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I like mountains and oceans and end up out a ways sometimes. There's some old, old highways and roads out into nothing in California. Some of them are just so narrow it's unbelievable. Hwy 4 past Bear Valley hits a winter closure gate and in summer if you keep going the road narrows and there's no more center dividing line and if you keep going past Lake Alpine there's some areas where it's cliff face, road, sheer drop. I drove and drove and drove and couldn't find a wide enough turn around so I had to drive into a wide spot, backed up onto a granite boulder, was three wheels down in my Subaru, and rolled the windows down, listened for cars, then launched on a blind curve back onto the highway because otherwise I was ten point turning on a winding goat path of a road.
Burned rubber on a rock and vrooomed off my boulder. Was that or keep going and hope I found a better way to get back to my campsite or block the entire highway for a turn. Neither sounded awesome. Rock launch onto the road it was.
The cost of carving Hwy 4 into the cliff face to widen, add shoulders and a center dividing line and guard rails would be insane. They'd cut off half of Alpine County before they spent billions to connect Markleeville to the rest of the state. Only like three people live there.
Fun fact: Alpine County is cut off in winter so they either have to go through Nevada or use snowmobiles to cross Ebbett's Pass to get to Bear Valley. There's no actual incorporated city in all of Alpine County, and they are entirely cut in half during winter. Only emergency services can use the closed road as a snowmobile route.
My friend was a first responder there. She said this is the case 100%. He’ll likely go to prison! >

Has your friend ever heard of HIPAA? >

Trust me bro, they've definitely heard of a hippo. >


"We go there all the time for cars over the cliff and they never live. This was an absolute miracle," Pottenger said.

and

There was no guardrail at the spot where the sedan went off the cliff.

Hey I have a great idea! >

As someone who grew up in San Mateo County, they probably don't have a gaurd rail there because they can't put one there with out the road collapsing. There is a reason the area is called Devil's slide. >

I live in Montara and drive this road every day. There is actually a very extensive plan to build railings all along this stretch of road. The bicyclists are the ones fighting it, strangely enough. >

Would it shrink the width or something? >

Probably. You can't build too close to the cliff edge so you have to bring them in and there's no more shoulder, suddenly. >

At a certain point it will probably have to go a similar route to Independence Pass in Colorado- it's eroded so much that the last time i drove it they had stoplights that only let one direction of traffic go at a time through the tightest areas