the November ballot.
The proposed tax increases would be imposed on the sales and tourism taxes in the unincorporated areas of the county, increasing the sales tax by 1% and the tourism tax by 0.5%.
County leaders say the 1% increase in the sales tax would bring in an added $30 million in revenue, which would go towards the homeless crisis, roadways, and other high-priority issues.
The above three paragraphs are from an article posted today on KSBW news website.
If we had a CHP officer at Bixby on the weekends to include three day weekends at $2000 a day that cost would come to about $220,000 which is less than 1% of 30 million. When our county officials say that we don’t have the resources I find this to unacceptable. I would consider this to be a public safety issue and a high priority issue. Also, the visitors bureau or whatever they’re called to include the companies that make money from the commercials and commercial filming at Bixby should be contributing to this public safety issue which they are more than somewhat responsible for creating as well. Because when it comes down to it we’re the ones that have to pay for this through frustration and inconvenience. Our ELECTED County officials need to step up!
If you closed the road for three days during the sea otter classic and charged $100 per person per day to hike, bike and camp the 90 mile coast without cars, total revenue would exceed $21 Million in 3 days.
That doesnt include the many booth that could be setup along hwy1 for local law enforcement, environmental education, resturants and artists, the event would end up being the largest that California has ever hosted, and fines for idiocy would be permanent ban from the event for life, plus whatever the manditory maximum fine the law allows.
The event would be a privilege and one to protect, zero tolerance for rule breakers, no exceptions, a heavy police presence with special orders and a 10pm quiet time.
Basically 90 miles of pavement camping and local vending with hiking, biking and police.
Thank you Marcus!
I hope this video will be viewed by many, many people!
It shows how Highway One in Big Sur is on the brink of grid-lock.
The writing is (and has been for a while) on the wall.
In order to be able to accommodate as many visitors as possible we need to follow the guidelines of the LUP (Land Use Plan). This plan clearly limits development of visitor serving facilities and destination points in order to safeguard travel on Highway One.
We have now exceeded this limit.