Sustainable Transportation in Natural and Protected Areas

Francesco Orsi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138788572
• eBook ISBN: 9781317657309
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Protected areas are at the centre of nature-based tourism, which is increasingly popular across the world. As visitor numbers increase, so does awareness of the harmful effects that large crowds may have on both natural resources and individuals' recreational experience. This volume considers the challenge of transportation to and within natural and protected areas, the improvement of which has already been recognised as having great potential for mitigating the environmental impacts of ecotourism.

While several books have focused considerable attention to the management of protected areas in general, little has been said about the specific issue of sustainable transport, an emerging trend that is already reshaping visitation patterns in natural settings. This book provides current knowledge on issues associated with the transportation of visitors in natural and protected areas, and a comprehensive overview of the technical and strategic options available to tackle these issues.

It approaches the subject via three main topics: preferences, or the visitors' attitudes towards transportation; practices, where current approaches are assessed through examples and case-studies of successful experiences and methodologies from around the world; and policies, where suggestions and recommendations are put forward for both local scale strategies and broad-scale regulatory action with global relevance. Contributors include academics in the field of natural resource management and tourism, with extensive experience in protected area management and active partnerships with natural park administrations.

1 Introduction

Francesco Orsi

In 1909, after several years of work, the so-called ‘Große Dolomitenstraße’ (the great road of the Dolomites) was finally completed. The road, which measured around 160 kilometres, linked Bolzano/Bozen, Cortina d’Ampezzo and Dobbiaco/Toblach, crossing various mountain passes, and some of the finest dolomitic landscapes in what was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is today a portion of north-eastern Italy. The father of this endeavour was Theodor Christomannos, born in Vienna in 1854 from a family of Greek origin, who had very well understood the importance of roads to let people know those beautiful mountains and therefore kick-start tourism activities in the area (Christomannos, 1998; Faggioni, 2012). Until the late nineteenth century, in fact, only a few people adventured into the upper part of the dolomitic territory: these were mostly villagers or aristocrats who could hire local guides to climb some seemingly inaccessible peak. The perseverance of Christomannos, along with the support of the Alpine Club (Deutscher und Österreichischer Alpenverein), could eventually convince politicians to sign the approval for construction in 1897. In his writings, Christomannos speculated that, at a good pace, the entire road could be travelled in three days on foot or by coach (Christomannos, 1998). However, things went faster than he had anticipated and, right after completion, the first cars appeared on the road and proved the whole itinerary could be covered in just one day. Tourism development was not long in coming: annual overnight stays in the main villages passed from tens to thousands and, in a matter of few years, tourism had become the main economic activity in the region. Anyway, Christomannos (who died in 1911) could hardly imagine that a century later the thousands of visitors a year would become thousands a day and that the road during July and August would be systematically packed with vehicles of people aiming to pass from one valley to another, reach some popular trailhead or even just gain a nice viewpoint and take a picture. In fact, road traffic has become considerable in recent decades: noise and crowding are now major concerns, and administrators are afraid of the possible repercussions of traffic-related issues on tourism.

The story of Theodor Christomannos and the ‘Große Dolomitenstraße’ reminds us of the inextricable link between nature-based tourism and transportation, and warns about the possible detrimental effects of transportation on the environment and eventually tourism itself. Transportation and transportation-related infrastructures provide access to nature and allow people to enjoy it. In fact, there would be no hiking in the wilderness without a road and a car to reach a trailhead, there would be no whale watching without a harbour and a boat to sail in whale-inhabited waters, there would be no downhill skiing without cableways to quickly climb slopes. By enabling outdoor recreation, transportation greatly benefits society through the provision of unique experiences to natural areas’ visitors and the support of tourism-based economies. Nevertheless, all of these benefits come at a cost as transportation may also negatively affect the areas it serves and the experiences it provides. Cars, buses, ferries, snow coaches and all the transportation modes that people rely on to enjoy natural places bring significant impacts on the environment by releasing pollutants such as carbon dioxide or particulate, which impair organisms and contribute to climate change, and generating noise, which causes considerable disturbance to humans and animals. Transportation infrastructures like roads, railways, harbours and parking lots deeply modify the naturalness of places contributing to harmful processes (e.g. excessive runoff, habitat fragmentation) and influencing visitors’ and residents’ perception of the environment. Further, by allowing people to reach places more easily or to discover new places, transportation contributes to an increase in human pressure on natural resources and favours overcrowding, which detracts from the quality of the recreational experience.

Nature-based tourism is an extremely popular activity: people search for natural experiences and are willing to travel long distances and spend considerable amounts of time and money to have them. Various studies tell us that nature-based tourism has been growing significantly over the years, with protected areas being the cornerstone of such trend (Buckley, 2000; Balmford et al., 2009). Officially designated areas (e.g. national parks), however, are not the only destination of people seeking opportunities for outdoor recreation: in fact, many non-protected areas worldwide provide excellent opportunities too and receive millions of visits every year. These areas, which we will broadly refer to as ‘natural areas’ hereafter, are rather heterogeneous in terms of stable human presence (i.e. from semi-wild areas to rural areas) and are often reasonably accessible from urban centres, therefore offering city dwellers convenient getaways during weekends or short holidays. Due to increasing interest in nature-based recreation, many natural and protected areas, especially in affluent countries, have been experiencing significant transportation-related issues over the last 30 years or so. For example, the Peak District National Park, an easily accessible protected area between the cities of Manchester and Sheffield in the UK, has seen traffic levels on cross-park routes more than double in the period 1980-1999, this causing significant impact on the environment and frustration to both visitors and residents (PDNPA, 2010). The Shuswap Lake, a very popular recreation area in south-central British Columbia (Canada), has recently undergone a dramatic increase in boat traffic, which has resulted in noise, pollution and conflict between different users (e.g. kayakers vs. motorboat users) (Kramer, 2010). Visitors to the Shiretoko National Park, a popular tourist destination in the Hokkaido Island (Japan), experience traffic jams that can last for hours as they attempt to approach some of the most scenic spots with private vehicles (Ishikawa et al., 2013).

The recognition of the seriousness of issues like those described in the examples above has raised global attention on the need for sustainable transportation systems in natural settings. Hence, managers of natural and protected areas worldwide have increasingly adopted rigorous measures to regulate the use of private motorized vehicles and foster a progressive shift to alternative forms of mobility. Among other initiatives, two can be cited for their extent and success: the Alternative Transportation Program (ATP) of the United States National Park Service (NPS) and the ‘Alpine Pearls’ project in Europe. The former, which was launched in 1998, is aimed at coordinating projects and policies for the implementation of alternative transportation systems (ATS) to and within units of the NPS (http://www.nps.gov.transportation/index.html). The latter, which is the outcome of two European Union’s projects (Alps Mobility and Alps Mobility II – Alpine Pearls), started in 2006 as a cooperation between 29 municipalities in six Alpine countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland) to promote soft mobility through improved public transportation systems (http://www.alpine-pearls.com). These and other experiences have shown that tackling some of the greatest issues commonly associated with transportation (e.g. traffic congestion, air pollution, noise) is actually possible and that visitors are willing to rethink their behaviour in order to address such issues. They have also shown that the use of alternative transportation makes it easier for managers to control visitor flows and use levels (e.g. a bus system lets managers know exactly how many people will get to a destination every hour), thus enhancing the protection of natural resources and recreational experiences. Nevertheless, designing and implementing truly sustainable transportation systems in natural settings is a hard challenge involving a wide array of intertwined environmental and socio-economic considerations that deserve great attention and in-depth technical knowledge.

This book explores the issues and opportunities associated with making transportation in natural and protected areas sustainable, and provides a set of concepts and strategic options for understanding the context and setting plans for action. The volume, which follows in the footsteps of that by Manning et al. (2014), adds new insights about the socio-economic implications of transportation in areas where people live and work, and provides an overview of sustainable transportation experiences in natural and protected areas outside the USA. The book hosts contributions from leading scholars working in the fields of transportation, outdoor recreation management and tourism. The structure of the book encompasses five parts, of which three – exploring preferences, practices and policies – constitute the core of the volume.

The first part of the book leads the reader through the concept of sustainable transportation, its complex space and time implications, its peculiar requisites in natural settings, and provides an overview of alternative transportation modes and how these should be used to assure sustainable transportation in natural areas.

Chapter 2, by Francesco Orsi, starts from the concept of sustainability to provide a tentative definition of sustainable transportation in natural settings. This is achieved by listing a set of nine sustainability requisites that transportation should fulfil. Such requisites pertain to the environmental externalities of transportation (e.g. pollution, noise), the role of transportation in managing visitor flows and guaranteeing mobility to as many visitor groups as possible, and eventually the relationship between transportation and the local economy. The chapter is introduced by an analysis of transportation in the light of sustainability’s space and time dimensions, emphasizing the need to assess sustainability over adequate spatial and temporal scales.

Chapter 3, by Francesco Orsi, provides an overview of alternative transportation modes that are commonly adopted in natural settings, namely: buses, trains, boats, cableways and bicycles. The key message of the chapter is that sustainability does not come from the mere adoption of a ‘green’ technology, but from how that technology is designed for and managed in a specific context. Different modes are analysed considering three elements: their positive contribution to the sustainability of a transportation system, their negative contribution to the sustainability of a transportation system and the management and design conditions under which their use can be defined sustainable.

The second part of the book focuses on people’s preferences and attitudes towards the characteristics of transportation in natural and protected areas. Knowing such preferences and attitudes is in fact key to defining transportation systems that maximize benefits to both nature and society. Preferences of both visitors and residents are considered, and special attention is paid to the perception of disabled people.

Chapter 4, by Jo Guiver, Nick Davies and Richard Weston, discusses the attitudes and preferences of visitors towards scheduled bus services in rural tourist areas. Special attention is paid to issues like service quality, timing, fares and ticketing, and recommendations on these same issues are eventually provided. The chapter, which is based on evidence from a research work conducted in the UK between 2005 and 2011, includes statements of people interviewed during various surveys and is introduced by a thorough discussion of the benefits of bus services in protected areas for visitors, residents and tourism providers.

Chapter 5, by Kourtney K. Collum and John J. Daigle, explores the shift from automobiles to alternative transportation in protected areas and, in particular, whether and how intelligent transportation systems (ITS) can foster such a shift. This is done through analysis of the results of extended research work conducted in Rocky Mountain National Park (USA). The chapter also includes a comprehensive historical introduction about the shift from automobiles to alternative forms of mobility in US national parks, along with an overview of research conducted to assess visitor perception towards alternative transportation.

Chapter 6, by Joshua D. Marquit and Britton L. Mace, analyses the perception of visitors and residents towards mandatory shuttle buses. The latter, which are used sometimes to exclude any level of private vehicle traffic, may in fact impair the freedom of visitors and the economic activities of communities living within or around a protected area. The chapter is based on the experience conducted in Zion National Park (USA) and sheds a light on the factors determining the success of a mandatory shuttle service and the fears and expectations of business owners.

Chapter 7, by Brent Lovelock, explores an often neglected issue, namely how disabled people perceive sustainable mobility in natural areas. Perspectives of persons with disabilities are explored considering the type and level of access to natural areas they think is appropriate. The chapter, which revisits a study conducted in New Zealand to better understand the perspective of disabled people towards motorized transport in natural settings, considers how sustainable transportation relates to disability and provides guidance for decisions in this field.

The third part of the book reviews current practices of sustainable transportation in natural settings by presenting eight case studies exploring alternative transportation technologies, sustainable mobility initiatives, opportunities for stakeholder involvement and economic issues associated with sustainable transportation. Chapters presenting an innovative method follow the standard structure of a scientific article (i.e. introduction, study area, method, results, discussion, conclusion), whereas chapters reviewing sustainable mobility experiences have a less strict outline. Nonetheless, all chapters provide a detailed description of the study area.

Chapter 8, by Anna Scuttari and Maria Della Lucia, presents a tourism traffic analysis aimed at estimating the environmental impact of inbound tourism, and an exploratory analysis of the effects of traffic management measures on tourism flows. Environmental impact was measured in terms of carbon emissions and energy consumption, whereas the effects of management measures (i.e. incentives to alternative transportation and disincentives to private vehicles) were estimated in terms of variations in tourist arrivals. The study was conducted in South Tyrol (Italy), a popular natural region in the Alps that is fostering sustainable tourism and mobility.

Chapter 9, by Roger Sonderegger and Widar von Arx, presents two innovative on-demand transportation options – Bus Alpin and AlpenTaxi - recently introduced in the Swiss Alps to reduce motorized traffic, while allowing visitors to reach places that are not accessible via traditional public transit. Bus Alpin is a network of small public transit lines serving tourist destinations, whereas AlpenTaxi is a taxi service based on existing private transportation options that is particularly devoted to alpinists and hikers. The chapter explores the success, efficiency and effects of these initiatives.

Chapter 10, by Davina Stanford, shows how market segmentation can be used to reduce the negative impacts of transportation in natural areas while ensuring economic benefits. The proposed method, which is based on Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour, seeks to identify market segments that might demonstrate a high propensity to a positive behavioural change and at the same time could strongly contribute to a destination in economic terms. The study was conducted in the Lake District National Park (UK).

Chapter 11, by Richard Weston, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• Part I Concepts and definitions
• Part II Preferences – Attitudes towards sustainable transportation
• Part III Practices – Experiences around the world
• Part IV Policies – Strategies and policies for sustainable transportation
• Part V Conclusion
• Index