Hello RVers,

    I am sending this request to several RV groups. I apologize
for the cross-posting, but I want to communicate to as many
RVers as possible. Please feel free to forward this message to
other RVers.

    I am asking for your help by taking an on-line survey as
part of a voluntary study I am doing on the effect on RV tourism
of the overnight parking ban in Nova Scotia. The survey is
anonymous; your e-mail address is not collected. The survey will
take you no more than a few minutes to fill-in. I am not
conducting the survey nor doing the study for my commercial gain,
but the results could benefit RVers generally - and not just those
intending to visit Nova Scotia.

    I need your survey response to determine the extent that
your decision to travel (in your RV) to a jurisdiction in the United
States or Canada would be influenced by a prohibition against
staying overnight anywhere except in designated for-fee
campgrounds (such as now occurs in Nova Scotia). It is evident
from Internet group discussions that there is a wide range of
perspectives among RVers on the legitimacy of staying overnight
in parking lots, truck stops, etc. (often focused on staying
overnight in Wal-Mart parking lots). The survey is designed to
capture this range of positions, and your viewpoints are important
to the study, whether you agree with the practice, disagree, or are
ambivalent. Also, your opinions are important even if you have no
intention of coming to Nova Scotia. When the study is completed
it might be used by other jurisdictions when deciding if they should
impose restrictions on where RVers may stay overnight.

    In the case of  Nova Scotia there is a Province-wide ban on
you, as a member of the traveling or vacationing public, from
staying overnight in your RV anywhere except in a licensed private
campground or a Provincial / Federal campground. The
prohibition is in force regardless of unsafe driving conditions,
vehicle breakdown, or personal emergency; or even when
campgrounds are full, not in the vicinity, or closed for the season.
The ban also prohibits staying overnight in a truck stop. In order
to convince the Nova Scotia Government of the various
detrimental consequences of the RV overnight parking ban I have
volunteered to conduct a publishable study of its impacts on the
RV traveling public and the provincial economy. The ban here is
obviously a peril to RVers, but if it deters RVers from coming to
Nova Scotia, it also hurts RV tourism business and the wider
provincial economy. Indeed the policy may injure the private
campground operators that it is intended to shield.

    The Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture and
Heritage has been helpful in providing me with information
regarding the scope and enforcement of the ban, campground
licensing requirements, and data on RV tourism in the Province.
Further, I have received input from RVing organizations on
growth trends in RV activity, statistical data on their memberships'
staying overnight in parking lots, and recommended etiquette for
RVers to follow when overnighting in parking lots. I am asking for
your help by answering my survey.

    The survey can be accessed at:

    www.geocities.com/cornwaab
    or
    www.geocities.com/cornwaab/survey_form_40.html

Thank you.

--- Andrew Cornwall