Acadia National Park tackles growing issue of traffic congestion, parking

The National Park Service continues to tackle congestion in Acadia National Park, where visitation has climbed 70% from a decade ago, from 2.8 million in 2015 to 4 million in 2025. Some are wondering how much more growth the park and its surrounding communities can sustain. “Is it sustainable for the park to take on the addition of another 70% worth of people in 10 more years?” a member of the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission asked park officials during the advisory body’s recent meeting. In 2019, the National Park Service published a transportation plan to address congestion in Acadia. Projects have been underway since then, but it was expected that full implementation could take a decade or more. In the meantime, visitor numbers kept climbing The plan included construction of the Acadia Gateway Center in the nearby town of Trenton. That provision materialized with the center’s official opening earlier this year to serve as a multi-modal transit and visitor information hub, with a 300-space parking lot and the option for visitors to take the fare-free Island Explorer shuttle bus system into the park and surrounding communities. A plan is in the works to expand the system and provide some express routes. A vehicle reservation system to access the top of Cadillac Mountain, one of the park’s most popular spots, was implemented. A project to add parking at the Hulls Cove visitor center is underway. Real-time information Timely visitor information will also aid park management and visitor experience, said Kevin Schneider, the park’s superintendent. To that end, the National Park Foundation earlier this year awarded a $1.5 million grant to Friends of Acadia, Schoodic Institute and Acadia to deploy sensors, predictive analytics and communication tools that give visitors and park managers real-time information about congestion and wait times along key corridors. “You can go to Sand Beach and a have an evening picnic and you’re not going to see a ton of people there,” said Schneider. “You go for a lunch picnic in July and you’re going to see a ton of people.” ‘Taking over the roadway’ Acadia’s popularity also affects surrounding communities. A member of the commission noted that vehicle congestion is overflowing into state and municipal roadways surrounding the park. “Cars are taking over the roadway and with that they’re turning the roadway into a parking lot,” he said. A number of sites are particularly pressured, Schneider agreed. The park is seeing increasing numbers of people and e-bikes on the carriage roads. When the parking lots at Eagle Lake and Acadia Mountain are full, parked vehicles line both sides of the adjacent roadway. “We’re looking for solutions,” Schneider said. As envisioned in the 2019 plan, the park and its partners, including the Maine Department of Transportation and Friends of Acadia, are working toward building a new, larger parking lot near Eagle Lake at a vacant parcel known as Liscomb Pit, just off Route 233. The park is still working to acquire the parcel, Schneider said. Traffic rushing by On a busy summer day, there will be scores of cars parked along Route 233’s shoulder to access the carriage roads, with people unloading children and bikes and traffic rushing by, noted Schneider. “We’ve been concerned about it for years,” he said. The park has stored material over many years to get the site ready for construction. The hope is that funding will become available in time to complete the parking lot by the end of the 2027 season, he said. Slight dip The number of visitors this year is down about 2% so far, compared with 2025. “I’d call that pretty flat,” said Adam Gibson, the park’s social scientist. But the recent Labor Day weekend was the park’s busiest ever, he added. To calculate visitation, the park uses traffic counters at various locations, such as the Sand Beach entrance station, then applies certain multipliers derived from studies such as visitor patterns. It also has actual counts for bus ridership and for entrance to the park’s Schoodic Peninsula district.