Yosemite Park May Ban Cars

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - Cars would be banned from Yosemite Valley as part of a sweeping plan that also calls for increasing park trails and tearing down the visitors center, newspapers reported in early November 1997.

The National Park Service proposal would require visitors to park their cars outside Yosemite's boundaries in one of four areas and take a bus into the scenic valley, the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Fresno Bee reported. Once in the sprawling park, visitors could walk, bike or take shuttle buses to get around. Details of the plan are to be announced Wednesday.
Park Superintendent Stanley Albright said it was "a vision for the 21st century ... a comprehensive blueprint for reducing traffic, restoring natural resources within the valley and improving visitor facilities and services.''

The proposal calls for some of the biggest changes in public use since Yosemite became a national park in 1890. Reducing traffic has been discussed for years but this is the first time officials have formally proposed severe restrictions on private cars in the popular tourism spot.

The 291-page document - formally called the Draft Yosemite Valley Implementation Plan - also calls for removing 2,300 parking spots and restoring 147 acres of the valley to their natural condition. It describes increasing pedestrian and visitor trails, removing three Merced River bridges, tearing down the present visitors center and even removing the park superintendent's residence.
The park service plan would affect most of Yosemite's 4.2 million annual visitors who arrive by car. "It would make Yosemite a more enjoyable place to visit,'' said Jay Watson, regional director of the Wilderness Society.
The key to the proposal is a new transportation system being developed by the park service, Forest Service and the five counties neighboring Yosemite.
If the system is not operating by 2001, the park service would build a temporary 1,800-car parking lot near the Taft Toe in Yosemite Valley.

The only visitors allowed to bring cars in the valley would be people with reservations at the park hotels or campgrounds. But those visitors would be required to park their cars until it was time to drive out, effectively eliminating automobile touring of Yosemite.

A series of public hearings were scheduled for the plan, beginning Nov. 17 near Fresno. A decision would be made in spring 1998, the newspapers said.