Letter: Traffic chaos must be addressed
To the community,
We live on Clear View Drive near Sawmill Pond. We’ve lived here for 40 years and have never seen a traffic jam like the one that occurred Jan. 2. GPS has led visitors to scramble onto any road that heads in the direction of Highway 50. Dave tried to go into town yesterday, got as far as Sawmill and realized that he could get to town, but wouldn’t be able to get back home in any reasonable fashion. It took him 45 minutes to get from Sawmill back to Clear View — about one-half mile. He actually wound up driving in reverse in the eastbound lane from Tahoe Mountain to our street.
View Circle, which is frequently used as a short cut, was at a standstill causing folks to start streaming down Clear View only to meet the standstill on View. This after careening to a stop for the sharp right turn at the bottom of our street. It was a traffic mess of epic proportions. Tow trucks also coursed down our street trying to get to the spin outs on Upper Truckee.
Tourists are not prepared for the icy hills on Upper Truckee and spin out. Some people simply ran out of gas while trapped in the traffic. Our neighbor’s daughter started out in the morning to drive out to 50 and never got there. After hours of sitting in the back up, the dog needed to get out and the snacks for the kids were gone so she gave up and came back to the house.
As Moya Saunders’ letter pointed out, people using Upper Truckee circumvent chain control only to cause backups when they do decide to chain up or endanger other drivers if they don’t. Locals who once were able to get into town in heavy tourist traffic can no longer really do it. This impairs access for emergency vehicles and endangers locals as tourists speed through neighborhoods searching for a way to Highway 50.
I’m not sure what can be done about this. Would signage at the Y or at Sawmill get people off the icy hills, out of the neighborhoods and into proper chain control monitoring? I think Upper Truckee is a crucial route for locals to use during busy weekends. If 50, Pioneer and Upper Truckee are all impacted in this fashion, what will the eventual fallout be? There are the obvious dangers of tourists speeding down icy streets they are unfamiliar with … no kids played in the snow yesterday in our neighborhood. God help you if you need a fire truck or ambulance or a head of lettuce. I know this occurs in many other places. GPS can be wonderful, but it can also create the situation we witnessed yesterday.
It really makes us contemplate the increased traffic that will be generated by projects proposed in the basin and adjacent to it. The concept of carrying capacity is illustrated vividly by the situation that we saw yesterday.
Carla Ennis, Meyers
This is the 2nd letter in as many days about this ‘traffic’ situation!
It’s a good thing no FIRE was involved here!
The ‘LOOP’ multi-$MILLION$ road…is going to help the traffic how?
Maybe a roundabout will fix it all…
Yes, sarcasm.
North Shore experiencing much of the same in the way of ENDLESS traffic! and cut through traffic increased in the Kings Beach residential area to avoid the roundabouts on SR 28. On January 2 it took me 3 hours to get to Truckee from North Shore on Hwy 89. The roundabouts entering and exiting I-80 in Truckee were down to one lane as snow removal was impossible causing horrendous backup on Hwy 89 all the way to Squaw Valley another pinch point: you would have thought it was 4th of July. GPS is our friend but the unintended consequences of providing incomplete info (dirt road or narrow residential street) will continue to cause traffic issues. Add extra snow and disasters abound.
to everyone posting about the traffic
Please send these letters to the following email addresses sue.novasel@edcgov.us and john.kahling@edcgov.us also send a maintenance report to cal trans at http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/maint/msrsubmit/
also this is the local DOT web site with contact info
http://www.edcgov.us/Government/DOT/Contact.aspx
also here is a letter I just received from the DOT:
Good afternoon Moya. This has indeed become a challenging situation, not just for Caltrans but our partner agencies as well. North Upper Truckee is an El Dorado County maintained road and the county has in the past put up electronic message signs on heavy traffic days. Caltrans can’t control who uses the road. We do have regulatory chain signs coming onto Highway 50 from Upper Truckee and on Highway 50 at the intersection. We also use the CHP at Upper Truckee and 50 on heavy traffic days to screen vehicles for chains.
Regarding signage on North Upper Truckee, you may wish to contact the county to see what might be done. Below is their website with a list of contacts, and they do have a raod maintenance office in Meyers.
http://www.edcgov.us/Government/DOT/Contact.aspx
Regards,
Steve Nelson
Caltrans District 3 Public Information Officer
Lake Tahoe Basin, El Dorado County
Office: (530) 741.4566 Cell: (530) 701.9459
http://www.dot.ca.gov/d3/
https://twitter.com/CaltransDist3
Hi everyone these are 2 more responses i got back from my letter:
from Caltrans:
Dear Citizen, Thank you for your email. Caltrans appreciates your concern for the California freeway system. Enforcement jurisdiction belongs to the California Highway Patrol or the law enforcement in your area. Should you have any safety concerns while cars are bypassing chain controls, please dial 911 to notify law enforcement. If you have any other concerns, please submit another maintenance service request. California Department of Transportation.
From
John Kahling
Deputy Director, Engineering
Ms. Sanders –
Supervisor Novasel forwarded me your email regarding traffic on North Upper Truckee.
Many state and local agencies are aware of this issue, and there is no easy answer. North Upper Truckee is a public road that may be used by any motorist at any time. Closing the road to everyone but locals could be legally problematic. Such closures would require checkpoints staffed 24/7 by law enforcement, and neither CHP nor the County Sheriff have the resources to do this.
I know that Supervisor Novasel met with many state and local agencies regarding this issue last winter and discussed several possible ideas that might minimize these problems during peak traffic periods. However, as you know, it’s very difficult to change driving behavior. We will consider additional signage as per your suggestions.
Thank you for your email, and please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions or comments.
JK
John Kahling
Deputy Director, Engineering
County of El Dorado
Community Development Agency
Transportation Division
2441 Headington Road
Placerville, CA 95667
office: 530-642-4974
cell: 530-957-3711
How about metoring lights, like they use on the Bay Bridge and many off ramps. Red you wait, green you go, simple and legal.
It’s simple, TOO MANY DAMN TOURISTS ! Until people wake up, get tired of fighting the tourists and want their home back, it will just get worse. Thank all the realtors, developers, and business owners and council members who are out to get rich off the tourists.
Roundabouts and loop roads will not change anything.
Roundabouts and loops will make the traffic worse.
Now you people have ‘blocked’ all of the ‘locals’ sneaks and now the tourists are mad as hell…they used to be able to line up and get in and out of here In reasonable and spaced times.
Now it’s a mess for all and no one can even get to work or the store for a head of lettuce.
Not one of the cars we saw coming down our street had chains on even though chains were required on Hwy 50. Most people probably go out LTB to cut in line at HWY 50 but some of them probably hope to avoid chaining up. Maybe on weekends like this there should be chain control at Sawmill Road so that people have chains on before they get to 50.
Why aren’t there chain control signs and people checking the cars as they come into Meyers ? I see people pull over and take the chains off once they get to Meyers, even though the roads are a mess, and then these idiots get into our neighborhoods and slip and slide and block our streets.
Enforcement needs to be better and tickets need to be given, a large ticket, like $500 !
Losing money wakes people up and they will follow the law !