SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Riding through the Emerald Bay corridor, especially in the peak summer months, usually means navigating through illegally parked cars and crowds of people walking along the narrow shoulders of the busy two-lane road, determined to catch a glimpse of some of Lake Tahoe’s most famous views. 

It’s no secret that the three-and-a-half mile stretch around the bay poses not only environmental impacts and safety risks as visitors walk blindly around mountain curves and cars trample over vegetation and dirt – it also causes extreme traffic congestion as vehicles circle the area, slow and even come to a full stop in the road to wait for a parking spot.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) set out to tackle these long-standing issues by creating the SR-89 Recreation Corridor Management Plan, a document highlighting ways to improve the public access routes on Highway 89, as well as an additional plan focused just on Emerald Bay.

Supervisor Brooke Laine came upon the document several months after being elected El Dorado County District V Supervisor in 2023. 

“I started reading the document, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is so good!’,” Laine told the Tribune as she described an a la carte-like menu of measures that could be taken to improve the Emerald Bay area in TRPA’s plan. “You could do all of them, or some of them, but any of them would take pressure off of what we were seeing out in Emerald Bay.” 

Laine went straight to TRPA to commend them on their work, but had to ask them the question that was at the forefront of her mind, “How come no one is doing anything?”

Although TRPA, along with the Tahoe Transportation District, serve as the brains and planning behind projects such as these, the Emerald Bay corridor improvements needed some muscle to get things implemented, so Laine started making moves. 

As she began rallying the troops to hold a large organizational meeting to discuss the topic, her first stops were to two entities who owned the parking lots in Emerald Bay – The U.S. Forest Service, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTMBU) and California State Parks.

Erick Walker, Supervisor of LTMBU at the time, told Laine that if she held a meeting, he’d be there. California State Parks also agreed to attend.

Laine’s quest didn’t end there. She went to Caltrans, California Highway Patrol (CHP) and all transit and transportation-related entities in the area to request their attendance at the meeting, which finally came together in 2024. 

“45 people showed up,” said Laine. “I wanted it to be an in-person meeting because I knew, deep down, that we needed to start establishing relationships and trust if we were going to crack this mess.”

It took about 10 months of discussions and agreements before a pilot project for the Emerald Bay Shuttle was in the works for 2025, despite concerns that the project was too aggressive, or the projected launch, too soon. “My reply was that if you don’t have something to shoot for, we’re just going to put this on the back burner for another year or two,” said Laine. 

The shuttle was set to launch on July 15, 2025, just after Caltrans finished their first roadway safety audit through DKS Associates, an employee-owned transportation planning and engineering firm specializing in smart mobility, traffic safety, and operations.

The audit gathered viable data and located areas needing the most improvements, including Inspiration Point/Bay View, Eagle Falls, Vikingsholm, Upper Emerald Bay Road and switchbacks leading to Emerald Bay from South Lake Tahoe.

“For a place like Emerald Bay, safety has to be approached collaboratively. This road safety audit brought together Caltrans, local agencies, public safety partners, land managers, and community stakeholders to identify practical steps that can make SR 89 safer for residents, workers, and the many visitors who come to experience one of Tahoe’s most iconic destinations,” said Josh Pilachowski, Senior Project Manager at DKS Associates.

The audit reported 14 collisions at Inspiration Point with a range of crash types including crashes due to unsafe speed, as well as seven collisions at Vikingsholm with more than half being rear-end crashes. 

With the information from the audit and a plan in place, it was time to go for it, and thanks to private funding through Tahoe Fund and Keep Tahoe Blue, the Emerald Bay Shuttle went from pen and paper to reality as both organizations ponied up $150,000 each. 

“That $300,000 made the transit component possible, and we had some odd mitigation money from Placer County and El Dorado County that we threw in the pot,” Laine said. “California State Parks Foundation gave us a grant for $10,000 to be able to hire CHP to do extra patrol out there.”

Additionally, among their purchases were nearly 400 feet of temporary barricades to hinder visitors from parking illegally. 

As a whole, the first season of improvements and pilot launch of the Emerald Bay Shuttle were deemed a success, having taken over 1000 cars off the road as roughly 5000 people took to shuttles and public transportation instead. 

CHP cracked down on enforcement by writing close to 300 citations, towing 10 illegally-parked vehicles and issuing 13 moving violations. “We’re going to try and replicate that, and make it even more intense this year,” Laine said as she touched on efforts to bring the citations from $100 to $300. 

Heading into the 2026 season, the shuttle project has been approved for two more years worth of grant funding to the tune of $1.3 million. “We estimate the program will cost us $1.2 million,” Laine added. Unlike the first season’s private contributions, this summer and next year’s funding comes from federal, county and state. 

This year’s transit component will be about $500,000, and Laine said she plans to buy additional barricades to add to the already purchased ones from last year to be placed on the viaducts going uphill past Vikingsholm, aiming to discourage tourists from parking along the shoulders illegally and taking the dangerous long walk along the busy highway down towards the bay. 

Lessons learned from the shuttle’s first launch will be utilized this time around, including better communication and more shuttles running. “We have capacity to carry, based on our shuttles and their frequencies, probably 30,000 people. We really want to fill up our buses,” said Laine. “We don’t want to run empty shuttles, and we don’t want to run half-full shuttles.”

Informal stops will be set up at locations like Camp Richardson to expand ridership for visitors to the area.

Spreading the word that the shuttle offers a better and safer experience is at the top of Laine’s list heading into this next season. “It really is a better experience, not having to worry about parking. Everyone in the bus gets to enjoy the view, the driver isn’t freaked out going around hairpin turns,” she said. “We get them all there intact.” 

Looking ahead, Laine is holding onto her long-term vision for Emerald Bay. “If we can make it a car-free corridor, and we can raise a significant amount of revenue for people who want to go there and experience it, we could also provide some infrastructure that currently doesn’t exist up there – a general store, or a restaurant, lockers where people can put things they didn’t realize they didn’t need so they could lock it up and go on a hike,” she said. “I envision Emerald Bay to be a destination for families and locals alike.” 

The Emerald Bay Shuttle is set to begin running from mid-June to September 7. 

Service details include: 

• Weekday hours: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Monday – Thursday)
• Weekend and holiday hours: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Friday – Sunday)
• Fare: $5 one way / $10 roundtrip
• Reduced fare: $2.50 one way / $5 roundtrip for children under 12, adults ages 65+, veterans, riders with disabilities, and Medicare cardholders
• Routes: West Shore Route (from Sugar Pine Point); South Shore Route (from Y Transit Center, with a stop at Camp Richardson)
• Transit connections: TTD Bus Route 50 at the South Y Transit Center. TART Mainline Bus Route and TART Connect Microtransit service at Sugar Pine Point State Park
• Other connections: Bike or ride a shared e-scooter to the South Y Transit Center or Camp Richardson on the South Shore. Bike or walk to the Tahoe City Transit Center or Homewood to catch the TART Mainline.
• Parking: On the South Shore, keep your car parked where you are staying or park at a paid lot along Lake Tahoe Boulevard, at Lake Tahoe Community College, or Camp Richardson. On the north or west shore, park at the Tahoe City Transit Center, Homewood, or Sugar Pine State Park Campground.

How to book: Reservations will be available at: http://www.emeraldbayshuttle.com. Walk-up seats may be available depending on excess capacity.