Heavy traffic leaving South Lake Tahoe

The heavy holiday traffic in South Lake Tahoe is showing up on the newly installed CalTrans message boards. As of 11 a.m., it was a 14 minute drive from the intersection of Highway 50 and Pioneer Trail near Stateline to the "Y." It is a 70 minute trip from that same location to Meyers and 160 minutes to Placerville.

Three new message signs were unveiled in South Lake Tahoe just before the 4th of July holiday weekend.

Who wouldn't want to enjoy the lake a little bit longer, hike or bike a little bit longer, or linger over a big meal instead of sitting in traffic over Echo Summit on Highway 50?

Nancy Kerry, City Manager of South Lake Tahoe and Jim Marino, the City's Assistant Public Works Director, approached Caltrans years ago, asking if they could help alert travelers about the time it takes to get over the mountain towards Placerville.

People can access the signs from their smart phone or computer via tahoeroads.com. Click on the Quick Map link and then select "Message Boards." Message boards throughout the state are visible and one can zero in on the location they want to read.

"At the City we have long been concerned about the traffic and very long lines of cars sitting in slow moving (or not moving) traffic often beginning as far back Tahoe Keys or further," said Kerry. "We have all seen the vacationers leaving after Sunday check out at 11 a.m. only to find themselves in traffic that takes as long as 4 hours to Sacramento, we’ve even heard times longer than that."

The City launched the "Stay and Play Another Day" campaign a couple of years ago to show guests how much more of the area they could enjoy by not jumping onto Highway 50 in standstill traffic.

Kerry hopes once people see “180 minutes” or “240 minutes," etc., that they might consider staying in South Lake Tahoe Tahoe a little longer.