Bandelier National Monument (BAND) has a history of transportation and congestion management issues during peak visitation periods, including traffic congestion at the Monument entrance and parking shortages. These challenges have been made more difficult by recent wildfires and flooding, which have forced the NPS to temporarily close nearly half of the parking facilities in BAND.

To offset reduced parking, the NPS established a partnership with Los Alamos County to provide emergency shuttle service for a three-year period (2012-2014), but long-term strategies to address BAND’s transportation issues are needed.

RSG is working with the NPS to prepare a Transportation Implementation Plan to improve transportation conditions, enhance the quality of visitors’ experiences, and reduce transportation-related impacts to natural, cultural, and historical resources in BAND. To date, RSG has worked with the NPS to conduct stakeholder and public meetings, collect and analyze transportation and visitor use data, and develop draft alternatives (transit and non-transit). In the next phases of the project, RSG will revise the alternatives to incorporate public comment, and prepare an Implementation Plan for the NPS’s Preferred Alternative. The Implementation Plan will include a financial analysis of all requirements to implement the Preferred Alternative, and identify potential revenue streams to fund plan implementation.