For being 50-feet long, Cabrillo Bridge has created miles of issues as local transportation methods evolve in Cayucos.
The bridge, just between the Cayucos-Morro Bay Cemetery and water treatment plant, was built in 1987 with the intention of providing pedestrians and bike riders a safe route from the north end of town to the south. But, according to local golf cart drivers, they’ve also used the bridge for the past 15 years—that is until March, when San Luis Obispo County installed two bollards on each side of the bridge, preventing low-speed vehicles from crossing.
That’s when Bob and Susie Lily, retired Cayucos residents and low-speed vehicle operators—not to be confused with a golf cart—created the Cayucos Bridge Committee and a petition demanding that the county remove the bollards and allow the cart community to pass through. Since June, they’ve received more than 400 signatures.
“When you start looking around, you see a lot of older people on carts in our community. Cayucos has kind of become a cart community,” Bob told New Times, standing behind his small electric vehicle at the cemetery. “There’s no surface road that connects the town together. I mean, if you think about all towns, there’s always surface roads. You can get from one end of town to the other without getting on a freeway.”
A primary driver of the petition is the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as some residents claim the bollards violate the law since golf carts are considered a mobility device.
Bob referred to a July 12 letter submitted to the county. In it, a Cayucos resident said she had used the bridge to drive her golf cart into town as a disabled senior caring for a disabled adult child.
“I have lost access to town and basic services including food, water, and medicine when I am unable to drive a vehicle at certain times due to the closure of the path and my disability,” the letter read.
Bob told New Times that when they started the committee and petition, they had no idea of the impact the bridge had on the disabled community, alongside other users like himself who want to avoid the highway.
SLO County 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson said he’s no attorney but doesn’t believe any ADA laws were violated in this case. He added that he’s been tackling the challenge of finding solutions for the perturbed small-vehicle operators.
Gibson told New Times that the bridge was always intended to have the three bollards on each side, since the it was built to prevent vehicles from entering. Years ago, however, the bollards happened to go missing, allowing golf carts to get through, enabling the bridge to become a normal route for the drivers.
“That may have happened a long time ago,” he said, “and as the popularity of golf carts essentially rose in the community, we started to see golf carts using that bridge in increasing numbers, and I totally understand that.”
But throughout the years, Gibson said the county received complaints about vehicles that can reach 25 miles per hour.
“The problem is that the bridge is not authorized for use by motor vehicles, and there happened to be one, or maybe more, interactions between golf carts and pedestrians, and county staff that work at the water treatment plant had observed some of this that raised the concerns of folks in the county,” he said. “They came out and realized that the bollards were missing, and so they put the bollards back in.”
Cayucos-Morro Bay Cemetery District Manager Dale Guerra said he’s seen these disruptions firsthand on the cemetery’s side of the bridge, starting in 2013 when bollards were removed and thrown into the Cayucos Creek below.
“We put them back twice, and then we couldn’t find them all. We only found one of them and put one of them back in,” he said.
Since then, and especially within the past year and a half, Guerra said golf cart and low-speed vehicle traffic has increased to near constant, some of which have caused damage to the cemetery property.
“There’s been some bad eggs, like any other public place. There’s been some bad people that are speeding, and they go out into the dirt area and spin doughnuts. But you know, most of them are good,” he said.
Guerra noted that e-bikes in particular hit higher speeds.
“They drive fast. I didn’t realize how fast those e-bikes are. … They come through here—holy moly,” he said. “But they’ve really slowed down since those bollards have got put in. They’re not going as fast anymore.”
Supervisor Gibson said e-bikes are another “gray area” to consider when it comes to crossing Cabrillo Bridge.
“I think that’s an emerging question right now. I think in state and local governments, e-bikes are considered bicycles,” he said. “But of course, you know, then there’s details there. There are different classes of e-bikes, different maximum speeds that they end up going, and I think there’s a legitimate question of safety.”
Gibson said there’s little he can do about the structural ability of the bridge, since it was built to hold only pedestrians and bikes, although he said that he can look at alternative options.
“It certainly would be quite reasonable to provide a connection between the south end of town and the north end of town because right now, the only road connection that goes through the two, connects the two ends of town, is a piece of Highway 1 that’s actually a freeway,” he said. “And for these low-speed electric vehicles, that’s clearly not a great idea to get those out in that. In fact, I don’t think they’re legal on the freeways.”
The discussion about the bridge’s future starts the week of July 28, Gibson said, where he hopes that he, the Cayucos Bridge Committee, and SLO County Public Works can start forming some type of agreement—although that could take months or years.
“That’s just the reality of the situation,” he said. “There’s a number of issues there, both structural and liability wise. You know, when we designate a class-one trail [for] bike and pedestrians, that gives the county certain protections, and we are under state statute, and we are meant to operate that trail for bikes … and pedestrians,” he said, “and so we really, at this point, can’t allow carts on it.” Δ
Reach Staff Writer Libbey Hanson at lhanson@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 10, 2025.