South Lake Tahoe Labor Day traffic test to include full road closures

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - In an attempt to address traffic concerns on side roads in the Meyers area, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and El Dorado County (EDC) conducted a test and put up two road closures on Sunday, July 7, 2019.

Barriers were placed at the intersections of Highway 50 and both Sawmill and North Upper Truckee roads in an attempt to keep westbound holiday traffic out of the neighborhoods and on the highway. In addition, they were also evaluating the traffic backup on both roads and the routing of traffic by directional apps like Waze and Google.

Residents and other drivers ended up going around the barriers, thus telling the apps (via Bluetooth) the roads were open. Due to this, the next test date over Labor Day Weekend will involve a full barrier that cannot be moved by drivers.

"We received many complaints from residents on the south side of Highway 50," said CHP Lt. Terry Lowther. "They were upset that we were only addressing solutions for the North Upper Truckee side of Highway 50."

Lowther said their efforts to ease neighborhood traffic were just tested on the two streets to see if it would work on other streets as well.

"A good number of locals went through the road closures," said Rafael Martinez, EDC transportation director. "They didn't think closure applied to them. Everybody means everybody."

Both Lowther and Martinez said people not obeying the road closures sent the wrong message to the map apps.

Lowther said officers pulled over the violators they found and issued warnings for not obeying the official closure signs and barriers and driving around them.

It wasn't a normal holiday getaway day for South Lake Tahoe visitors on July 7 since many left at times spread out Friday through Sunday. The Labor Day weekend closure will be a more accurate test.

"We determined the directional APPS continued to direct travelers towards both the closures, even though the closures were uploaded to the CalTrans QuickMaps via the CalTrans Traffic Management Center," said Lowther. "It is unknown if the uploaded closures simply failed or if the failure was a result of locals and travelers disregarding all the signage and barriers; allowing the GPS APPS to assume the road was open. It was disappointing to see so many people argue with the officers over access to the 'closed roads' in addition to disregarding the posted warning signs and closures."

CHP said they agree with the additional testing and both they and EDSO agree the closures will need to be placed on both sides of the roadway. Both sides (northbound/southbound) of North Upper Truckee will be closed from Otomites to Highway 50. The closure of both sides will lengthen the barriers across the entire roadway to prevent drivers from traveling around the closures. This will be the same for Sawmill/50. This will also help determine if the restriction of travelers (including the GPS tracking of smartphones) will be recognized by the APP companies.

Martinez said traffic controllers will be on hand to physically remove the closures in the case of an emergency.

When asked about local resident Ken Curtzwiler's suggestion to tell the apps vehicles cannot bypass the Agriculture station in Meyers, Martinez said, in theory, it sounds good but with local cars using the bypasses, Waze and Google maps will see travel on other roads and alert drivers it is okay to go in those directions.

Martinez said it was illegal for people to go around a barricaded road closure with signage, just as it is technically illegal for people to bypass the Agriculture station. It takes staff to stand on roads to make sure people abide by those laws.

EDC Supervisor Sue Novasel will be holding a Town Hall meeting in August, before the next closures, to fill the public in on the plans. That date has yet to be announced.

"We want to find something that works that isn't too impactful," said Martinez.

This time he is going to write letters to both Waze and Google so they know ahead of time the road will be a full closure with absolutely no access to Highway 50 from Sawmill and North Upper Truckee roads.

"We are telling them it is our recommendation to not to send anyone that way," added Martinez.