Skip to content

Plan update targets solutions to Canmore's congestion issues

CANMORE – Solutions are needed for Canmore’s growing traffic and congestion problem. That’s the goal of Canmore’s transportation master plan and an update that hopes to take a bolder approach to the document is in the works by municipal engineers.
An artist’s rendering of the complete street design at the intersection of Spring Creek Drive and Main Street in Canmore.
An artist’s rendering of the complete street design at the intersection of Spring Creek Drive and Main Street in Canmore.

CANMORE – Solutions are needed for Canmore’s growing traffic and congestion problem.

That’s the goal of Canmore’s transportation master plan and an update that hopes to take a bolder approach to the document is in the works by municipal engineers.

Manager of engineering Andy Esarte presented proposed updates to the plan at council’s committee of the whole meeting in April, and changes are expected for adoption before the summer recess.

He said a lot of work has been done over the past several years to move Canmore’s transportation network of roads, pathways, sidewalks and bridges, including establishing a new complete street design with the 2014 Integrated Transportation Plan and establishing a local transit route.

“These improvements are long term with the costs coming up front, the benefits grow year after year and we have only just begun to see the transformational effect this work will have,” Esarte said. “We have been guided by the 2014 Integrated Transportation Plan. This is a progressive document aligning our guiding principles and values with best practice and a vision for the community.”

A 2016 parking study, completed by Stantec Consulting earlier this year, showed that people are parking vehicles in Canmore’s downtown at a rate that is expected to increase in the future if nothing is done.

The study looked at parking utilization and found it currently exceeds the 80 to 85 per cent threshold, which is the point when parking is considered to be full and additional traffic can result from people searching for a spot.

It found the threshold was exceeded in high use areas approximately 21 per cent of business hours during peak season days.

“With our current roads, trails and parking management approaches, we can expect within a decade or two heavier congestion,” Esarte said. “For travellers, there will be delay on a growing number of days throughout the peak season and growing on winter holidays. Traffic will grind to a halt perhaps during some of our busier long weekends. We can expect conflict on the road and pathways and parking would be difficult or impossible to find.”

But Esarte acknowledged there are fundamentally different approaches to managing transportation and the one Canmore is taking links choices people make and community outcomes.

The other approach focuses on vehicle-based solutions, typically taken in North America, in encouraging ever expanding road and parking system for ever-expanding vehicle demand.

Update author Joe Olson with Stantec said one of the objectives of the plan was to create complete street design guidelines.

“A lot of people think it is just adding sidewalks and bicycle infrastructure to your streets, but it is a little more complex than that,” he said. “It is a fundamental review of balance between traffic modes – walking, cycling, transit, driving – and land use, space and traffic so it is more in line with the values of a community.”

The 2014 plan sets out that Canmore’s complete street approach would create space for all modes of travel – vehicles, transit, cyclists and pedestrians – and the network would accommodate those different functions.

The update placed greater emphasis on street design to allow a greater number of people to make a greater proportion of their trips by foot, bike or bus.

As a result, the update to the plan proposes to increase the target for the number of trips taken by alternate modes of travel than vehicle from 30 to 40 per cent. That means if successful, on a typical summer day in 2030, 40 per cent of travel in and out of downtown Canmore should be done without a vehicle.

Currently, 80 per cent of people flow into the downtown core is by automobile. Without any changes to how vehicles, people and goods are transported, the report to council indicated that number would be 84 per cent in 2030.

If successful, the future mode shift would see 15 per cent travel by foot, 20 per cent by bike, and five per cent by transit.

The change would create the capacity in the transportation network to accommodate growth expected in the future of both visitors and residents of the community, according to Olson.

“Too much we think about streets as the movement of vehicles and goods, but streets also play a function in terms of placemaking,” he added. “Where people want to do their activities, they want to have a conversation, they want to walk and shop.”

Another key change the update sets out is that separation of different uses on a roadway when speeds are more than 30 kilometres per hour is the standard for new road designs. Roads with typical speeds of 30 km/h or less can have space shared by vehicles and bikes.

The proposed update for street planning has implementation implications for some big upcoming projects in the municipality’s five-year capital plan, including the redesign and construction of major roads like Railway Avenue and Bow Valley Trail. There are also updates expected as to how the Town implements parking, transit and land use planning in relation to transportation planning.

“These updates are going to be the foundation for the engagement and design work that we have upcoming as part of Bow Valley Trail concept design and Railway Avenue concept design,” Esarte said.

“It will be the basis for design of roads and intersections around the town centre. It is going to inform strategic planning and capital budget decisions for council coming up.”


Rocky Mountain Outlook

About the Author: Rocky Mountain Outlook

The Rocky Mountain Outlook is Bow Valley's No. 1 source for local news and events.
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks