Missoula News

LEAVE YOUR CAR BEHIND, STILL SEE IT ALL

Glacier’s New Shuttle a Bold Step

By Bill Schneider, 7-19-07

If we built it, will they come? In this case, let's hope so.

On July 1, Glacier National Park (GNP) launched the long-awaited and long-needed shuttle system over Logan Pass on the famous Going-to-the-Sun Road, which is probably the most scenic drive in the New West. Such scenic beauty creates its own popularity, but the old road wasn't built to withstand the vehicular traffic in now receives.

Will the new shuttle system save the day for the historic road?

The National Park Service (NPS) banned extra large vehicles like trucks and RVs from the road, but still allows today's oversized passenger vehicles.

Unless (until?) the road collapses from the weight of all those Titans and Hummers, of course.

This summer the NPS starts a 10-year project to rehabilitate the historic roadway, so the pressure is on to reduce vehicular traffic. GNP officials admit that they haven't quite worked out all the bugs in the shuttle system, but decided to launch it anyway on a limited basis to get their feet wet and then fix problems the following year. And they're asking the public to help them make it better.

"The optional visitor service is intended to provide an alternative to travelers driving the Sun Road, GNP superintendent Mick Holm said in a press release. "This Sun Road transit service provides an alternative mode of transportation for those who don't mind leaving their private vehicles behind."

(Based on a few hundred trips I've made over Logan Pass, both driving and cycling, I'd say some flatlanders aren't really experienced enough or are too nervous driving the narrow, cliff-lined road to be up there and should leave their vehicles behind.)

	Glacier's new west-side shuttle bus at the Apgar Transit Center. NPS photo by Amy Vanderbilt.

But Holm was quick to add that the services is strictly voluntary, "but park managers hope its use will help reduce traffic lines at work zones along the Sun Road."

And expect to see a lot of work zones up there as the long-planned, ten-year, $7 million reconstruction kicks in this summer.

"With the new shuttle system, we are trying to reduce the impact of personal vehicles on the Going-to-the-Sun Road," adds Amy Vanderbilt, GNP communications and outreach managerr. "We know it's not a perfect system, but we hope to get feedback and make the improvements."

Vanderbilt describes the system as "a metamorphosis of other similar shuttle systems in other national parks" but unique to Glacier.

Here's how it works. The NPS built a big transit station at Apgar on the west side of the park and worked out a three-way partnership with the Montana Department of Transportation and Eagle Transit to operate the fleet of spiffy new 12-passenger vans. The shuttles leave every 30 minutes and make 16 or 17 stops on the way to Logan Pass Visitor Center and back. The same goes for travelers on the east side. You catch the shuttle to the pass and back at the St. Mary Visitor Center, but instead of blue-and-white vans, you ride in larger yellow buses. GNP didn't have enough money and time to get the larger, 23-passenger vehicles planned for the east side this year, so they borrowed yellow buses from Yellowstone National Park for 2007.

And guess what, in a reversal of the current pay-for-view, pay-to-play trend involving more and higher fees for everything on our public lands, the new shuttle is free.

What a deal! A convenient, safe, stress-free, scenic ride to the Crown of the Continent that saves you a lot of pricey gasoline and perhaps a trip to the body shop. Can life get any better?

But don't expect the bus driver to identify flowers or mountains for you. Vanderbilt points out that there will be no interpretation on the shuttle. If you want a guided tour, you can catch a jammer, one of those classic red buses where the drivers give a canned talk about the human and natural history of the Going-to-the-Sun road and answer your questions. You can get a similar guided tour, with a Native American emphasis, from Sun Tours.

This shuttle system should work great for hikers who take point-to-point hikes. But it won't work well for cyclists--not yet, anyway, because the shuttles on the west side do not have bike racks, which was my contribution to the suggestion box.

With bike racks, cyclists could enjoy a ride up to Logan Pass and then ride the shuttle back down, avoiding the nerve-whacking descent that can be dangerous for inexperienced cyclists. Bike racks would also provide a good answer to Glacier's bicycle restrictions, which ban bicycles on certain parts of the road after 11 am. Currently, the regs force cyclists to start at dawn if they expect to make it to the pass and back without getting a ticket. Bike racks added to the shuttles would allow cyclists to start at a reasonable hour or avoid a breakneck descent to beat the time limit.

In addition to the energy saved by the car-pooling option to seeing Glacier, Vanderbilt points out that the shuttles are "bio-diesel certified" and will be using up to 20 percent bio-diesel. With Glacier being on the spearhead of global warming discussions, it's nice to see the park doing its part to reduce our carbon footprint.

She also told me that in the first two weeks the shuttle system seems to be getting off to a good start. The current capacity is 3,000 passengers per day, and the system has been getting up to 2,300 per day.

That's great news, and hopefully, even more of us will take advantage of this new option for seeing Glacier in the future. You can find out more by clicking here or calling 406-888-7800.

Footnote: And don't forget to do your part. If you have suggestions on how to improve the system, the NPS would welcome hearing them. Drop them off in writing at any visitor center or email them to gary_danczyk@nps.gov.

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