High Peaks Shuttle Buses

[DSettahr]

In my experience doing steward-related work: if it's still relatively early in the day and there's plenty of time for someone to rectify the shortcomings in their preparedness (go get a map, headlamp, food, water, etc.) and then still do a hike, it's fairly easy to get unprepared hikers turned around at or near the trailhead. To that end, I think stops in the towns (Keene/Keene Valley) make sense even if only for this reason alone- hikers can stop at Stewart's, Valley Grocery, and the Mountaineer to obtain missing essentials.

Later in the day is more of a challenge- while folks are usually willing to modify their plans somewhat, they are far less willing to abandon them entirely. But those steward interactions are still important- hopefully hikers will be better prepared the next time as a result.

One possible effect of the shuttle buses that I haven't seen anyone mention: I think it will have some moderate impact on the itineraries that hikers select. In particular, I think we'll start to see some number of hikers using the shuttle to undertake thru-trips, where they end at a different trailhead than the one they started at. There's already been some discussion about this on Reddit, with folks looking at the planned shuttle routes and seeing how they can use the shuttles to their advantage to plan thru-hikes with separate start and end points.

To be clear- I don't think that this is inherently a bad thing, especially as it could work to spread hikers out more and alleviate crowding conditions somewhat. However, I do think that some trails that currently see relatively low levels of use (and correspondingly low levels of maintenance) are likely to see increased used with the introduction of the shuttles- and also see increased impacts overall. Given that that impact as a function of level of use tends to follow a logarithmic curve (where each additional unit of use results adds a decreasing amount of additional impact to the total), there is potential here for the overall level of physical impacts in the High Peaks to increase as a result.

I also don't necessarily think that these impacts will be huge (or even necessarily all that consequential) but I'm nevertheless hopeful that some foresight can be given towards altering current trail maintenance patterns towards proactively addressing the likely changes in use patterns that result from shuttle service.

[Hobbitling]

"Under the current plan, ridership would be free. “The DEC wants to make this work, so based on how it is now, this will be a non-paying system,” he said."

Oh, it is a paying system, all right, just not the users of the system that are paying. Another hand in my pocket to pay for someone else's ride. ;(

it's about 6 cents per new york state resident.

[TCD]

As I said over on ADKHighPeaks, I think this is a very encouraging development. Sure, it's piecemeal; and sure, the state continues to do absolutely no comprehensive planning. But it's "something," and that's an improvement over decades of "nothing."

I have been advocating for at least two years for a comprehensive plan for this area. It would include: adequate safe parking and real bathrooms (buildings, not portopotties); real trailhead education (educators, not signage); restoring the Forest Ranger staff (Rangers per acre of State Land); and restoring the (largely abandoned) state trail maintenance function. I think the price tag to do this whole program right is about $100 Million.

So this $2.4 Million is a tiny down payment, but a positive step.

Because there is no comprehensive planning, this isolated positive step is forcing other parts of the system to scramble to get ready. How many parking spaces do we need? Where are the drivers? Do we have adequate bathrooms? These are some of the immediate issues that are being actively worked on. A lot of folks are committed to making this shuttle successful.

Again because there is no comprehensive planning, other parts of the system will have to scramble. As DS rightly points out, this may put additional traffic on parts of the trail system. Will this require additional trail work? Will this create additional "lost hiker" rescue scenarios?

In the perfect world, there would be a comprehensive plan, so when one piece of the system was upgraded, the other parts of the system would be prepared to work with it. But the way this is going is that one piece gets upgraded, and it creates a crisis in other parts if the system. If the crisis gets bad enough to become a "squeaky wheel," then another piece of the system may suddenly get the attention it has long needed.

So I guess we have to live with that process. It's certainly a painful way to get things done, but oh well. I hope this positive upgrade of the shuttles becomes an ongoing program, and maybe it will gradually drive improvements to the rest of the system.

[Schultzz]

Perhaps the funding could come from the tourist advertising budget which I am sure is substantial.

[Lucky13]

it's about 6 cents per new york state resident.

So if it is so reasonable, what is the beef with the users paying for it? Especially the non NYS residents. And remember large numbers of NYS residents pay nothing for anything now, the remainder of us are already carrying them.

[Schultzz]

So if it is so reasonable, what is the beef with the users paying for it? Especially the non NYS residents. And remember large numbers of NYS residents pay nothing for anything now, the remainder of us are already carrying them.

Nothing