So....if I read this correctly, there are some people on the sandbar close to the highway and the backup is caused by motorists gawking at the people on the sandbar. The sandbar partiers are apparently in the right here...doing nothing but hanging out together. "relocating a sandbar" doesn't work any better than 'renourishing' a beach. The sand will not stay anywhere that the current, waves and tides don't already put it. I can go on about this for an interminable time, but googling "sediment transport" is easier for the reader. So, IMHO, if you don't want the Powers That Be to screw over the boating public yet again with more restrictions and you can't put in a man made sandbar like a man-made reef, you have to deal with the dumbass motorists that cause those wave-like traffic slowdowns because they've never seen people with a boat and a beer. Either put up a blind so they can't slow down, write a minimum speed ordinance and enforce it or (my personal favorite) charge a $500 users fee for non-residents to cross Jewfish Creek or the Monroe County Toll Bridge south of Jack's. . If the overcrowding doesn't get some relief, raise the fee til it does. (In an alternate universe we could have asked Ed Robinson to get Breeze Meade to blow up the bridge....) Wait....Trufante gets involved (by accident of course) with some terrorist group with a big damned bomb which, at the end of the story, blows up and wipes out the highway across Lake Surprise, thus moving the traffic bottleneck to Alabama Jack's. THey make a fortune selling lunch and beers to the people in the huge traffic jams as well as selling t-shirts that say "We almost made it to the Florida Keys" , traffic is reduced into the Keys, Trufante survives with the 1000 watt smile and the 15 watts of common sense and Steven Becker has another bestseller. The End
As Winston Churchill said: "It's a constitutional right, wrapped in a moral dilemma, inside a slippery slope." Well, he would have said that if he'd lived close to the Florida coast. I too, feel conflicted about the damage to our fragile sandbars and beaches. But, just as sure as I enjoy quietly flipping bait, or silently cruising on my paddle board, I also acknowledge that my fellow citizens have a right to get drunk, half naked, and sunburnt on a floating disco ball.
My only consolation is that, as all American fads do, this one too shall pass.
If cars are going to slow down anyway, put in a toll. Once they've collected enough money to psy for the screening, remove the toll.
While the boaters are completely within their rights, this could be an opportunity for NPS to enact user fees/permits on certain sandbars. The idea is against my principles but the older I get the fewer principles I have
Yes, I know it's an enforcement nightmare but a couple of cameras and any boat without a day use permit gets mailed a ticket. Not a solution but a something
I agree and a great idea. I am on the SW Coast of FL and the sandbar thing is out of control...The issue is not just the sandbar parties themselves but the damage to the surrounding eco systems and the physical danger of unskilled boaters that present a danger to wildlife, paddlers and other boaters...
Steve I feel your pain! We go back and forth between our place in Lauderdale and Tavernier a few times a month and the rubberneckers at that spot are ridiculous! I think everyone slows down there because that’s truly the first open view of water coming into the keys, and the hopeful look at a bikini clad young lady! I don’t know what the right answer is, but building a beach elsewhere and then prohibiting anchoring by the highway won’t work. These boaters are going to go and drop anchor wherever they want, especially since you can’t have 24 hour enforcement of that area! Fence, bushes and trees sadly might be the way to go, even if it’s at the taxpayers expense. And what about the bridge at Gilbert’s? Why is it necessary for everyone to stop at the top? To take a picture? I can’t wait to get off the highway and zip into the left lane and fly by all the lookie loo’s!
Not having driven that stretch of road in over a decade, I'm not familiar with Bikini Beach. But having sunk down into the Key's marl on more than one occasion, I can appreciate the attraction of a hard patch of sand. Dredging up another as an alternative site though? Sounds like you'd be creating another "attractive nuisance" which would encourage even more to join in. At least they'd be away from the road though.
So what's the attraction for the "rubberneckers?" Is it a nude sunbathing spot, or just a place where a passerby might get a few second glimpse of a pretty girl in a bikini, or a "pool boy" in a speedo? I don't get it.
So....if I read this correctly, there are some people on the sandbar close to the highway and the backup is caused by motorists gawking at the people on the sandbar. The sandbar partiers are apparently in the right here...doing nothing but hanging out together. "relocating a sandbar" doesn't work any better than 'renourishing' a beach. The sand will not stay anywhere that the current, waves and tides don't already put it. I can go on about this for an interminable time, but googling "sediment transport" is easier for the reader. So, IMHO, if you don't want the Powers That Be to screw over the boating public yet again with more restrictions and you can't put in a man made sandbar like a man-made reef, you have to deal with the dumbass motorists that cause those wave-like traffic slowdowns because they've never seen people with a boat and a beer. Either put up a blind so they can't slow down, write a minimum speed ordinance and enforce it or (my personal favorite) charge a $500 users fee for non-residents to cross Jewfish Creek or the Monroe County Toll Bridge south of Jack's. . If the overcrowding doesn't get some relief, raise the fee til it does. (In an alternate universe we could have asked Ed Robinson to get Breeze Meade to blow up the bridge....) Wait....Trufante gets involved (by accident of course) with some terrorist group with a big damned bomb which, at the end of the story, blows up and wipes out the highway across Lake Surprise, thus moving the traffic bottleneck to Alabama Jack's. THey make a fortune selling lunch and beers to the people in the huge traffic jams as well as selling t-shirts that say "We almost made it to the Florida Keys" , traffic is reduced into the Keys, Trufante survives with the 1000 watt smile and the 15 watts of common sense and Steven Becker has another bestseller. The End
As Winston Churchill said: "It's a constitutional right, wrapped in a moral dilemma, inside a slippery slope." Well, he would have said that if he'd lived close to the Florida coast. I too, feel conflicted about the damage to our fragile sandbars and beaches. But, just as sure as I enjoy quietly flipping bait, or silently cruising on my paddle board, I also acknowledge that my fellow citizens have a right to get drunk, half naked, and sunburnt on a floating disco ball.
My only consolation is that, as all American fads do, this one too shall pass.
If cars are going to slow down anyway, put in a toll. Once they've collected enough money to psy for the screening, remove the toll.
While the boaters are completely within their rights, this could be an opportunity for NPS to enact user fees/permits on certain sandbars. The idea is against my principles but the older I get the fewer principles I have
Yes, I know it's an enforcement nightmare but a couple of cameras and any boat without a day use permit gets mailed a ticket. Not a solution but a something
I agree and a great idea. I am on the SW Coast of FL and the sandbar thing is out of control...The issue is not just the sandbar parties themselves but the damage to the surrounding eco systems and the physical danger of unskilled boaters that present a danger to wildlife, paddlers and other boaters...
Steve I feel your pain! We go back and forth between our place in Lauderdale and Tavernier a few times a month and the rubberneckers at that spot are ridiculous! I think everyone slows down there because that’s truly the first open view of water coming into the keys, and the hopeful look at a bikini clad young lady! I don’t know what the right answer is, but building a beach elsewhere and then prohibiting anchoring by the highway won’t work. These boaters are going to go and drop anchor wherever they want, especially since you can’t have 24 hour enforcement of that area! Fence, bushes and trees sadly might be the way to go, even if it’s at the taxpayers expense. And what about the bridge at Gilbert’s? Why is it necessary for everyone to stop at the top? To take a picture? I can’t wait to get off the highway and zip into the left lane and fly by all the lookie loo’s!
Not having driven that stretch of road in over a decade, I'm not familiar with Bikini Beach. But having sunk down into the Key's marl on more than one occasion, I can appreciate the attraction of a hard patch of sand. Dredging up another as an alternative site though? Sounds like you'd be creating another "attractive nuisance" which would encourage even more to join in. At least they'd be away from the road though.
So what's the attraction for the "rubberneckers?" Is it a nude sunbathing spot, or just a place where a passerby might get a few second glimpse of a pretty girl in a bikini, or a "pool boy" in a speedo? I don't get it.