Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Fresno-Yosemite Bus Route Proposed

From the Modesto Bee.

Read the last line.

In a park of Yosemites visitor volume? Ambitious much?

I know that during "the season" at smaller parks they've done this, instituting a mandatory shuttle system for anyone except for guests staying specifically in park lodging. The first examples that comes to mind are Zion National Park in Utah and the Devils Postpile Area in Mammoth. Unless you're camping in the park (or staying at the Lodge in Zion), you have to park in specific areas and grab the shuttle. But both Zion (the main canyon) and Devils Postpile are relativly small areas and they run shuttles every 15 minutes or so... and those shuttles stop at the vast majority (if not all) trailheads...


And I'm pretty sure that the great state of California has other, more pressing issues to spend it's funds on then a new shuttle system in and out of Yosemite and SEKI....

I just forwarded my comments (in the form of responding to sections of the article) to COG for their inclusion in public comments prior to their meeting tomorrow.

Thanks, wagga, for posting this.

CaT

Pretty curious the Modesto Bee would carry the story but not Fresno Bee. (Modesto is 100 miles north, has a different access route into Yosemite)

Zion's shuttle works because it is only a short distance from outside-park parking areas.

If the Merced-Yosemite shuttle takes 3 hours, one from Fresno would take even longer. In a car with no stops, it takes 2 hours. A bus from Fresno would take more than 3 hours.

I don't think this idea will go very far.

I like the idea of a huge underground parking facility in the west end of Yosemite Valley. But that would cost billions.

The idea of a bus from Fresno to Yosemite with something like 10 stops along the way, in part so that people will "buy something" at one of those pit stops (sentiments of Supervisor Wheeler) would take even longer, and should be visited with a quick and speedy death.

One wonders if the "support" cited by the study is that of the potential ridership or rather of the hotels and other commercial entities at the pit stops along the way that probably hope to gain revenue from people being forced to stop there.

Some kind of an enrivonmentally friendly park-and-ride immediately adjacent to, but outside of, Yosemite Valley would be ideal, so people could drive up there on their own schedules, and catch a 5-minute shuttle in and out of the valley.

CaT

This opinion was published today in the Sierra Star.

Completely opposed? Whoa! I guess tourist dollars is the only thing they can think about. Too bad.

I think it would be good to offer the YARTS service to the public. But I certainly wouldn't favor a mandatory bus system.

Well, I think that if one lives in a community hugely dependent upon tourist travel is facing a proposal that would turn one's community into a ghost town, I think opposition is pretty reasonable. Certainly no skin off Fresno's nose, that will realize the shift of those dollars.

Also, I don't believe there is a transit system in the US that actually makes money. So, this is going to cost somebody $9 mill (they say $6-9, but you know how these things always go), with around $2mill a year.

Out of what, and whose, budget surplus is this going to come from??