No parking at Big Sur bridge? County mulls restrictions at famous California Highway 1 stop

Grace Toohey, Los Angeles Times on May 22, 2026

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LOS ANGELES — Parking at one of California’s most iconic stops on Highway 1 could be closed after a vote by the board of supervisors in Monterey County.

The board this week voted to move forward with a plan to restrict parking around Bixby Bridge in Big Sur, which has seen an uptick in traffic following the long-awaited reopening of an uninterrupted drive along California’s coast.

While the parking moratorium is not yet in effect — and still needs to go through several more reviews — officials hope it will eventually help ease congestion and safety concerns in the area. Bixby Bridge has long been a well-known tourist destination, but it often experiences surges in popularity, including in 2019 from the show“Big Little Lies.”

The motion that passed directs Monterey County staff to draft an ordinance that would ban parking in the “immediate vicinity” of Bixby Bridge for a year, while also pursuing the permits required for such a decision, including from the California Coastal Commission and the Department of Transportation. The county is still considering how to enforce such a moratorium, and what that would cost.

Given all those steps, it will likely be several weeks, if not months, before any new parking restrictions go into effect. The Board of Supervisors will also review the ordinance at least twice more, which will provide additional opportunities for public comment.

After three years of closures that shuttered different sections of Highway 1, truncating the 100-mile drive between Carmel and Cambria, the area has seen a surge in tourism that officials want to ensure doesn’t overrun the area. As of this month, restaurants and retail locations in Big Sur have seen about a 40% surge in weekend crowds compared with 2025 levels, and hotel revenues up 200% from last year during the spring season, according to new data from Caltrans.

Officials said the area around Bixby Bridge has become particularly busy, and in some cases dangerous, with an uptick in illegal roadside parking, and sometimes in active lanes of traffic. Backups and diversions have affected residents, commuters and even emergency vehicles, county officials said, as well as created pedestrian safety concerns.