The people and the park: reaction to a system of public transportation in Mt. McKinley National Park, Alaska
Harrison GS. 1973. The people and the park: reaction to a system of public transportation in Mt. McKinley National Park, Alaska. Institute of Social Economic and Government Research University of Alaska. Fairbanks, AK
In 1972 the National Park Service greatly restricted the use of private automobiles in Mt. McKinley National Park, Alaska. As a substitute for private transportation, the Park Service offered free bus service for visitors. Also for the first time in 1972, the Park Service required that visitors have advance reservations for campsites in the five campgrounds located well inside the Park. To help evaluate the impact of these new regulations, the Park Service contracted with the Institute of Social, Economic and Government Research of the University of Alaska to conduct a study of public reaction to them. Opinions of park visitors were surveyed during the summer months of 1972 (Phase I), and the opinions of Alaska residents were surveyed during the winter of 1973 (Phase II). Phase I of the study revealed that the vast majority of people who visited the Park approved of the new transportation policy. Eighty-four per cent of the 1,094 people who responded to the key question regarding the policy indicated their approval. The same percentage thought that the shuttle bus service was good. Seventy per cent of the sample of people with campground reservations approved of the new reservation requirement. Phase II of the study indicated that 55 per cent of the 459 individuals returning questionnaires after the first mailing who knew about the new transportation policy approved it; 35 per cent disapproved. However, the figures for the much smaller number of informed people who returned questionnaires after the second mailing (37 total) were 44 per cent approve and 49 per cent disapprove, which suggests that the resident population of Alaskans in Anchorage and Fairbanks may actually divide very nearly 50/50 on their opinion of the new policy.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Harrison, Gordon
- Date of Issue
- 1973
- Publisher
- Institute of Social Economic and Government Research University of Alaska
- Units
- DENA
- Keywords
- bus system, buses, Denali National Park And Preserve, Mount Mckinley National Park, Mt. McKinley National Park, opinion survey, Park Management, public transportation, Road, Survey, Transportation, visitor attitudes, visitor transportation system