An efficient transit system can be key to decongestion in Yosemite Fresno Bee - May 18, 2000 The Clinton administration's latest and final effort to improve the visitor experience in Yosemite Valley maybe, just maybe, has a shot at actually happening. Like any Yosemite overhaul, this one is packed with trade-offs. Many are inevitably controversial. Yet this plan has the feel of one that can work. Few debate the underlying goals of the plan: Repair some human-trampled banks of the Merced River; move structures out of its floodplain and away from rock-fall zones; increase valley pathways for bikes and hikers; better manage the traffic on busy days. In short, less noise, more nature. The rub comes when visitors realize how realizing those popular goals would touch their habits and convenience. The plan also would mean fewer campsites at campgrounds and at the Housekeeping complex right on the Merced, fewer parking spaces in the valley for day visitors and more buses to move them into the park. Would those and other changes add up to an improved Yosemite? On balance, yes. It is easy to demolish a tent cabin in a rock-fall zone. It's far tougher to develop a transit system that doesn't feel like a fleet of cattle cars, and that offers an experience that would appeal to visitors. Overnight visitors still would be allowed to park their cars next to their accommodations, yet would rely more on shuttles once in the valley because there would be fewer places elsewhere to park. Many day visitors, meanwhile, would have to board shuttles outside the valley about an hour's ride away. How many? That depends on how many parking spaces remain inside the valley. The National Park Service proposes eliminating two-thirds of day-use parking and limiting it to 550 spaces, all at Yosemite Village. Such a dramatic reduction of parking for day visitors would require operating a park-and-ride shuttle system from satellite lots about 190 days of the year. At first blush, many might think that Yosemite doesn't have a congestion problem 190 days of the year. Think a little deeper, however, and the proposal begins to make more and more sense. Remember that this Yosemite plan, literally 20 years in the making, is designed to meet the challenges of the decades ahead. Visitation, already at 4 million a year, will only increase. A 190-day shuttle system is far more likely to succeed. Unlike a summer-only system, a 190-day transit system would operate enough to attract transit drivers who wish to become permanently employed park service ambassadors on wheels. The motor coach rides (using next-generation, low-polluting technologies) would offer more information -- either from videos or live rangers -- than most visitors now receive throughout their entire visit. The National Park Service will begin to explain its Yosemite vision in the coming weeks at public meetings throughout the state and nation. Citizens concerned about the park's future must hope the diverse array of Yosemite interest groups will debate in good faith and not just campaign to combat change. The last Yosemite decongestion effort of this administration turns out to be its best.