Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad bike program helps park go green

Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad

Jeff Peters of Garrettsville rode his bike Friday afternoon right up to cutting edge of a growing trend in America's national parks: Keep the cars out.

"Hey, the roads don't go where the nature is -- but I can if I bike there," said Peters who had just bicycled about 10 miles Friday morning on the Towpath Trail from Peninsula to Independence.

He returned in the afternoon by loading his bike on a baggage car and hopping a passenger train on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.

Peters and other the bicyclists represent what park officials say is a renewed environmental hope-- that auto-dependent Americans can help make their national parks more climate-friendly.

That's right -- the national parks are going green.

"Sounds logical, doesn't it?" said Mary Pat Doorley, a spokeswoman for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. "This is part of an overall effort to have visitors to national parks -- including the Cuyahoga Valley National Park -- think about using alternative transportation when they can."

Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad officials are projecting ridership to triple this year for its "Bike Aboard" program, a $2 fare for bicyclists.

Railroad officials started the "Bike Aboard" program last summer, which allows cyclists to bike the Towpath Trail in one direction and ride the train in the other for $2. The fare is a drastic reduction from the usual $15 boarding fee ($10 for kids) for traveling anywhere along the length the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

It has tripled bike-and-train use this summer.

The National Park Service began funding alternative transportation programs in 1998, but is increasing its emphasis as public awareness increases about the connection between the burning of fossil fuels and global warming.

The Park Service is now expected to spend $78 million a year through 2020 to develop ways to reduce automobile traffic in the nation's parks.

In other parks around the country, that emphasis has meant adding natural-gas fired buses or other mass-transit vehicles to bring visitors in and out of areas like Zion National Park in Utah or Acadia National Park in Maine.

But Cuyahoga Valley National Park -- which covers 33,000 acres from Akron to Cleveland -- is trying to better take advantage of the railroad and Towpath that literally run right down its middle.

Overall, ridership on the Scenic Railroad is up 20 percent this year from 2007, when more than 150,000 people rode the train either on daily excursions or on special events, said Railroad President Steven Wait. Wait said the railroad also added a more flexible schedule this summer at the advice of an expert the park hired last summer as part of a grant program with The Ford Foundation. Researchers work on improving and promoting alternative ways of getting around the national park.

"If you think about it, the national parks are a perfect place to start changing the public mind-set about driving and pollution because they're iconic," said Robin Clancy of Brecksville, a University of Akron graduate student, who is one of two hires this summer.

"Not only that, but the parks directly feel the effects of auto pollution as well."

But what seems like a logical course is actually a significant turnaround.

National Parks officials say that since the 1920's, they've built their transportation systems "primarily for the private auto."

Today, nearly 300 million people visit America's national parks each year. More than 4.4 million people visited Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona alone in 2007.

That iconic site also had what most regard as the worst example of a car-crazy public descending on nature: On Memorial Day 2002, a line of cars more than a mile and half long waited to enter the park.

There are now more than 8,055 miles of roads and parkways in the National Park Service's 400 American parks, according to federal records.

But federal officials said there are also now 110 visitor transit systems in 98 parks that vary in size, ranging from single vehicle and bus fleets to water transit -- 12 of those exclude cars entirely.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park -- ranked in the top 10 nationwide with nearly 2.5 million visitors a year -- will never be completely car-free, of course, Doorley said.

"But look around, there are hundreds of people who see that there are other ways to get around this park, too," said train passenger Craig Alderman, who came to the park with his wife and two children. "Biking and taking mass transit are probably just healthier and that's good for the nation as a whole."

From Cleveland.com