Small group gathers to discuss Meyers and South Lake Tahoe traffic issues

Representatives from several agencies met with the public Thursday night at El Dorado County Supervisor Sue Novasel's second community meeting to discuss traffic issues and the "invasion of neighborhoods" by non-local drivers.

About twenty people gathered to hear from El Dorado County Transportation officials, County representatives and Sheriff's deputies, Caltrans, California Highway Patrol, Lake Valley Fire and the police chief and city manager from the City of South Lake Tahoe. This meeting was a followup to the one Novasel held on February 13 when 100 people met to discuss traffic issues in the community, especially this winter when drivers left Highway 50 and ventured onto residential streets to get around backup.

Novasel brought back answers to several questions and comments brought up at the February meeting.

Traction Control Ordinance

There is a Traffic Advisory Committee that meets to discuss El Dorado County issues on the roads. They are discussing a traffic control ordinance where vehicles on all roads during snow conditions would have to either have chains or 4WD with snow tires. Once a final recommendation passes the committee the Board of Supervisors will vote on the ordinance. It would probably be October before this step is completed, giving the County Department of Transportation (DOT) time to get signage up.

This ordinance would be for all cars, including locals.

Information

SLT City Manager Nancy Kerry addressed this topic and gave the attendees an update. She and a group of other concerned agencies met to hammer out ideas and plans. The City spearheaded a texting campaign where people can text the word "taheroads" to 99000 to receive traffic information as a tool to stay off the road until it is less congested. She also suggested locals download the app WAZE so they can talk to people using the surface roads to get around the Meyers traffic jam on stormy and busy Sundays. She did it this winter and was in conversation with people looking for shortcuts.

What also came out of the traffic meeting was getting Caltrans to keep signature current and up to date with travel times.

Toll Roads

It would take an act of congress to install toll roads, or a Fastrac type system, in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Novasel looked into the possibility, and since Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) has jurisdiction over transportation, their bi-state compact outlines in Article 9 that roads will be free of charge. Toll roads are illegal in the State of Nevada, and since TRPA is over them in the basin they'd have to first get Nevada to change their law, then both states would have to approve the change in the TRPA Articles, then Congress would have to approve. While it is not impossible, it would be a long road.

Safety and Local's Only Roads

Many are concerned of safety issues when the roads are just long lines of traffic. Lake Valley Fire Chief Tim Alameda said they move around fire trucks and staff to be positioned in the best way to protect and serve the community.

"We're going to get there," said Alameda in addressing concerns of his department's ability to get to emergencies with so many cars blocking the roadway.

Public roads cannot be closed to the public, unless there is a safety issue said CHP Officer Ruth Loehr.

Roads can be closed when a law enforcement assessment is made on the conditions. Many would like to see North Upper Truckee become a local's only access road when traffic is bad.

According to El Dorado County Sheriff's Office and CHP, their assessment includes looking at the number of spinouts and collisions; the backups on surface streets such as Mandan, Apache and North Upper Truckee; look at the behavior of drivers at the time; and how many people are traveling in the wrong direction to get around traffic. They said many local drivers frustrated at the road jams would pass the stopped traffic and go in the wrong direction in the other lane.

They can make soft and hard closures on roads when there are safety issues. Soft closures would block a road to all but those who live in an area, and a hard closure would be when nobody is allowed as during a fire.

Many have said they want a soft closure every weekend, and that isn't possible due to staffing and resources, but will occur if safety of people dictates.

Other ideas have been to widen Highway 50 to four lanes, but driver behavior when lanes merge would just become a bigger issue and it'd be back to the current situation. If one looks at the cameras over Echo Summit when traffic is backed up in Meyers will see wide open lanes until drivers hit Sierra Ski Ranch Road where the four-lane highway goes back to two-lanes.

Closing a road like they do on Ski Run Boulevard for Farmer's Market is not a possibility either. It takes permits and planning to close a road in that method, and one can't plan that far ahead of time for a weather emergency. Rolling road closures like for Amgen are also permitted, but only last for a few minutes.

Kerry commented that the same number of cars coming into South Lake Tahoe on a Friday night are normally the same numbers who attempt to leave on a Sunday morning/afternoon. The Friday crowd isn't backed up because they are staggered, a concept the City has been trying to convey to visitors through their "Stay and Play Another Day" campaign. Getting people trained to not leave at 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. like everyone else.

Many people who drive to Sacramento or San Francisco know traffic will be back at rush hour, and if they don't have to be there at that time, they aren't. They go earlier, later, or take a different route. That same philosophy can be successful in the Lake Tahoe traffic solutions. Cheaper rates, fewer skiers on the slopes and less traffic on the roads is usually the situation in South lake Tahoe Monday through Thursday, so visitors could look at those options as well.

One person in the audience Thursday suggested enforced load limits for trucks utilizing Tahoe Mountain and Upper Truckee Roads and the possibility of one-way roads. That will be looked at but residents need to know that whatever rules are in place must be followed by all, locals and non-locals alike.

The different agencies involved will continue to work on solutions with input from the public.

"This is a village, we're all neighbors and we're working on this together," said Novasel of the traffic problem.