Your Next Drive To California Will Be (A Little) Easier
There are some people that don’t believe in hell. Then there are others who have driven to California on a Sunday afternoon.
Driving to California at the end of a weekend, when half of the Golden State is planning on returning at the same time, can be excruciating. Thankfully there’s a subtle improvement that just took place that could make your drive a little less frustrating.
CalTrans (the California version of NDOT) has just completed a one mile stretch of what they are calling a “transition lane”. During peak traffic (the end of weekends being highest on the list), this new “shoulder lane” will be opened to create a third lane of traffic going southbound. They had to re-pave and stripe the area to make it suitable for traffic.
What was the problem in the first place
As is customary in Nevada, we think it’s California’s fault. Both northbound and southbound on Interstate 15 at state line in Primm, the Nevada side sports three lanes of traffic. However, as soon as you hit the “Welcome To California” sign, you lose a lane, and the bottleneck begins. It starts off small, and then eventually the traffic is several miles long. It happens every weekend like clockwork and has the potential to turn away visitors who don’t want to deal with the nightmare of returning from their weekend of play.
What is the plan to fix it
Fixing the issue was never a real priority for California as it didn’t particularly affect their economy. But Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak teamed up with California Governor Gavin Newsom and announced a plan to tackle it last December. When the project is over, the “transition lane” will stretch five miles and get traffic from the Nevada state line all the way to the California Agricultural Inspection Station past Primm. That, they are hoping, is enough to keep the traffic flowing well, or at least better than it does right now.
The faster people can leave, the more likely they’ll be to return, and that’s good for all of us.
