It may soon be an offence in Canmore to leave your vehicle idling within the town’s limits.
Canmore council provided input into a brand new traffic and road use bylaw being prepared by administration at its committee of the whole meeting earlier this month.
Manager of public works Andreas Comeau detailed 56 changes the bylaw would enact when it replaces the 1992 traffic bylaw currently in place.
They include banning vehicles from idling in the community, with the exception of refrigerated trucks.
Bylaw Services Manager Chris Montgomery told council the intent of the change is to not have buses and trucks idling “ad infinitum” in the community.
He said with a restriction in the bylaw, his staff could use it to educate the public on the issue and ask drivers to turn off their engines.
“It gives us the authority to ask them to do that – it doesn’t mean we will write a ticket,” Montgomery said.
Chief Administrative Officer Lisa de Soto added administration is hoping the change will spark debate on the issue with council and the community.
“I really think the community is going toward anti-idling and recognizing there is a whole lot of difficulty in finding the right words and knowing how to educate and enforce that is no simple task,” said Mayor John Borrowman.
The bylaw also makes it an offence to let water from washing a vehicle drain into a public roadway or storm sewers and changes the speed limit in the roundabout near Spring Creek to 30 km/h.
A prohibition on panhandling in the downtown core also sparked debate, with Councillor Sean Krausert putting forward a motion to remove the section.
Krausert said he has no problem prohibiting the activity as long as the response by bylaw officers is to take the person to the hospital or another social agency to receive assistance.
“If we run into somebody who is clearly in need of social help we can point them in the right direction, but we can’t force them to go,” Montgomery said.
He added the change in the bylaw allows bylaw officers to address panhandlers without involving the police and possibly leading to criminal charges.
The bylaw also sets out to address bikes in the community, allowing children under 12 years old to ride on sidewalks along with their parents. It would also allow bikes, skateboards and roller blades on all multi-use trails and limits the time a bike can be in a public bike stand to 72 hours.
The proposed bylaw also makes it an infraction to remove a chalk mark from a tire. The change comes from the fact bylaw officers use chalk to enforce hourly parking restrictions downtown and Montgomery said they have found in the past people remove the chalk mark. As well, the bylaw would prohibit off highway vehicle use within town limits.
