Letter: How to curtail Tahoe gridlock
To the community,
Here is a possible temporary solution to the traffic gridlock that we currently experience every Sunday afternoon here at South Lake Tahoe.
From Meyers to Twin Bridges:
On Sunday afternoon: only westbound traffic would be allowed on both lanes at 1, 3 and 5pm — and eastbound traffic allowed only at 1:30 and 2:30p, and then normal after 6pm.
Yes, it would require lots of signage, traffic guidance personnel by Caltran, and public education by Caltrans and other local papers. And of course a pilot car — with front crash rigs equipped — to lead the lane closures as required.
It would be a lot less expensive than an undesirable four-lane highway all the way in. A long-term solution would be to limit the number people in the Tahoe basin at one time, but that will only come a long time after I’m gone.
Jim Hildinger, South Lake Tahoe
Jim….Sounds workable.
Something has to be done. With the smartphone traffic apps the tourists have discovered LT Blvd to North Upper Truckee for their mass exodus from town. The traffic was backed up for 4 miles on NUT Rd/LT Blvd on MLK Jr day. I can tell you, the residents were pissed. We would love a “Local Traffic Only” sign please!
I live on North Upper. I grew up in a beach resort town in New England. The couple of hours of ‘gridlock’ we expierience in Tahoe on holiday weekends is laughable compared to many other mountain and beach tourist towns across the country.
Our town has never done a good job communicating traffic conditions to the public. Posting drive times on the CalTrans sign is a step in the right direction.
I can’t believe businesses don’t have the CalTrans cameras on one of their TV’s.
We need to convince our visitors to stay and have lunch or dinner instead of waiting in traffic for hours. Maybe offer a special room discount for Sunday night.
I like the Tahoe TV slogan “stay and play another day”.
For someone who encourages signage, Mr. Hildinger, I have never understood why you refuse to allow a sign at the road to your resort.
Tahoe Mountain and Dundee roads have lost tourists circling (speeding) all weekends long every summer, looking for Angora Lake Road because THERE IS NO SIGN. I addressed the issue with the Forest Service and the DOT, and they say it’s because the resort owner does not want a sign.
You like having kids and pets walking in the neighborhood put at risk for their lives by lost tourists driving around in circles???
Please. Put up a sign.
Don’t blame him for idiot, lost tourists. I wouldn’t want them either. They only trash our place and then leave back to their filthy lives in some city.
Kits Carson, he takes their money, makes his living off those “idiot, lost tourists”. They are here anyway, and when they can’t find the road they need, they put OUR neighborhood in danger.
That is the height of greedy selfishness, in my opinion. Put others at risk because you don’t want to deal with the overflow of your own success?
Put up a directing sign, and when the parking lot is full, mark it as full. Other attractions do that. Why not Angora?
Thinking outside the box is what is needed to help with the traffic problems in South Lake, but this is not a great idea Jim. A car traveling east that reaches Twin Bridges at 3:00 is supposed to sit in the roadway for 3 hours until the road is reopened at 6? A 4 lane highway all the way in would be the most ideal solution to this problem, except for the cost. A compromise between the two would be a 3 lane highway that changes to 2 lanes east on Friday/Saturday and then to 2 lanes west on Sundays. It could use the road zipper barrier system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl0Q2bDnBUc
gps has also opened up Mandan to the back way to Blitzen and down Pomo to 50. Sundays are a free for all down Blitzen to Pomo
As if the traffic and inability for some of us to get to our neighborhoods isn’t enough, how about the trash and diapers and human feces that are left everywhere due to ZERO public restrooms on HWY 50? I read years ago that HWY 50 is the longest stretch of road in the state without public restrooms. And yet it never gets addressed. The powers that be don’t get the fact that for every person leaving here with a bad experience, they take 9 other people with them when they talk about it and decide to never repeat the experience. And when people and their children are reduced to pooping in the parking lot at the ’76’ in Meyers– it’s a very, very bad experience.
Reminds me of the plan to divert 50 over Placerville and under a tunnel to Meyers, both will likely never happen due to cost now. Traffic in the basin on weekends is always bad, has always been bad, even during the horse and wagon days. Maybe a detour to 88 should be used at times for west bound traffic when 50 reaches gridlock. Kind of an off and on again metering to keep the traffic flowing. The delay would be the same and likely far less than hours in gridlock. It is a workable idea and wouldn’t be overly costly.
Ok. Doesn’t anybody remember the traffic between the Y and Stateline every day during the summers of say the 1980’s? I do. I had a bike and drove it almost every day to avoid the traffic.
Big projects like adding a whole lane or two the whole way will always seem, or actually be, too costly. Why not one step at a time though? 50 already has a number of passing lanes all the way through. But arguably never enough, even at non-peak times. Would it be such a stretch to add say, one additional passing lane section once every year, or 2 years, or 5 years if you can’t swing that? You could start by lengthening that one passing lane on the way up the grade from Meyers to Echo Summit. How long is that thing now? Like 10 feet or so? I’ve never seen anyone have room to pass on that stretch. Anyway, a little at a time and maybe in a few decades we’ll have those four lanes. I don’t like the one-way idea. Sitting for a half hour, or three hours, with an enormous crowd building up, doesn’t sound like it’d work.
Having spent 7 years at the Y working retail I noticed the traffic pattern being….
Tourist start to come up on Thursday
Big influx on Friday
Smaller, quick, overnight trips on Saturday.
So you have people that wander in over 3 days then everyone wants to leave during the same 3 hours on Sunday.
Maybe hotels could work out a plan of staggered check out.
/there are no simple solutions to complex problems.
Incomprehensible to me that Caltrans cannot understand that the light at Pioneer and 50 is a huge contributor to the backups into town. There are further problems downstream but this one intersection causes a giant ripple effect into town. And yes, the NUT secret is out of the bag in a big way.
It is good that people are thinking about this issue, but if they would just remember late 70s and 80s, when the traffic in cars was more than now, they might have a little patience. I do not think that Mr. Hildinger’s concept would work well however. I can predict road rage and gunfire among drunk, armed people all jockeying for that next 30 foot gain toward Sacramento. The real flaw I see in Hildingers concept is that people would be queuing up to get a slot in the metered traffic, and it would take more than an hour to just get the miles long parking lot/waiting area moving. I think this would make it worse.
I love the way new technology has an infernal way of making something it was designed to resolve worse….e.g. the gps/smart phone situation which actually fills up the side streets, once the way residents coped with the masses of tourists.
Another thing that is confusing to me is the way accidents, even minor ones are handled. When I was younger, the cops and Caltrans would move bent cars out of traffic and restore the flow using usually a human to meter traffic. Now they are as apt to close the road for an hour or more for a single car accident. I believe this is not much more than a power trip… a “we can, so we will” kind of thing.
As usual, the solution to traffic will probably be use of several mitigating measures as there is no magic bullet.
If TRPA has its way we’ll all be walking or on bicycles anyhow, as there is no real public transit. Does anybody know where I can buy chains or studs for my mountain bike?
Humor aside, I do agree that the Pioneer trail stoplight is a problem that deserves some study,
How about better public transportation, parking at Meyers and light rail in to stateline and camp Rich.No way to solve transportation problems, better highways mean more people in cars, until we get serious about our “love” of the automobile.
Many countries have added tax and use fee’s to raise money for public transportation and to make it so good you would not want a car, as usual we are the last to wake up.
Mr. Hildinger’s idea has been tried in a considerably different format – the Bay Area tried decades ago to limit traffic during rush hour via employer-designated arrival/departure times at work, even going so far as to designate alphabetic categories to specific time periods – but to no avail. . .Spooner Summit is part of an ‘hour-glass’ that will get no better unless OUR visitors usual time-spans change (they are creatures of habit to the rush-hours they fully inhabit daily). . .so our visitor volume is both boon/bane, determined by the very habits that cause many to want to come here – ironic; to “get away” is to “act the same” as where they come from. . .
Imagine Meyers on a Friday afternoon with westbound traffic stopped. Now add in traffic attempting to leave Sierra. Now add a snowstorm. Now imagine a medical, fire or law enforcement emergency. No thank you. And God help those who live anywhere from Sly Park to Tahoe.
However, I applaud the idea, Jim. Thinking is good and God knows that the government won’t do any thinking.
Before we add four lanes, could we fix a few potholes?
“We need to convince our visitors to stay and have lunch or dinner instead of waiting in traffic for hours. Maybe offer a special room discount for Sunday night.”
yes there has always been Sun PM traffic jams out of Tahoe – the above would be a good way to address it and someone else commented on the insanity of people’s mind set – “beat the rush” so the rush just keeps getting earlier and earlier. If you left Tahoe on a Sunday at 5PM guess what? very little traffic.
But even my own Bay Area friends seem enamored with sitting in a stationary car as well and always want to leave early. It’s how they deal with where they live (even though it doesn’t work all that well there either). So be grateful that isn’t your life here 7 days a week and chill to the reality that sometimes you just have to put up with some ****. :)
Please note:
Most go to breakfast in the same time period, why Denny’s, Heidi’s, and both-in-town Red Huts are full from 7:00 on, then most of those then ‘enter’ the stream going west, as they’re all “beating the traffic”. . .the pattern hasn’t changed in decades. . .our “All-Year Playground” has so-called shoulder seasons, but tell that to the hordes who think they are the only ones in town. . .on Sunday morning ’til late afternoon – some of those in those hordes like it; it proves to them that Tahoe is “the place-to-be”. . .[“Wow, it was really busy in Tahoe last weekend. . .” great water-cooler talk. . .
Ted. Forget Meyers, they (some) don’t want anything built or done about Little Norway, Tveten Town etc. So forget anything there.
You could try the “airport” as a parking lot then put a Gondola there.
Kenny. (they closed comments on the other thread.) Once you post a comment it’s fair game, unless you are running this blog.
You ran for County Supervisor didn’t you and I was not impressed either. Anyway, I used the word “could” not “would.”
Rock, It’s true I am fair game but all I am asking is not to confuse fair game with personal attacks and stick to the subject at hand. Once someone starts with personal attacks it only makes their position weak but feel free to continue and try to come up with something original. Thanks
Jim’s idea is workable…construction does it all the time…a 20 or 30 minute hold for a walk thru is much preferable to a who knows how long being stuck.
The half hour interval doesn’t add up for a 20 minute route. There are also numerous other access points along the route (snow park, houses, echo lake, trail heads) that would have to be controlled, complicating the operation. A serious data mining project with the help of our overlords at the google machine could help model the traffic. I doubt it would support this kind of operation.
After driving I-70 through Glenwood Canyon I saw what was possible with highways. If we really need a 4 lane divide highway through rough terrain we can do it. With Highway 50, the need isn’t strong enough. Yet.
Traffic forecasting based on observations on Thursday and Friday and outreach on a ‘just wait a few hours’ campaign is a more feasible solution.
@Ridiculousness, I agree, Jim’s idea isn’t workable. I think you had the best suggestion for a long term goal. There should be a minimum of three lanes along the entire rout anyway, and as DougM suggested start expanding the passing lanes now, baby steps. Echo seems like the biggest challenge but it’s not impossible and really, really, needs a third lane for emergency vehicles if nothing else.
In the meantime it might help if lodging at Tahoe offered discount rates if your stay was Saturday night through Sunday night. That would allow folks to work Saturdays and leave Tahoe sometime Monday and miss the madness of in Friday night, out Sunday.
Kenny. So, your “example” of Brian Veerkamp and his “golden parachute” was not a personal attack? Before I continue…
Θ Gridlock is relative, try living in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles on daily gridlock. Θ
Regarding “not so intelligent” and to NOT make this “personal,” I have been working for wages and sometimes self employed for over 42 years now. Over that time, I have never filed for Unemployment Benefits, disability, or others. I also have no idea how much money I have contributed into the State and Federal Unemployment Systems, nor do I really care.
Unemployment is defined as, “Unemployment occurs when a person who is actively searching for employment is unable to find work.”
According to California, these are the requirements for filing a claim for Unemployment:
Have received enough wages during the base period to establish a claim.
Be totally or partially unemployed.
Be unemployed through no fault of his/her own.
Be physically able to work.
Be available for work.
Be ready and willing to immediately accept work.
Be actively looking for work.
Be approved for training before training benefits can be paid.
Yes, I ski every winter too, but it never even crossed my mind to work in the summer and collect Unemployment in the winter while skiing powder. I always somehow wanted and found work; washing dishes, cooking, odd jobs, good jobs etc. Perhaps that is not “intelligent” but that is a subjective opinion.
Now. I am not sure if Mr. Veerkamp has worked all his life, collected unemployment when he could not find work or what have you. But, I am NOT sure if YOU, are in a any position to tell Mr. Veerkamp what he “should” or “should not” do.
Clearly, we have different definitions of “deserves” and “aspirations.”
My last post but it’s a good one. On North Upper Truckee post signs and set up cones that on Sundays NO RIGHT HAND TURNS TO HWY 50 ARE ALLOWED!!
Kenny and Rock you are chatting about something that has nothing to do with the stated article. Why don’t you guys meet for coffee or something and thus then you can solve all the world’s problems. Can we stay with the stated article?