Abstract
Byway providers—the local staff, organization leaders, and volunteers who sustain a highway's designation as one of America's byways—face challenges of overcoming habituated ways of viewing their byways, especially when these providers offer wayshowing elements of safe travel such as maps, guide signs, directions, and information about traveler services and amenities so that first-time byway travelers can have successful and rewarding byway experiences. The locally based and geographically rich knowledge that byway providers possess is often much more complete than the relatively vague or nonexistent knowledge held by byway travelers and visitors. Byway providers need their intimate geographic knowledge to effectively conserve, plan, promote, and interpret the intrinsic resources of a byway. However, their in-depth knowledge shaped by frequent, habitual experience on their byway can hinder them in developing effective wayshowing materials aimed at assisting nonlocal travelers because the perspective of seeing their byway through a first-time visitor's eye is a difficult one to refocus. Although technical instructions and materials describing how byway providers should assess their guidance systems are valuable, the assessment process often is incomplete if byway providers fail to see apparent needs from a nonlocal traveler's perspective. The America's Byways Resource Center is exploring theoretical models that make concepts about the visitor's experience more explicit and conducting awareness-building exercises designed to help byway providers take more of a visitor's eye perspective. Preliminary assessments of this initiative indicate productive and positive results.
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