Taking a page out of Yosemite National Park's crowd-management manual, Acadia National Park officials will put "visitor service assistants" to work this summer to help manage parking at the busiest locations in the park on the coast of Maine.
The National Park Service, using entrance fee revenues, plans to hire up to five Visitor Service Assistants to help manage traffic and parking this summer and fall. The NPS is piloting this program to help inform and develop the park’s Transportation Plan.
Acadia staff is preparing the Transportation Plan to determine ways to provide safe and efficient transportation for visitors while ensuring the protection of park resources and values. Last November, the Park Service released preliminary concepts that identify a range of possible transportation and visitor use management strategies for the park. A newsletter that describes the preliminary concepts is available online. The park is using public comments on the preliminary concepts to help develop alternatives for the Draft Transportation Plan and Environmental Impact Statement, which is expected to be released later this year.
The Visitor Service Assistants will be uniformed park employees assigned to key locations in the park, including Cadillac Mountain, Jordan Pond, and Sand Beach, at times when traffic congestion and parking challenges are most likely to occur. The Visitor Service Assistants will be on the ground to help visitors and improve safety and traffic conditions. Their duties will include providing visitor information, assisting with traffic control, collecting visitor use data, assisting with park entrance pass compliance, and helping park rangers as needed.
“We look forward to having Visitor Service Assistants available at key locations in the park this summer and fall to help manage traffic and improve the experience of visitors,” said Superintendent Kevin Schneider. “By committing park staff to this effort, we hope to better understand the issues and generate ideas for managing traffic and parking through the Transportation Plan.”
Transportation issues at Acadia National Park are diverse and complex. Visitors travel to and within the park by private vehicle, tour bus, bicycle, ferry, Island Explorer bus, and other modes. A park-wide transportation plan is needed to determine ways to improve safety, reduce congestion and crowding, avoid impacts to park resources, and provide visitors with a high-quality experience.
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