With a clear priority to address traffic and congestion in Canmore as well as establish a local transit route – transportation is a hot topic of conversation within the municipality.
Council’s established priorities for 2016-18, passed in December, sets out to specifically address traffic congestion and parking in the downtown core and implement transit and several projects for this year were approved.
Chief administrative officer Lisa de Soto and manager of engineering Andy Esarte were in front of council earlier this month to begin a broader conversation around transportation needed to begin tackling these issues.
De Soto said administration believes the integrated transportation management plan approved by council last year articulates best what is needed – to shift people out of vehicles and plan for complete streets.
“That also extends to the recent transit initiative council approved and the walking initiatives and making the kind of community we want to see grow and thrive here in Canmore come to reality,” she said. “It is more than just transportation, it is more than complete streets.”
With the engineering department tasked to deliver projects that reflect council’s vision, she said it is important everyone is on the same page to begin with.
“We want to ensure we start this conversation by ensuring it is the path council is expecting and to start to hear from the community as we embark on a community conversation of a liveable Canmore.”
In addition to local transit, Esarte said a number of transportation projects are on the books for 2016, or the immediate future. They include a parking strategy for the downtown area, a concept design for Railway Avenue and the Bow Bridge corridor, bike lane improvements and development along Spring Creek Drive.
With local developer Frank Kernick moving forward on a hotel and convention centre in Spring Creek Mountain Village adjacent to Main Street, Esarte said there is an opportunity to significantly improve that connection for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.
“The timing looks like it makes sense to do the road rehabilitation there,” he said. “It is an opportunity to make an excellent walking community connected to the downtown core.”
Esarte said goals of the work to address transportation in the community are to manage current and future mobility demands by providing a range of transportation options; provide connectivity between neighbourhoods and destinations for the different modes of getting around; enhance the sense of place, especially the town centre, and maintain transportation facilities.
“If we can successfully meet these goals in the projects council has approved we accomplish something much more important than connecting travel origins and destinations,” he said. “Streets and street spaces connect people, they connect community, they connect our residents with visitors.
“An inclusive, equitable, accessible transportation system that provides a range of options is one of the fundamental building blocks of a livable community. Streets and spaces have a major role in creating the sense of place that is essential to the quality of our experience living in Canmore and that of our visitors. In turn, streets influence all areas of our lives, socially, physically, mentally and economically.”
Efforts to plan transportation initiatives will consider connectivity of transit, use of space, street design, parking, accessibility, speed and safety, cost and maintenance.
Esarte said the right education and promotion campaigns for different types of travellers in the community are needed. For example, full time residents should be encouraged to walk, bike or use transit while parking should be prioritized for day trip visitors.
“Priority for daytrip visitors is for parking to be available, and to preferably within a block or two,” he said. “But it doesn’t necessarily need to be time unlimited or free. And we think this is something interesting to think about.”
As for parking, there are plans to create more parking spaces in the downtown core this year by demolishing a small house on Ninth Street and expanding an established parking lot. Esarte said it is top of mind for administration as well as the downtown business association, with whom the municipality has drafted a strategy and are working on implementation plans.
“In a short time we plan to come to council with documents for planning purposes and a request for decision on time restricted parking,” he said.
“Over the course of the year we will be studying parking further. We see parking not as a goal in itself, but one aspect of a complete community. To understand how best to allocate to parking the precious little space available in our community, we will be asking some questions.
“Who is parking, where are they parking, how long are they parking? Can we get people to change there parking behaviours? Who really needs parking? How do we maximize the value of available parking? What is our goal for parking?”
