TOP GUN: LONE PINE

Published in the March 14, 2026 edition.

Lone Pine, located on the 395 highway is a town of roughly 2,000 people, the gateway to Mount Whitney and home to the cherished Museum of Western Film History. But most people driving through the Eastern Sierra ignore this gem. 

They’re too busy speeding.

Lone Pine locals are fed up. So they’re taking matters into their own hands.

“The people that are on their way to Mammoth could give a crap less about our little town,” a concerned citizen told The Sheet on Monday. “We used to call it the Budweiser cocaine drags, because the skiers would be racing the fishermen.”

The speed limit in Lone Pine is 25 miles per hour (mph). This individual estimated the majority of cars cruise through the one-stop-light town at a blazing 60 mph. The result is a terrified community, encountering close call after close call. 

The problem becomes amplified by the Lo-Inyo Elementary School and Lone Pine High School, which students have to cross 395 to access.

“It takes one minute to slow down, but [drivers] are just in such a hurry,” said Josh, a Lone Pine resident who refused to share his last name for fear of ties to the business he works for.

Some locals thought perhaps the lack of a speed gun in the Inyo County Sheriff’s office was to blame.

Last spring, a group of Lone Pine and Independence residents banded together to purchase a $2,471 LiDAR unit from Stalker Radar for the sheriff. The bulk of donations for the device, totaling $500, came from the Lone Pine Lion’s Club. The Piss Alley Whiskey Society, a nonprofit in Independence, donated roughly $300. Individual residents also chipped in.

A LiDAR unit is a device that measures vehicle speed by emitting rapid, invisible infrared light pulses, then calculating the time it takes for them to reflect off a target vehicle.

According to the Stalker Radar website, the technology has existed since 1997. 

So why did it take until 2025 for the Inyo County Sheriff’s office to acquire one?

Price, according to former Inyo County Supervisor Matt Kingsley.

“Previous sheriffs were reluctant to get into the whole speed enforcement thing because of the cost,” Kingsley said. “Not only for the equipment, but you have to maintain training for the officers.”

To operate a LiDAR unit in California, law enforcement officials are required to undergo a 31.5 hour LiDAR/RADAR training course and become re-certified every three years.

Kingsley also hypothesized that jurisdiction had something to do with speed policing in Lone Pine. Main Street, or the 395 highway, is state-controlled.

“395 is [California] Highway Patrol’s,” Kingsley said. “They’re the enforcement arm that is supposed to take care of 395 and that is where the speeding complaints come from.”

Each California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer is equipped with a LiDAR/RADAR gun.

However, the CHP is stretched thin with only two officers in Lone Pine, making it difficult for the office to fully enforce speeding.

Last year, with Sheriff Stephanie Rennie at the helm, the Inyo County sheriff’s office purchased two additional LiDAR units. The funding for those devices came from their budget.

“The LiDAR units have helped the deputy’s accuracy and efficiency in the traffic enforcement.” wrote Lindsey Stine, the Inyo Sheriff Public Information Officer, in a statement.

“The amount of traffic stops, and traffic citations have increased after deploying the speed enforcement units with the intent that the increased presence and enforcement will noticeably decrease the dangerous speeds in the community.”

But the speed enforcement units have been used for nearly a year now, and residents still aren’t noticing a difference.

Josh decided to take an alternate approach. He placed orange flags beside crosswalks in town and encouraged residents to wave the flags when they walked across the road. 

He purchases the $60 pack of 12 flags from Amazon, relying on his own bank account and donations from locals for the funds. If someone donates a flag, he writes their name on the fluorescent fabric.

Nearly one year into the project, Josh has installed his crosswalk flags on three of the five crosswalks in town: Mountain View and 395, Post and 395, and Locust and 395. This year, he plans to place the flags at the remaining two crosswalks.

“[The community] wants more of it,” he said.

If nothing else, crossing the street with a neon orange flag alleviates anxiety for pedestrians. But the communal initiative also brings state awareness to the speeding problem.

“What the flags do is help Caltrans realize there’s citizen movements,” Kingsley said. “The people are pissed.”

Both Kingsley and Josh had long-term suggestions for mitigating speeding in Lone Pine, including building rumble strips on the highway, installing round-a-bouts in town, and increasing the price of speeding tickets. 

For now, a flashing light pedestrian crosswalk is being built beside the high school.

“If our community has to take care of [the speeding problem], there’s something wrong,” Josh said.