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Abstract |
As climate change continues to become a serious threat to social and ecological systems, strategies to reduce emissions are becoming increasingly important. Many park and protected area management agencies have begun to seriously consider their role in contributing to, and possibly mitigating, climate change. The US National Park Service, for example, has attempted to reduce the emissions generated as a result of park visitation by implementing alternative transportation systems (ATS) at select national parks across the country. Those most commonly include voluntary or mandatory shuttle systems. Despite their promise of reducing emissions while also alleviating congestion and capacity issues, the implementation of ATS can have other consequences such as negatively affecting visitor experiences, resource conditions at attraction sites, and park budgets (Law- son et al., 2017; Manning et al., 2014). National park managers are consequently placed in the precarious position of having to consider the visitor experience, resource protection, and economic development (National Park Service, 2004). Balancing trade-offs between environmental, social, and economic interests is made more difficult given the lack of research which has taken a comprehensive approach to the implications of ATS. This research begins to fill this gap by systematically examining the primary and secondary impacts of ATS in US National Parks. By doing so, we provide managers and researchers with a holistic view on the topic, and point out the trade-offs that need to be considered when considering implementing or expanding an ATS. |
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