When government does right

Mount Desert Island is a prime beneficiary of the Island Explorer propane bus system, to which, appropriately, local towns and some businesses have contributed. So have Friends of Acadia, L.L. Bean, and Downeast Transportation. Most have been thanked. But what of the government agencies that covered the bulk of capital funding and operating costs, and implemented many project tasks?

Since before the bus began in 1999, the National Park Service, Maine DOT and U.S. DOT have borne the majority of expenses to bring this low-pollution transit to MDI. Despite constricted government budgets, they maintained their commitments across two presidencies and two governorships. These agents deserve our gratitude – most of the money could justifiably have been spent elsewhere in Maine, or in other states, and for other Acadia priorities.

Like the $1-million gift from L.L. Bean to Friends of Acadia, which will extend the Explorer to Columbus Day, the government funding ($4.8 million so far) constitutes a substantial economic development grant to MDI. Besides paying for buses, the agencies invested in “intelligent transportation systems” that directly or indirectly serve visitors. These include computer driven signs that update bus departure times, global positioning systems that track buses (a boon to dispatchers), electronic passenger counters, traffic volume recorders, video cameras in Acadia parking lots, and on-board announcements triggered by instantaneous latitude and longitude computations.

The agencies attempted to link 511 service to the Acadia Travel Information System (including real-time bus and parking information), a concept approved by the bus partners. Were the services fully connected-they are not, and access can be cumbersome-Maine visitors would be able to dial 51 statewide, or visit www.511maine.gov for basic Acadia travel information and updates on statewide road construction, unusual congestion and weather. Friends of Acadia supports this as a courtesy to the source of most of MDI’s income: visitors to Maine. Withholding facts that intelligent travelers can evaluate for themselves is self-defeating for a community, because it disserves people headed here to spend money.

Acadia National Park is one of those perennial destinations that will draw huge numbers of people forever. Repeat: forever. Recently reaffirmed Park Service statistics show a 20-year historic doubling rate for visitation (e.g., 1997 visits were twice the 1977 count), with a smoothing of the curve in the last decade. Census Bureau “middle series” projections show a U.S. population increase of 110 million people by 2050, to about 400 million. By 2100 the number will reach about 570 million. (“Highest series” projections, already exceeded for 2002, put the 2100 figure at over a billion.) A merely doubled population will mean a doubling of infrastructure to handle them-roads, services, etc. For refuge, they will seek national parks like Acadia in vastly greater numbers than now. Along the way, MDI probably will have reached its maximum development build-out, with many more thousands of housing units, as allowed by current zoning. The notion that this area will somehow escape these massive forces is an illusion.

Making objective facts available is pro-tourist and does not drive visitors away. Only big things will interrupt big travel to our area: national economic distress, uncertainties caused by terrorism, extended weather disruptions, epidemics, or a wholesale decline in naturalness and community character of the kind brought on by excessive crowding and pollution. A large factor that is reasonably manageable is traffic, which must be expertly addressed now. Island character must be protected, science-based park capacities established, and the visitor experience-and thus the visitor economy-preserved, before MDI suffers the fate of Acapulco, St. Thomas (Virgin Islands), Myrtle Beach and other formerly top resorts that deteriorated from overuse.

Battelle (an independent research institute) and the University of Maine’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism program evaluated the Island Explorer and associated technologies (Draft Final Report to U.S. DOT, May 2003), surveying, among others, 454 local business managers. Of the 257 managers who responded, 70 percent ranked “too many vehicles” as a “moderate” or “big” problem that was “causing parking problems” and “causing traffic congestion” inside and outside the park. Tourists made similar observations: “‘Visitor concerns about vehicles parked along main roads causing unsafe conditions’ ranked number one for all visitor groups.” Among bus riders, “Too many automobiles” outside and inside the park ranked two and three respectively. Users of the bus and its associated technologies generally disagreed that “it is easy to avoid traffic congestion [or to find parking] in Acadia National Park.”

Battelle/UMaine’s poll is statistically rigorous, but if you want a second opinion, just glance outside in peak summer and trust the evidence of your senses. Ask yourself why so many people ride the Island Explorer, which will carry its millionth passenger in August. In four short years, the fare-free Explorer, a device to manage traffic, has become part of the hospitality quotient of MDI.

Indeed, previous studies show the average stay of Island Explorer users was 4.5 days (University of Maine 1999), compared to 4 days for people visiting before the advent of the bus (University of Idaho, National Park Service 1998). Battelle/UMaine found that visitors who used the new bus-related electronic traffic information tended to stay 7 days on average. Usage of certain information correlates positively with length of visit. It is reasonable to infer that longer stays mean greater economic benefits to MDI.

Traffic data that Acadia National Park generates belong to all Americans-they paid for it. Likewise, the federal and state money that funds traffic management here came mostly from people who do not live on MDI. Taxpayers deserve hassle-free access to the information they bought, before they get here. A first-class community shares – rather than withholds – information that makes visitor travel easier. They will visit again. They will tell others that MDI is a truly welcoming place, not merely the site of a great national park.

The smart money wants to keep transportation funds flowing toward this island. When government bodies do the right thing by showing concern and courtesy to people crucial to MDI’s collective livelihood, it makes sense for the community to encourage the trend.

We hope others will join in acknowledging the National Park Service, Maine DOT and U.S. DOT for helping make an outstanding bus system even better.

Ken Olson is president of Friends of Acadia, which has raised $1,170,000 in private contributions for the Island Explorer propane bus serving MDI and Acadia National Park. Explorer runs June 23 through Columbus Day.