Innovative Transportation Solutions Focus of Work at National Parks
Two recent events in Eastern Massachusetts demonstrated continued Volpe Center assistance to the U.S. Department of the Interior in developing and implementing innovative solutions to transportation issues on Federally-owned and managed lands.
In June, staff from the Advanced Vehicle and Information Network Systems COI attended the mid-year Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Transportation Needs of National Parks and Public Lands meeting held in Woods Hole, MA. The meeting, which the Volpe Center had helped to plan, discussed alternative transportation activities in public lands, particularly the Cape Cod national seashore and wildlife refuge locations. During the meeting Mr. Gary Ritter was named the Chair of the Research Subcommittee, and initiated an effort to develop a research problem statement on transit performance measures for submission to the Transit Cooperative Research Program. Mr. Michael Dyer of the Physical Infrastructure Systems COI was designated as this Committee's liaison to the TRB Ferry Committee. Eric Plosky teamed up with Linda McIntyre of the National Park Service to brief the Committee on research needs relative to travel demand forecasting in national parks and public land areas.
Earlier in the month, Lindsey Morse and Ben Cotton of the Advanced Vehicle and Information Network Systems COI traveled to several Cape Cod towns to undertake fieldwork as part of the Parking and Transit Study for the Cape Cod National Seashore. They investigated existing and potential parking area locations for Federal and townowned beaches and erosion threats to parking areas, and created a photographic library of these sites. This information will be incorporated into the final Volpe Center report providing a number of future parking and transit alternatives for visitors to these sites.
Bicycle racks at Nauset Light Beach, Eastham, MA. (Volpe Center photo)