As a part of the National Park System (NPS), the mission of Acadia National Park is to preserve the natural and cultural resources while providing visitors with a meaningful and pleasant experience.  The mission is challenged by the intense usage that Acadia receives during the summer—the park hosted 2.56 million recreation visits in 2002, with 61% of those visits occurring from June through August.  Over 90% of visitors arrive by private vehicle, straining the capacity of the road system and parking areas, not only within the park, but also in the communities of Mount Desert Island, on which Acadia is located.  Lengthy traffic delays, coupled with noise and air pollution, also threaten the park’s natural and cultural resources.

To address the traffic congestion problem in National Parks, the U.S. Department of Interior (the parent organization for the NPS) and the U.S. Department of Transportation designed a demonstration project to evaluate new transportation technologies.  Acadia National Park was chosen as the test site to determine the effectiveness of an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) in helping to solve the transportation problems.

The objective of the Acadia ITS is to support the region’s needs for public transportation management, traffic management, and traveler information.  A key component of this ITS is the Traffic Monitoring System (TMS).  The TMS was envisioned as a collection of traffic data collections sites places at the park entrances and parking lots.  The project began in 2001, but after 4 years and 2 contractors, the TMS was not complete or operational.

Through ARA’s work prior with the FHWA Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division and the NPS on traffic data collection, we had earned a reputation as traffic system experts.  In the spring of 2005, ARA was contracted to complete the Acadia TMS and make it operational by the end of the 2006 season.  We met the requirements, objectives, and timelines, and the TMS was up and running ahead of schedule.