Letter: Is Tahoe at its tipping point?
To the community,
We tried to go skiing at Squaw earlier this month, but after two hours into a 30-minute commute we had to turn around. It was Jan. 10, a Sunday and it should have been reasonably busy, but not gridlock. So are traffic jams on off peak weekends the new normal for our area? Traffic was backed up from Squaw to Truckee. OK, so gas is cheap and we finally have snow, but aren’t we supposed to have snow in the winter?
A Jan. 8 Sierra Sun opinion piece entitled, “We owe an apology to Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada” submitted by TRPA, the Tahoe Fund and others was particularly ironic since TRPA has been central to this issue by promoting new large development projects such as Boulder Bay, and Homewood without any consideration for the harsh reality that we don’t have a comprehensive transportation system, adequate fire evacuation, or necessary infrastructure. The reality is there isn’t any planning or social engineering to manage all the crowds and litter. Ten pounds can’t fit in a 5-pound bag.
Worse yet, TRPA has given a wink of approval to the Martis Valley West/Brockway Campground debacle that plops thousands of people on the ridge at Brockway Summit. Fact: our region is at or over capacity many times throughout the year. The Tahoe Fund is fueled by and has become the PR arm for large developers. It’s great that they are all so chummy, but where does that leave the public? Small conservation groups are left with having to protect Tahoe from phony traffic studies and bogus environmental analysis.
I’m not saying I want five lanes like the South Shore, but obviously we need transportation solutions, not rhetoric. Token signs saying “Take Care” are a nice idea, but funds should be allocated for enforcement. When you have as many visitors as Tahoe does (I’ve heard 4-plus million/year) there will always be a trash problem. Since Tahoe is close to the large population areas of Reno, Sacramento and San Francisco, shouldn’t we have a maximum number of visitors? Should there be a fee to handle impacts and transportation solutions? Should there be a penalty consequence for littering? Should Lake Tahoe become a national park? Maybe TRPA and the other authors of the article owe those that love and respect Lake Tahoe an apology for failing to plan for the real problems associated with increasing tourism.
TRPA, look to the dangerous development policies you promote and come up with realistic enforcement solutions. For the first time, I’m hearing visitors saying they are “rethinking Tahoe” as a getaway. It’s time to think outside the box before we all get boxed in.
Ann Nichols, president North Tahoe Preservation Alliance
Thank you! Build it and they will come, and they will destroy. Maybe a toll for non residents, like the Bay Area does, use it for city clean up and enforcement. We should be a national park and since there is a clause for a maximum yearly number of guests allowed to enter the park, it should be used. Not just here, but all parks. Very sad that some of us can envision the destruction of Tahoe and the officials placed in charge cannot. Tahoe was demolished before, it WILL happen again. History always repeats itself. PS, part of the traffic problem on North Shore may have been due to Emerald Bay being closed for avalanche control.
Don’t build any more beds, and work on building up tourism in the off weeks, so that we have steady tourism year round.
I too feel we have already reached or surpassed maximum visitor load at busy times of the year.
Spot on.
Interesting that this opinion peice is using an one time experience to stop all developement and to stop people from coming to tahoe. Sounds more like i bought my home now lets let no one else enjoy this National Treasure. Most true locals know to never go skiing on Saturday or Sunday is always going to be more crowded. We have not even come close to the average visitor counts we have had pre 2005. I live in the south shore and am wonder, we have 5 lanes? I most towns in the US 2 lanes(plus a turning) each way is the norm, but I guess when you call it 5 lanes it makes it appear biggier that it really is. I guess we should say that North Shore has 3 to 5 lanes.
Not even close to the amount of people that came up here when gambling was King. Bumper to bumper from Sam’s Town (Cameron Park) all the way to Stateline. Both directions. In the snow. Used to take over an hour to go from Tahoe Keys to Stateline. :-)
Come on Man!! If you can’t see that a place as beautiful as Lake Tahoe is in the summertime is destined to be sold to the highest bidders, then you are pretty much oblivious to how human nature and economics work.
The City of South Lake Tahoe is complicit in this problem in its scheduling of Snow Globe during what has always, already been the busiest tourism week of the year. The event should instead be scheduled for the slowest week of the year to better even out the ups and downs and problems described in this article.
All the projects the Tahoe Transportation District(TRPA)(TTD) wants will make traffic worse. The Loop Rd. Fanny bridge, and other projects will not create any new capacity on our roads. The Loop Road will decrease capacity. The Homewood, Squaw and the new Loop road projects will guarantee more gridlock. The developers have the hired guns to say everything will be fine. But, it will not. Support these groups the are really trying to protect Tahoe.
I have mine and now everyone else stay out. If you want to come here we are going to tell you when and at what price.
Wow, people really lose touch with reality.
MONORAIL
THANK YOU so much for writing this.
I moved to Tahoe in 2006, after 9 years I have left.
It was feeling too much like a city.
I am all for turning Tahoe into a National Park. The nitrogen from driving even in Truckee is a large factor in the reduction of lake clarity.
The region has to have MORE protection. STOP the building of NEW.
I was really saddened to see the go ahead with Homewood.
When you have to give yourself an hour to get to Truckee from Kings Beach
with NO snow happening you know there is a problem with the traffic grid lock!
The litter of over 4,000 pounds in the summer on just 3 beaches and piles of broken sleds on the sledding hills left for the locals to clean up is a sign of times, very sad and embarrassing times.
Why are there not more roundabouts? Not even sure that will solve the TC gridlock.
Zion National Park has a great system. Maybe something like that can be implemented to those whom are staying at hotels? Something has to change.
Is gridlock your reality?
The traffic at North Shore is a disaster. So much for the buses, empty transit center, bike trails and board walks.
Until bicycles sprout wings the visitors still need to drive here and PARK somewhere.
I believe in property rights but having us pay for the developers power infrastructure and have them build without addressing traffic issue is just wrong!
I feel that the point of the letter is that too many people are already coming to Lake Tahoe, and with future big development plans, such as the Brockway Campground Resort, that the problems are just going to get worse. All while the planning agencies continue to approve large-scale development projects around the Lake.
The issue of the visitor trash exceeding the capacity of local North Shore/Truckee waste containment systems is just a problem of the local agencies not scheduling enough trash pickups over the busy holiday weekend.
Now, I have to laugh at the 5 laned roads in SLT comment made. As I recall, the major routes in SLT have 2 lanes of traffic for each direction of travel plus a turning lane. That would equal 5 lanes.
North Shore communities are luckily if they get a turning lane, and then there’s that funny thing that Caltrans does to Tahoe City on the weekends for ski traffic; they think that the north bound traffic needs an extra lane through the downtown section. I think it causes more traffic slow downs, especially since the turning lane is taken away, and then when that extra lane ends drivers have trouble merging.
North Lake Tahoe is surrounded by new major developments. Squaw Valley. Northstar. Homewood. Martis Valley. Brockway Campground. Boulder Bay. Placer County’s Tahoe Basin Area Plan. Developments around Truckee. Comparisons to traffic in South Lake are a different issue. This is about what’s going on in the NORTH SHORE. Wanting our gov’t agencies to figure out how to handle the new traffic first (which may require some limits) is not the same thing as wanting to stop all development. Those who aim to profit from clogging our streets love to perpetuate the false idea that those against this rampant new development are against all new development. If you look at what a lot of these groups and citizens are saying, they just want responsible development that is well planned out and within Tahoe’s environmental capacity. Claiming they want NO new development is a tactic the developers and their agency friends use to distract from the real issues. Figuring out how much traffic we can handle, and how to manage it, before we bring in even more traffic – sounds like responsible planning. What a concept.
Add to this mess the local big thinkers who want the winter olympics.
“Wahh there are too many tourists in my town!” is pretty much the oldest and most tired Tahoe complaint in existence.
I agree with Ryan Payne, MONORAIL.
To include in this notion that the traffic from truckee to squaw being a problem, and stating that Tahoe is at capacity has to be one of my biggest pet peeves of people claiming truckee is in fact, tahoe. Your not from tahoe, your in the middle of a major trucking route that goes cross country, and brings people to a road that leads into Tahoe. Yes truckee is blowing up, for the exact fact of it being in close proximity to Tahoe, with cheaper prices for housing because it truly is over the hill and not the premium of being Lake Tahoe.
As for the topic of this being traffic, get over it. For the people who said they have left Tahoe due to traffic, I’m happy you have. As a born and raised local to south lake, I’ve learned to live with traffic on busy days, and honestly I stay inside on those days. I think we could all benefit from a quiet day to ourselves to slow this crazy world down a bit.
If you live in Tahoe, you should be able to slow down, enjoy where you live, be thankful to God about the beauty he provided, and do your part to keep it how it is. Be active in clean up, be active in good governmental choices, vote for those with good values who make our decisions. Tourism is what brings this lake money, and if you don’t like that, then you can plan on this entire place falling apart.
Truckee and the north shore have infrastructure issues during peak periods in season, but, that’s just it, it’s seasonal.
For a lot of locals, we know to try and stay away from town during these peak periods and let the tourists roam and explore-about through the traffic.
Locals, we wake up early and stand in line, before the lifts open, just to take 10 runs on a fresh powder day.
My heart goes out to those locals, due to work or otherwise, have to deal with these issues daily during peak periods; but I like this place exactly how it is because it takes living here to know how it works.
Tyler is right…that’s just the way it works ‘up’ here!
The powers that be have been trying to MAKE a ‘Las Vegas’ type model ‘work’ up here for 60+ years that I know of and well…there you go…here we are.
Fix whut ya got and go with it dudes.
P.S. Start with the POTHOLES
Unfortunately with 40 million people in the state there is traffic everywhere. Not sure how it gets fixed.
Carl
Jim Hildinger today wrote a letter to LTN that makes sense.
To the community: How To Curtail Tahoe gridlock