Survey outlines visitor attitudes on Sun Road

Glacier National Park’s five proposed actions for the Going-to-the-Sun Road Corridor plan were based in part on surveys conducted by a research team from the University of Montana in summer 2014.

Completed in March, the study was led by Zachary Miller and Wayne Freimund and identified levels of support for a range of possible management actions to improve visitor experience.

Motorists were surveyed at three sites and hikers were surveyed at six sites.

Participants were asked to rate their level of support, from one, expressing strong opposition, to five, expressing strong support. Three was a neutral response. A summary of the findings follows:

• Overall, 83.6 percent of drivers supported or strongly supported providing information on crowding levels ahead of time.

• More than half of drivers surveyed opposed limiting the number of visitors per hour, and nearly 20 percent either supported the action or were neutral. Less than 10 percent felt strongly either way.

• 62.1 percent of drivers opposed or strongly opposed requiring reservations for parking at specific sites. Support was expressed by 18 percent and only 2 percent strongly supported reservations.

• When drivers were asked about a three-hour limit on parking at busy sites, 35.7 percent opposed it and 38.8 percent supported it. Strong support and strong opposition both came in at 6.6 percent.

• More than 75 percent of drivers supported or strongly supported increasing shuttles as well as educating visitors to improve parking behavior.

• 70.4 percent of hikers expressed support for more advance information about crowding levels.

• Asked about permits to limit per-hour trail use, 70 percent of hikers were opposed or strongly opposed, with only 11.5 percent expressing any level of support.

• Similarly, 89.4 percent of hikers opposed or strongly opposed requiring a reservation to hike a trail.

• Hikers also opposed limiting shuttle stops to reduce trail use. 65.7 percent opposed or strongly opposed the idea and only 8.7 felt any level of support.

• Hikers also were unsupportive of trail improvements to increase capacity, with 68.3 percent against and only 12.9 percent in favor.

• Several other management actions were proposed that received more divided support, including limiting the number of cars, limiting the number of hikers in a group, limiting trailhead parking times and reducing allowable decibels from vehicles on Going-to-the-Sun Road.