Thomas Edison National Historical Park
As the National Park Service (NPS) enters its second century preserving and protecting the natural and cultural resources of America, a commitment to providing unparalleled access to national parks remains.
Before the establishment of the NPS, parks existed as a haphazard collection of scenic places out of reach for most people. Stephen Mather, the first director of the NPS, wanted more national parks within reach of more people and saw the burgeoning automobile industry as the perfect vehicle to gain access to parks.
Through an enormous effort by Mather, automobiles were endorsed as the best method of travel to national parks. Contemporary personalities like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone popularized the use of automobiles in national parks, a trend still popular today.
By 1918, just two years after its creation, the NPS saw automobile visitors outnumber train visitors by seven-to-one. Thus an American tradition was born.
Today this tradition remains; national parks across the country are working to provide the critical infrastructure needed to power a new wave of accessing national parks by means of electric and alternative fuel vehicles. Electric vehicle charging stations, like those you see here, can help connect communities to parks around the United States, providing the support
necessary to maintain access to national parks for generations to come.
Electric Vehicles
An electric vehicle exclusively uses one or more electric motors, eliminating the need to burn any type of fuel. By utilizing rechargeable batteries these types of vehicles can offer drivers greater efficiency than that of gasoline-powered vehicles. Craters of the Moon National Park use Gem e2 electric vehicles to traverse the park.
Biodiesel
Biodiesel is a renewable, biodegradable fuel that is manufactured from vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant grease. It is a cleaner-burning replacement for petroleum diesel fuel that is utilized in many visitor shuttles around the NPS like this one from Yosemite National Park.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a widely used fuel for cooking and heating. LPG produces fewer emissions than gasoline and has an already established infrastructure for transport. Many lawnmowers across the NPS, like these at the National Mall, have been retrofitted to run on LPG.
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