‘Overtourism is killing Big Sur’ sign appears on Bixby Bridge over holiday weekend
A large yellow banner reading “Overtourism is killing Big Sur,” appeared on the side of the iconic Bixby Creek Bridge in Big Sur over the weekend.
Caltrans spokesman Jim Shivers told The Tribune in an email that the agency’s maintenance supervisor for the Big Sur area went to the bridge on Saturday, intending to remove the sign, but it had already been removed by the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office.
“An encroachment permit is needed to place anything in the right of way. This includes signs, parking for events or other special events such as parades, bike rides, etc.,” Shivers wrote, adding that officials review banners first to make sure they don’t distract motorists from safety features like traffic signs.
SFGate reported that the sign was posted by a group called Take Back Big Sur, which is comprised of about two dozen Big Sur locals.
Just a few days before the banner appeared, a video was posted to Vimeo showing a line of cars stretching nearly three miles up Highway 1, starting just around the Bixby Creek Bridge parking area and continuing up past the Notleys Landing area, on July 4.
Frustrations with Big Sur tourists have grown recently: in May, an Instagram account called @bigsureducatesyou started calling out people who went to questionable lengths for their photos. (The account was originally called @bigsurhatesyou, but the name was later changed.)
One of the posts showed a woman standing under McWay Falls. “Climbing down to the beach and calling it ‘taking one for the team’ is not only stupid, it’s illegal,” the caption read.
The account has since been deleted from Instagram, though it’s not clear when that happened.
Matthew Khalar, a supervising ranger for California State Parks in Big Sur, told The Tribune in May that Instagram and other social media have changed how tourists interact with the area.
“If you go to the Bixby Bridge on weekends, sometimes we have to have CHP officers stationed there all day long because people will just stop in the middle of the road for that photo,” Khalar said at the time. “It wasn’t like that two years ago.”
Geotagging locations on Instagram means that more visitors are flocking to formerly hidden gems, which means an increase in bad behavior like trespassing.
“We’ve always had that problem (of people trespassing),” Khalar said in May. “But now people are specifically referencing that they saw it on Instagram so they want to do it themselves.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2019 at 3:30 PM with the headline "‘Overtourism is killing Big Sur’ sign appears on Bixby Bridge over holiday weekend."
