Parks and People: Managing Outdoor Recreation at Acadia National Park

5. Indicators of Quality for the Visitor Experience on Ocean Drive

5 Indicators of Quality for theVisitor Experience on Ocean Drive Automobiles are both a form of transportation to and through national parks and a mechanism for experiencing these areas. Park visitors use automobiles to access attraction sites or to travel to a location to participate in an activity. However, studies consistently have shown that large numbers of people in the United States also consider driving a recreation activity (Manning 1999). Recently, “driving for pleasure” was ranked as one of the most popular recreational activities in the United States (National Survey on Recreation and the Environment, 2000–2002). Some nps units (e.g., national parkways) were established and designed explicitly to provide recreational driving experiences through scenic landscapes (Havlick 2002). Most studies of vehicle use in national parks have focused on their environmental impacts (Forman et al. 2003). Few empirical studies have examined the recreational driving experience. The study described in this chapter examines the recreational driving experience along Acadia’s Ocean Drive, the most scenic portion of the Park Loop Road. Objectives of the study were to (1) determine the importance of Ocean Drive to the “park experience,” (2) gather data to help identify indicators of quality for the recreational driving experience, and (3) explore differences between recreational driving and more conventional transportation-oriented driving. Concepts of Quality The Highway Capacity Manual (hcm) is a widely used reference for roadway planning that defines transportation quality according to six “levels of service” (los), labeled A through F (Transportation Research Board 2000).  This chapter is an edited version of the following paper: Jeffrey Hallo and Robert Manning , “Transportation and Recreation: A Case Study of Visitors Driving for Pleasure at Acadia National Park, Journal of Transport Geography (forthcoming). I N D I C A T O R S A N D S T A N D A R D S O F Q U A L I T Y  The conventional concept of quality in the field of transportation planning is determined predominantly by measures of travel efficiency. For example, los A is characterized by completely unimpeded traffic flows and los F is described by conditions where traffic ceases to flow (i.e., gridlock). This is measured in the hcm on a two-lane scenic or recreational road by the percent of time a vehicle spends following another vehicle. For example, los A is characterized by less than 40 percent of time spent following another vehicle, and los E occurs when a vehicle spends greater than 85 percent of time following another vehicle. los F occurs when traffic flows are greater than a road’s capacity and vehicle travel ceases. The hcm and its los framework provide an intuitive and useful approach for addressing the concept of quality in transportation. However, is the hcm’s los framework appropriate for roads planned and managed for recreational driving? Is quality on recreational roads best represented by efficiency-oriented variables like percent of time spent following another vehicle? Answers to these questions might be informed by the concept of quality as considered in contemporary park and outdoor recreation planning and management frameworks such as Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (verp). As described in the introduction, these frameworks rely on indicators and standards that are formulated to define the level of resource and experiential quality that should be maintained in the context of parks and outdoor recreation. Study Area As described in chapter 1, the Park Loop Road is a principal attraction at Acadia. The Ocean Drive section of the Park Loop Road starts immediately after the park entrance station and closely follows the coastline for 1.5 miles. Like many high-use, landmark roads in national parks, Ocean Drive is intended to provide a recreational experience for visitors. Several of the park’s most popular sites—Thunder Hole (an unusual geological feature), Sand Beach, and trailheads for the Beehive and Gorham Mountain Trails—are located along Ocean Drive. Moreover, the road itself was designed in the 1920s by the famous landscape architect, Fredrick Law Olmsted, Jr., to provide visitors classic scenic views of the rocky, picturesque Maine coast. Ocean Drive is now managed as a one-way road. The road has two lanes, and visitors are allowed to park in the right-hand lane. Parking lots along T H E V I S I T O R E X P E R I E N C E O N O C E A N...