Vehicle traffic and visitor use of the Cadillac Mountain Summit Road 2016

Jacobi, Charles

From the executive summary: "The Cadillac Summit Road traffic data from 2016 confirmed much of what we knew about traffic and the number of visitors from the previous four years of monitoring and anecdotal observations. Sunrise and sunset, holidays, July 25 to August 31, and 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. are the busiest times. An estimated 259,000 vehicles and at least 777,000 visitors went to Cadillac Mountain between June 2, 2016 and October 31, 2016. This is an 8% increase over the same period in 2015. Each month has peak traffic in excess of 2,000 vehicles per day. August 2016 averaged 2,100 vehicles and at least 6,300 visitors per day. The busiest day on the year was Sunday July 3, 2016 when 2,830 vehicles climbed Cadillac Mountain, even with an 81 minute closure in the early afternoon. The Ocean Drive was closed this day as well. In August, the only lull in traffic on a sunny day is the few hours after sunrise. Ascending traffic following sunrise is often in the single digits per hour. While sunrise and sunset traffic are weather dependent, the data show that if it is clear, the Independence Day, Labor Day, and Columbus Day holiday sunrises and sunsets are exceptionally busy times. Memorial Day weekend is also very busy, but not quite as busy as these three. Over the past four years, the months of June – September have each shown a steady increase in traffic. October is excluded only because of an exceptionally busy 2015. This increase in use matches overall park visitation which is derived mainly from the traffic counter at Sand Beach. Weekends in September are now as busy as a typical day in July. September 2016 had ~15% fewer vehicles (~7,500) than July 2016. October 2016 had 15% more vehicles (~5,700) than June 2016. In July and August 2016, hourly traffic did not begin to consistently exceed 100 vehicles per hour until 9:00 a.m. and 200 vehicles per hour until 10:00 a.m. The busiest hour of the day is clearly 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and traffic then stays high but declines steadily until about 5:00 p.m. Eight of the nine hours with traffic greater than 300 vehicles per hour during these two months were at sunrise or sunset. As in 2015, we could find no connection between closure of the road and hourly uphill traffic counts. There were still many days and hours of high traffic without closures, suggesting that if the number of vehicles is managed, closures can be avoided and many visitors can enjoy all the summit offers. This is not to suggest that the resource impacts or visitor experience under this level of use is acceptable. Bicycle use in September and October averaged 41 and 26 respectively. One hundred twenty-nine bicycles climbed Cadillac Mountain on car-free morning."

Vehicle traffic and visitor use of the Cadillac Mountain Summit Road 2016

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