Biking on the park carriage roads grew enormously in popularity in the 1980’s. Complaints from visitors and residents about crowding and problem behaviors led the park to apply the Visitor Experience Resource Protection (VERP) Framework, a carrying capacity planning process. Dr. Robert Manning of University of Vermont conducted survey research on carriage road users from 1994-1996 to gather information to support the VERP process and eventual carriage road management decisions. Journal articles covering this research are available.

A summary report (covering the application of VERP, the research, and management decisions) is available from the links on the left. Popular versions of this work can be found in Parks and Recreation Magazine (July 1998) and the Friends of Acadia Journal (Fall 1998). Carriage road monitoring reports are also available from the links on the left-hand side of this page.

These documents are in PDF format, which requires Adobe Reader.