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The National Park Service’s proposed transportation plan for Acadia National Park includes provisions that would require reservations during peak visitor season for the park’s most popular spots.
The Ellsworth American reported that the plan calls for a “timed-entry vehicle reservation system” for a section of the Park Loop Road, for the Cadillac Mountain summit road and to park in the North Lot at Jordan Pond House.
According to an NPS news release, the draft plan and environmental impact statement, released April 26, is available for public review and comment until June 26. Public meetings will be held on Mount Desert Island and on the Schoodic Peninsula. Public information sessions at three local libraries are scheduled as well as a virtual online session.
The plan identifies a range of transportation and visitor use management strategies, including a preferred alternative.
“The Draft Transportation Plan seeks to determine ways to provide safe and efficient transportation for visitors while ensuring the protection of park resources and values,” the release says. “The alternatives are intended to address the quality of the visitor experience associated with growth in visitation. These alternatives were developed from public comments during public comment periods in 2015 and 2017.”
According to the plan, the preferred alternative, establishing the timed-entry reservation system, would allow all other parking lots in the park to continue to be managed on a first-come, first-served basis; but the alternative includes an adaptive management strategy that directs park managers to monitor traffic and resource conditions elsewhere in the park. If monitoring indicates traffic or resource conditions worsening beyond certain acceptable thresholds specified in the plan, access to Island Explorer routes entering the park, vehicle access to other parking lots, or vehicle access to the entire Park Loop Road may be added to the reservation system.
Additional actions include:
According to the environmental impact statement, both beneficial and adverse impacts would occur on visitor access and experience under the preferred alternative, “although most would be beneficial.”
The alternative regarding Park Loop Road access is expected to provide visitors who obtain a reservation “more spontaneity” while also still allowing access to most of the road to visitors who don’t have reservations. It’s also expected to enhance visitor experience all the corridor and at the specified destinations.
However, the alternative results in “a significant adverse impact on the historic character of Park Loop Road because it creates a segmented driving experience counter to its historic design. It also involves some construction of modern infrastructure that detracts from the historic character of the road and cultural landscapes.”
Public comments will be analyzed and used to shape a final environmental impact statement.
The plan has been in the works for several years, due to strains resulting from increased visitation. On summer days, for example, sections of the 27-mile Park Loop Road — an Acadia highlight — are jammed with concession buses, commercial motor coaches, RVs, the park's public transit system buses, cars, motorcycles, bicyclists and pedestrians, posing traffic jams and safety hazards along the narrow, curved road.
A 2013 engineering study of the road to the top of Cadillac found it is impossible for the largest vehicles, such as buses and RVs, to stay completely in their lane when negotiating the road's three hairpin turns, posing hazards to other vehicles and cyclists.
Acadia set a visitation record in 2017, with the number of visitors just under 3.5 million by November 2017. At that time, The Mount Desert Islander reported the number was a record that eclipses 2016's record-setting number of 3.3 million for the entire year.
The number is split between Acadia's two sections: The Mount Desert Island section saw 2.91 million visitors, up 0.9% over the same period last year. The Schoodic section saw a 4.1% increase to 293,933 and visitation to Isle au Haut was up 1% to 8,781.
David MacDonald, president and CEO of Friends of Acadia, issued the following statement about the Acadia National Park Transportation Plan:
“Friends of Acadia views this planning effort as absolutely essential — any of us who have been out in the park over the last couple of summers realize that new approaches are needed to handle the traffic and congestion created by the park’s growing visitation. The status quo is no longer a viable option, and we applaud the park for tackling this complex issue.
“FOA also appreciates the fact that the park is taking a comprehensive approach — though it has meant a longer process, the importance of soliciting several rounds of community input and considering how all the pieces relate to each other will result in a better outcome.
“Acadia sees 1 million more visits annually than it did a decade ago, and the over-crowding and traffic jams are becoming more frequent posing real threats to public safety, visitor enjoyment, and park resources.
“The need for this effort is easy to see; the solutions will be more challenging to realize. While there is a lot of detail in this plan that we have yet to digest, FOA is encouraged by the fundamental direction of the park’s preferred alternative.
“Providing more options for visitors to pre-plan their visits, better real-time information about parking and traffic in the park, the opportunity to take advantage of expanded park-and-ride facilities, and utilize an increased Island Explorer bus service, all make good sense. The concept of reservations for the busiest parts of the park at peak times is worth exploring, as other national parks are doing. FOA looks forward to partnering with the park and surrounding communities to help pursue sensible solutions.
“We encourage continued public input to the process during this 60-day comment period. Attend one of the public forums; spend time with the written materials; provide your feedback on the on-line website or via mail, email or phone.
“Those of us who live in the surrounding communities will likely feel most passionately about some of the new proposals. I have already heard from some neighbors who feel that the proposals go too far; and from others who feel that they don’t go far enough — which suggests the park is trying to find a middle ground. Any implementation will be phased in over the next several years, and must be flexible and adaptive to allow us to learn as we go and adjust to new technology or changing conditions.
“FOA appreciates all who have contributed to and commented on this effort thus far and who will continue to shape and fine-tune the final plan. FOA will submit its own written comment to the NPS during the sixty-day comment period after having the chance to spend more time with the details of the plan.”
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