Frustration over traffic and speeds on U.S. Highway 395 came to a head at this week’s Inyo Board of Supervisors meeting following a recent car vs high school student incident. The teen was battered, bruised and traumatized but will recover from the physical injuries.
Fifth District Supervisor Matt Kingsley brought up the incident at the start of Tuesday’s meeting. A semi had stopped at a crosswalk to allow the pedestrian to cross. A passenger vehicle pulled around the truck to pass and struck the teen. Kingsley commented that the staff at the local CalTrans office was good, but as a public agency, CalTrans was “not responsive.” He
also added there had been a “near miss” with an 8-year old recently.
Lone Pine Unified School District board member Scott Kemp explained the situation more graphically. “There’s a grammar school at the north end of town and a high school at the south end,” he said. “Cars come into town at 70 mph.” He added that CalTrans had been receptive and law enforcement was great, but the speed indicators placed at both ends of the community
weren’t slowing traffic. “They’re used to driving that fast,” he said. “It’s a mentality.”
Mentality is the issue. Tourist traffic from Southern California headed to and from points north don’t seem to realize there are living human beings in the small communities seen as simply places to stop for gas, grab a meal or just get through as fast as possible. On a recent Sunday afternoon, traffic through Bishop was a bumper to bumper crawl. Once the traffic hit the south end of town, speeds hit 80 and didn’t slow through Big Pine.
Nate Greenberg, Inyo’s chief administrative officer, told the Board CalTrans has asked for a meeting with the County to look at solutions. Stay tuned.
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It is not only Lone Pine. I was stopped fora group of pedestrians in Bridgeport and a Mercedes SUV passed me illegally in the center turn lane. Screeching brakes, screaming people running and the driver just sped off. Entitled jerks also use the turn lane in Walker as a passing lane with uncountable near misses over the years but I think Caltrans/county govt/etc needs blood, guts and grey matter smeared on the asphalt before they can give a hoot. I think the punishment needs to be more severe – like turn the perp over to the towns people. BRING BACK THE PILLORY!
Lone Pine excessive speeders on 395 through town are totally crazy, 50 in a 35 is common 60++ is normal for many of those hurried idiots. a roadside monitor that checks speeds and takes photos of oncoming & outgoing offenders at each end of town that captures license plates with automatic ticket in the mail would be good, and give CHP ample funds from fines, which should be high enough price to pay to register in the drivers minds.worse come to worse speed bumps every block through town would probably suffice especially for repeat offenders. It is totally insane how fast these people drive through town with no thought whatsoever about safety life or limb..
Why wasn’t CHP attending the meeting?
is it possible to have one of those text alerts that one gets for avalanche hazards etc? I received one during the last storms as I approached aspendell, so it seemed to recognize my location. Maybe we could have one go off for out-of-area area codes south of lone pine / north of bishop that tells people to respect the communities or get BIG FINES!
concerned resident
Do you REALLY think that would work and slow them down any ?
With no real enforcement ,it ain’t a gonna change…
Here’s another suggestion.
Instead of selling those old, worn out black and white Law Enforcement vehicles for $400 at auction, park them south and north of town unattended .tint the windows a bit, at least would slow some of them down..
I think it would slow some of them down, maybe. I mean, our Main Streets are designed to look and function as highways – can’t blame some of these folks for not realizing they are driving through communities.
The situation on 120/Benton Crossing clearly indicates they let their onboard navigation do the thinking for them….maybe THOSE can be programmed to tell them to slow down in small towns…
concerned resident
I quit using and believing much of those high tech “navigation devices” years ago…
Went to look for and visit the Charles Manson Barker Ranch in Death Valley
a few years ago and hoping to get there using one of them devices.
Literally in the middle of nowhere, and it had me going every way but the right way to find it…
It took me an Inyo County road crew worker’s notes to tell me where it was…park entrance sign…..go 75 yards, look to the right and follow the trees…and there it was !!
Where is the highway patrol , or is this another case of you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you . How about speed bumps through towns call them financial humps.
P ite
But then what about emergency vehicles ?…
And a good bet some of our tourists wouldn’t know about them, wouldn’t care about them if they did, and going their 55 MPH + through our towns, sure, damage to their vehicles, but what about the other vehicles, business’ and people when they lose control and crash ?
I don’t understand this. When I drive 395 I see many CHP and Inyo Sheriff SUVs. And Bishop itself has its own third police force. It seems that there are plenty of speed limit enforcement vehicles around. Something isn’t adding up.
There at the bottom of the story, saying “asking for a meeting to look at solutions “..
The ONLY real solution to this speeding through town problem in Lone Pine, the worst, followed closely by Independence. then Big Pine is two-fold…IMO…..first and foremost, heavy citations for those doing it, along with an enhancement of 30 day impound of the vehicle if their speeds happen to be over 50 MPH in the 25 MPH zone..like it is in many other States, and actually think it is in California too , but not something they enforce and apply….or popular, for some in a tourist town or towns.
THAT would slow them down through town, if was enforced….not being a speeding ticket most of the SoCal tourists driving their $75,000 vehicles getting to their $350.00 a night condos in Mammoth Lakes that can easily afford ( and laugh about getting ) IF they are given a ticket and not just given a warning and IF they are caught by LE doing it.
Another possible solution in Lone Pine, a stop light by the High School coming into town from the south meant to slow the tourists down more so than cross traffic..and if needed, another stop light on HWY 395 and Locust Street, near the middle school.
Fixing the problem, I doubt it’ll be solved by “speed indicator lights” that usually aren’t working anyway reminding them they’re driving over 25 MPH, or “board meetings ” addressing a problem that’s been going on for MANY years, at least in the 23 years I’ve lived in the Owens Valley….and getting worse.
Sadly, what it’s probably going to take is a really big accident on a Main Street through town ,even worse than the big-rig that crashed into the occupied motel in Lone Pine a couple years back, or the trucker that was killed by a speeder on the south side of town in front of Lee’s Liquor a couple months ago…or even the teen getting hit in a crosswalk last month.
What it’ll take is a catastrophic accident claiming multiple lives to either/and/or pedestrians and people in other vehicles or maybe into an occupied business or restaurant.
And if something isn’t done about it soon, it IS going to happen..just a matter of time.
David, I hope you are also attending meetings about this and putting into writing your suggestions and submitting them to CalTrans, CHP, Inyo Sheriff Dept., and Inyo Board of Supervisors. Maybe even Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce (Bishop’s Chamber seems to have some major pull with the City of Bishop and County). Heck, you can copy, paste, print or email your comments from here to the agencies involved. Though I would word it in a way that is clear you are expecting a response back addressing each concern and suggestion.
Maybe you can even help organize a town hall meeting with all those agencies so it is clear when a room full of citizens voice their concerns and frustrations and also so ideas can be shared on how to help fix the issue. Be sure to invite the press.
Taking Action
I’m probably going to get bashed by saying this, but no organizing meetings, submitting ideas, copy and pasting ideas, etc. for me.
I’m sure some, and I probably know who they will probably say “then shut up, yadda, yadda, yadda.”
But in all actuality, I’m old enough to know I’m highly doubtful any of those, and especially my ideas would add much pull or weight to what each and everyone of us living in these little OV towns already know and see happening on a daily basis MULTIPLE times, including Law Enforcement and town supervisors.
My ideas, and simple ones, would be a stoplight at the cross-walk between the Lone Pine High School and McDonalds just south of Lone Pine..having the light trigger when someone is crossing the street…and another stop-light between the El Dorado Bank and the park and by Carl’s Jr…again triggering when someone is crossing the crosswalk…
IMO, that would be a good start…and if doesn’t slow the speeders down through town, step # 2 would be more enforcement…and that 30 day impound if driving double the speed limit, especially when kids are present and in a school zone.
People and SoCal travelers should know, without baby-sitting signs or text alerts telling them to use common sense and not drive double the speed limit through towns and school zones…
Only way they will learn is to light them up and issue tickets with big fines, as well as for some, take their cars and SUV’s away for 30 days and costing over $1,000.00 to get them back in a month….no exceptions..
Same kinda thing , indirectly to what happened at Whitney Portal parking lot years ago…not a speeding issue with this up there, this one was tourists ignoring the “no parking” signs along the road, but our travelers doing it anyway, ignoring the ‘tow zone’ warnings..
And when they got back from their hike, instead of a 13 mile drive to town, maybe a nice bed to sleep in for the night, what they got was their missing vehicle from where they parked it, and a tow charge at the local garage to get it back….a $400 or $500 tow charge as well as the inconvenience that surely brought along getting to town to get the vehicle back.
Now THAT was a rule with teeth… and I bet never again did they park where they wanted to and do as they please…
There….too long of a comment, and all I gotta say about it…