National Scenic Byways Program and
America’s Byways Resource Center: 10-Year Report
This December 2009 report represents the byway-specific knowledge base and resources created over the previous decade to fortify the success and sustainability of designated byways. It covers work implemented by the America’s Byways Resource Center in support of the National Scenic Byways Program.
For ease of viewing this 10-year compilation, descriptions of the work follow the Introduction in four categories: Research, Training, Tools, and Evaluation. Links to digital resources are provided when available.
For additional information, please contact the FHWA-National Scenic Byways Program or America’s Byways Resource Center.
Introduction
The National Scenic Byways Program marked its 18th anniversary in 2009. In that year, the America’s Byways® collection expanded to include a total of 150 special routes across the country designated by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. This milestone reflected the Program’s commitment to its original vision of creating a distinctive collection of American roads, their stories and treasured places. The expansion also reinforced the Program’s mission to provide resources to the byway community that help create unique travel experiences and enhance local quality of life through efforts to preserve, protect, interpret and promote the intrinsic qualities of designated byways.
An outcome of that guiding mission, America’s Byways Resource Center was established in 1998 to offer technical assistance, training and resources to the grassroots groups and individuals who manage the routes of America’s Byways. Funding derives from a cooperative agreement between America’s Byways Resource Center’s parent organization, which is the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission, and the Federal Highway Administration.
America’s Byways Resource Center’s vision is to foster sustainable byway organizations that participate in networking and seek to deliver authentic experiences for their designated byways. Since its inception, America’s Byways Resource Center has worked to provide positive, proactive, hands-on assistance to the byway community in core areas such as finances, byway organization, corridor management and visitor experience.
Along the way, America’s Byways Resource Center’s leadership has helped to spark other initiatives incorporating aspects of byway preservation, protection or promotion. For example, participants at the 2001 National Scenic Byways Conference identified a need for a not-for-profit organization to support nationally designated byways. America’s Byways Resource Center, which had developed the conference programming, then served as a conduit for interested individuals to form the National Scenic Byway Foundation.
Similarly, America’s Byways Resource Center assisted the Scenic Byway Coalition, a group representing more than 30 national tour and recreational organizations, to honor the 15th anniversary of the National Scenic Byways Program and implement the Byways 2021 Blog.
America’s Byways Resource Center and the FHWA-National Scenic Byways Program have concentrated the majority of their efforts during the past ten years toward helping local byway groups and individuals gain tools and information to reach individual byway goals and achieve sustainable success. Working together, the FHWA-National Scenic Byways Program and America’s Byways Resource Center have identified information gaps in knowledge fields critical to byway success, and collaborated to meet the specific training, education and resource needs of byway leaders, volunteers, advocates and stakeholders. FHWA-National Scenic Byways Program and America’s Byways Resource Center look forward to continuing on this road to success.
