BEST IDEA IN A HUNDRED YEARS?
Glacier’s Shuttle System a Stunning Success; Can We Take the Next Step?
After three years of gradual improvement, the shuttle system now makes driving over Going to the Sun Road during congested summer months unnecessary, if not foolhardy.By Bill Schneider, 8-26-10
Apgar Transit Center. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.
Remember the last time you heard somebody say a federal agency did a great job? Not recently, eh? I, too, confess to not saying it often, but I’m saying it today.
Three years ago (click here). I wrote about an innovative new shuttle system getting underway in Glacier National Park. In my first line, I asked, “If we built it, will they come?”
The results are in, and the answer is yes. In 2009, in fact, 157,000 of people used shuttle buses instead of driving personal vehicles over the traffic-choked Going-to-the-Sun Highway, and according to Glacier’s public affairs manager Amy Vanderbilt, “We will easily exceed that figure this year.”
That means, roughly, somewhere around 50,000 vehicles didn’t go over Logan Pass this year.
“It has been a huge success,” Vanderbilt added. “In some ways it’s too successful, but it’s all good.”
By “too successful,” she refers to the park’s massive challenge of managing the shuttle system with limited funding and staff.
In late August, I took the shuttle from the Apgar Transit Center up to Logan Pass and switched over to the eastside shuttle down to Siyeh Bend. After a wonderful family hike to and from Piegan Pass, we arrived back at the highway just in time to catch the shuttle back up the pass where we waited about 15 minutes to board a westside shuttle back to Apgar.
I suppose all this might have taken 20-30 minutes longer than driving our own vehicle, but it was way more enjoyable. Everybody, including the unfortunate person who would’ve had to drive, enjoyed the scenery, plus some pleasant conversation with other park visitors. Nobody had to worry about accidents or finding a parking spot on Logan Pass, which is almost impossible after 9 am every July and August morning.
The system isn’t perfect. Even with radio communications, the National Park Service (NPS) struggles to manage the seating--how many seats to fill and how many to save for people waiting at stops down the road. This creates a little heat here and there as people are left behind when they can see empty seats on the bus or when people down the road expect to be picked up but there are no empty seats.
“We definitely have some choke points,” Vanderbilt admitted, “but we’re constantly trying to improve on them. The end of the day (when everybody heads for the exit at the same time) is the biggest challenge.”
She noted that the park recently hired a new transit manager, Randy Buckley, “and he has some great ideas.”
Funding is also a big issue, she said. What a surprise, eh? Right now, the entire system, about $650,000 per year, is funded with a portion ($7.50/vehicle) of park entrance fees. This puts park manages into an irony conflict. They need more cars coming into the park so they can have enough money for a program meant to reduce the number of cars in the park. Hmm.
Sure makes me feel guilty about being so old I only buy a $10 lifetime pass and become a freeloader on the shuttle system.
There are many ways the shuttle system could be improved and expanded, covering more roads, such as a loop route through St. Mary and East Glacier, over Marias Pass, and back to Apgar, but no money for this. “We don’t have the means to expand the system” Vanderbilt said.
It seems to me that the shuttle system would be a direct hit for the Obama administration’s oft-stated emphasis on energy conservation and green energy jobs. Hello, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Are you reading this? You could score some serious carbon points here.
Hello, Montana Democratic Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester. Can you make sure Secretary LaHood reads it?
The Glacier shuttle system has obviously gotten a good start, but can we consider it the first step toward the day when we restrict personal vehicles on Logan Pass during July and August? I’m quite sure that day is a long way off politically, but it seems to me that a logical baby step could be testing a new way of dealing with the suffocating mid-day congestion on the Sun Highway. Every summer day, even with the Logan Pass parking lot full, hundreds of motorists drive their personal vehicles up there looking for a parking spot. It would be many hundreds more if it weren’t for the shuttle system.
Consequently, the Going to the Sun Road is so stuffed with vehicles, moving so slowly, that you might be able to walk up there faster. Should we consider restricting personal vehicles during prime time (around 10 am to 4 pm) during July and August? Perhaps just test it for one week to see how it goes?
Don’t have a coronary. It’s only an idea that deserves some discussion. The NPS, it should be noted, has no such plans, although the subject frequently came up during the public input over the current park management plan.
Driving your personal vehicle to Logan Pass might seem like fundamental freedom to some people--that’s why they built the road in the first place, to allow more people an opportunity to see the marvelous scenery in the park’s interior. But the shuttle system gives us the same opportunity.
It reminds me of the day I had to face the unpleasant reality of going backpacking and not having a campfire and not camping on a scenic lakeshore and not drinking directly out of mountain streams. I hated making those changes and felt like the federal government had stripped away my freedom, but I got over it. I still enjoy backpacking as much as ever, almost. I looked at in perspective instead of focusing on my personal bias, and it all made sense.
The same goes for driving over Logan Pass. We might resent having to take the shuttle at first, but we’ll get over it and enjoy the park just as much. Maybe more.
For more details on the shuttle system, click here.
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Of course, the difference is, the canyon dead-ends. So it's not an oranges-to-oranges comparison.
I've driven the "Sun" road 3 times over the years... once in a car, twice on a motorcycle. Motorcycle is THE WAY, if you're traveling by private vehicle. At least it's a lot easier to find a temporary parking spot.
(How do these new shuttles tie in with the famous Glacier vintage red buses? They're still in use, aren't they? They were a year ago...)
The difference is: If you want a ride for free, take the shuttle. If you want a ride and an interpretive talk for a reasonable charge, take the red bus.
Bill
I think they should institute something like this in Yellowstone, where you can't drive in the park unless you have a sticker noting the specific route to get to your campground, and then no stopping to look at roadside animals. That's what the shuttles would be for.
Few years ago a friend was visiting me in Boise from France. I wanted her to see our spectacular Yellowstone park, and we drove over there, stayed overnight in a Harriman park yurt, heading to Yellowstone the next day. When we got to the fork where one side heads to Old Faithful, I was shocked at the wall to wall traffic that had already caused slow-downs before we even reached the fork in the road. Horrible.
Allowing that much private auto driving in our great parks is a stupid policy--it destroys the pleasure of getting into the park and being able to see scenery and animals, and it pollutes the air as well.
Admission charges could easily cover the cost of shuttles.
As far as Yellowstone, doing shuttles would be a lot like the snow coaches or guided snowmobiles. To be honest, it makes it not worth it at times. You are stuck on a preset schedule. Where I might want to stop and just stare at the flowing water or floating geese, other people may be more interested in bison and elk. Now maybe a limit on cars in the park filled through a reservation system could be considered for Yellowstone and Glacier.
You could still let people drive their RVs to the campgrounds. They would have a permit with a time and route restriction given to them as they enter the park and prove their reservation. Easy as pie.
You are forgetting one thing though on your "subsidized transport" tirade. All transportation is paid for with tax dollars. All those roads, their maintenance. I am no liberal, but it's easy to see that public transport makes a great deal of sense in densely populated areas. Parts of our national parks qualify quite handily as such.
My only complaint about the shuttles is that the side windows were dirty enough to limit the view of the breathtaking vistas that GNP has to offer.