Each year, Half Moon Bay councilmembers are briefed on what has become a routine, seasonal issue for the coastal town — the influx of tourists and the traffic jam that accompanies their pilgrimage to the beach to escape the heat.
Preparations to mitigate beachside trash and appropriately monitor traffic and cars are already underway, Interim Public Works Director Todd Seeley said. He was expecting the crowds might not come in until Memorial Day weekend, but noted that even the day of the Tuesday meeting, with temperatures raised only slightly, crowds had begun to amass and traffic backed up along State Route 92.
Typically, if temperatures rise above 85 degrees in areas like Hayward, Half Moon Bay plans for an influx of public service employees patrolling beaches and cleaning up, with the expectation that rising temperatures will incentivize visitors from over the hill and across the Bay.
“We live in a very beautiful place. The San Mateo County coast, including Half Moon Bay, is a prime recreation destination for the Bay Area and world,” Seeley said.
The county is also attempting to get ahead of an expected surge in coastal visitors ahead of Memorial Day weekend, putting out a press release encouraging visitors to never turn their back on the ocean, keep children within arm’s reach and allow extra time when traveling to and from the coast.
The backup of traffic along State Route 92 and Highway 1 is unavoidable, Half Moon Bay Police Chief Eamonn Allen said.
“There’s going to be traffic no matter what we do,” he said. “We know that it’s going to be a crazy summer again, it is every year, and once the summer dies down, it leads into September and October and pumpkin time, and we know basically for the next six months we’re going to be dealing with traffic.”
It might be prudent for Half Moon Bay to coordinate with Caltrans to ensure that lights along major roads are going from green to red in the most efficient manner possible, Councilmember Patric Bo Jonsson said.
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Police are partnering with California Highway Patrol to coordinate enforcement at major intersections, Allen said, and city staff will increase monitoring of parking lots to ensure rules are enforced and cars don’t stay past parking hours. In addition, Poplar Beach, one of Half Moon Bay’s most popular attractions, will be getting two new, modernized parking machines by mid-summer.
If possible, it would be ideal to use social media channels to make visitors aware of traffic times, Councilmember Robert Brownstone said.
“Summer traffic is certainly one of the hot issues,” he said. “I wonder if we can leverage social media better in terms of one getting current updates to folks out there about coastal traffic out at the beach, and somehow get that out on popular social media.”
It isn’t only visitors that the city has to think about when it comes to summer beach days. Allen encouraged residents to call the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Half Moon Bay bureau at (650) 363-4991 if they see any escalating party behavior.
“If a group is massing, especially underage kids consuming alcohol, that’s something we want to be made aware of, so we can address it immediately,” he said.
In addition, city staff will deploy San Mateo County alerts, mobile message boards and coordination with local school districts to attempt to mitigate the influx of beachside visitors to the extent possible.
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