For years, the National Park Service has closed off a 7-mile stretch of the Colonial Parkway for the annual Pedal the Parkway, during which attendees will have a car-free stretch of the road to walk, jog, or bike. However, the article notes that this year, participants might be asked to pay the parkway’s entrance fee. This is an issue that has been bubbling up in local news and social media, so I want to talk about it.
First, a little context. The parkway is not intended to provide an efficient way to get from point A to point B. The speed limit varies from 25 mph to 45 mph, there are no lane markings, and no commercial vehicles are allowed. This is what the road generally looks like.
I live a couple of miles from the Jamestown end of the parkway, and I sometimes come home that way just because it’s pleasant and I’m not often in a hurry. It is soothing to drive a few miles along a road without traffic, trucks, or stoplights. So I guess I wouldn’t have to pay a fee, because I’m driving through. But if I’m enjoying myself, I guess I’m recreating and would owe a fee. And if I stop to walk along the river for a few minutes, I better have my NPS Senior pass with me. On what planet does this make sense?
It is absolutely true that the Colonial Parkway is part of the National Park Service’s Colonial National Historical Park, so it falls under NPS regulations. In practice, people who want to visit Jamestown or Yorktown can do so with an NPS pass, but driving on the parkway has never been regulated. The entry fee is minimal -- $15.00 for a 7-day pass, which includes access to Historic Jamestown and the Yorktown Battlefield. An annual pass costs $45.00. These passes allow one adult and three accompanying guests to visit the museums and (I guess) drive the Parkway. You and your spouse best not bring your three adult children along for the ride if you plan to stop and recreate.
Recently, signs like this have gone up at some (but not all) of the overlooks that allow visitors to enjoy the local wildlife and broad river vistas.
The local Daily Press (a sister publication to the Virginia Gazette) published an article about this in the middle of April. The article made clear that this policy would be selectively enforced by park rangers. Apparently, it is okay to drive along the parkway; however, the article noted (in a strange turn of phrase) that the fee would apply to anyone who stops to “recreate” in the park. I don’t think that’s even a word.
When I drive along the parkway, the parking lots at the various overlooks are often full of cars, as people swim at the beaches, picnic under the trees, and fish. Tim and I like to picnic at an overlook on the James River called Archer’s Hope. We see other picnickers enjoying the location, families using the small beach, and solitary individuals sitting and reading a book. Couples walk hand-in-hand along the riverfront. There’s the occasional impromptu volleyball game or drum circle. We are all recreating.
Now let’s look at the only three parkways that charge a fee – the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Highway, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Colonial Parkway. The first two roads have ranger stations at each access point. All vehicles have to stop and pay before they can enter the parkway. The Colonial Parkway doesn’t have this. So far as I can figure out, there are nine intersections between Yorktown and Jamestown where people can enter or exit the parkway. There would need to be a ranger station (or crossbar with an automated pay system) at each of these intersections. I don’t know how that would be handled at night. How much would it cost to build, staff, and operate these pay stations? Could that possibly be offset by the fines levied against the miscreants who dare to recreate without a license? Unlike the Blueridge Parkway, people don’t make a day trip to travel the Colonial Parkway and hike its trails. Just doesn’t happen. I would hope that the NPS has thought this through, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
So here’s the problem, and it’s an important one. Suppose you’re one of the small number of park rangers policing the parkway. There’s no fee for entry to the parkway. You drive past an overlook like Archer’s Hope, and observe a lot of cars there. Do you ticket everyone? Or do you get to pick and choose who you ticket? Two options are highly likely: no one will get a ticket, or the park ranger will choose to ticket a couple of people to serve as a deterrent to the others. Who is he going to pick? Tim and me (a couple of septuagenarians quietly eating a sandwich) or the Hispanic family whose kids are frolicking in the water, being noisy as kids are? What about the group of white folks having a family reunion over to the side, or the black family celebrating Juneteenth? I think I know the answer to that and you do too. It won’t be long until we see a follow-up news story about the perils of recreating while black.
The increasing prevalence of police body cams and social media has revealed a troubling racial undercurrent to policing in America. In far too many cases, white people get away with things while people of color are arrested (or ticketed) for doing the same things.
For many people, this is not an onerous fee. If the NPS really wants to raise revenue, it should increase its ticket costs. As it stands, this is a bargain, and people on vacation have already decided to spend money.
This nebulous policy change is already damaging the local reputation of the NPS. It is an unforced error and they need to stop.
So many questions, so little time ...
1) As I recall,, from the Visitor's Center it's slightly fewer than 10 miles to Yorktown and slightly more than 10 to Jamestown, so they are charging more than $1 per mile for either direction, and I guess $45 if one were adventurous enough to go first to one end and then to the other and then back to the VC ... right??
2) Do I have to pay $15 to drive from VC to the Queenslake Exit to visit friends? ( I do live out of town!)
3) Can I still ride my bike on the CP at times other than the special closure? Are bikes charged, too?
Sounds like a poor policy to me.
PS: Opera at the winery was good on Monday. THanks for last week's tip!
Obnoxious. I love the NPS, but I suspect they will get some pushback over this poor policy.