A move to investigate a car-share program for Banff is taking a back seat again.
A tied 3-3 council vote at a recent meeting means a move to spend $30,000 to hire a consultant to study options for a car- and ride-sharing program won’t happen now. Instead, the issue has been referred to 2018 budget talks.
Councillors Chip Olver, Corrie DiManno and Brian Standish voiced support to get started now on looking at a car-sharing program, while Grant Canning, Stavros Karlos and Ted Christensen argued budget deliberations is a better time for consideration.
“I think we’re on the threshold here for moving forward with this option and I’d like to see it happen,” said Olver, who was the councillor to initially bring up the idea of the Town of Banff exploring a car-share program in January.
“There is interest out there in implementing, or investigating, some sort of car-share program. It’s really timely to be looking at a car-share program because it’s happening in so many other communities.”
Car share programs – where people can rent cars for short periods of time from either commercial businesses, public bodies or other groups – are becoming increasingly popular. They’re billed as cheaper and greener options to vehicle ownership.
Not only are there savings on the cost of buying a vehicle, but someone else takes care of maintenance and insurance. People who car-share also help ease congestion by taking cars off the road.
The proposed study of a car-share program for Banff would examine the state of the practice in car-sharing and ride-sharing in North America, with emphasis on Canadian examples.
The Town would hire a consultant to carry out the work, and then recommendations would be made as to the suitability of various car and ride share options for Banff.
Canning said he supports looking into a car-share program, but the timing is off.
“Personally, I’d prefer to see this put into our normal budget cycle,” he said. “This is important, but I don’t see it as immediately urgent.”
DiManno believes now is the time to look at the issue.
“I’d like to see movement on this before next summer,” she said, noting the number of vehicles in town continues to increase.
“Administration needs time to do research and come back with options and if we say yes now, there’s a chance something like this can be in place next summer.”
According to a Town report, car-sharing is rapidly emerging as a fifth mode of urban transportation alongside walking, cycling, public transit and private vehicles. In Canada, car-share membership grew from about 100,000 members in 2012 to 340,000.
Adrian Field, the Town of Banff’s engineering manager, said Banff’s road system is finite.
“We only have the ability to move a certain number of cars around town – about 24,000 vehicles, give or take,” said Field.
