Mount Rainier National Park (MORA) accommodates more than one million visitors annually, and experiences intensive visitation during summer months. During peak periods of visitation, visitors must wait in long lines of traffic to enter the park and have difficulty finding places to park their cars once they enter the park. The park’s General Management Plan (GMP) calls for coordinated deployment of shuttle service, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), and overflow parking management to improve transportation conditions in the park.

RSG worked with the National Park Service (NPS) to develop a concept of operations for ITS planning and deployment in MORA (MORA ConOps). In the MORA ConOps recommendations, RSG included an integrated system of real-time traffic counters, web-cameras, variable message signs, highway advisory radio systems, a mobile app, and website improvements. RSG also researched and provided recommendations to MORA regarding travel management center software options that would be used to deploy, operate, and integrate the components of MORA’s ITS. The NPS is using RSG’s recommendations and the MORA ConOps to secure funding for and guide deployment of ITS in the park as a primary strategy to reduce parking and traffic congestion in MORA.