Although the roads were built for horse-drawn carriages, they are now used mainly by bicyclists and walkers, providing a welcome escape from automobile traffic and access to many undeveloped areas of the park.
Equestrian use is low.
Longtime observers agree that carriage road use increased greatly with the rise in popularity of the mountain bike in the 1980s, although no data on carriage road use were collected during this time period. VERP addresses carrying capacity and visitor use management of national park areas through nine elements in a generally linear but also iterative process. VERP is one of several frameworks that provide a logical and rational basis for decision-making, and it is becoming more commonly used throughout the national park system. The VERP framework can also include a natural or cultural resource component for determining carrying capacity. However, we determined that resource impacts at Acadia were minimal.