If only affordable housing initiatives could gain the same traction buses have in our communities …
Much like affordable housing, discussion of transit in the Bow Valley has come and gone for years and years and circled round and round (like the wheels on the bus). Unlike affordable housing in our communities, though, transit is alive and well – and growing.
Most recently, local transit received a huge boost in GreenTrip funding that will allow for further expansion of what is generally accepted as ‘green’ public transit.
Pumping $6 million apiece for Banff and Canmore into transit will allow an already groundbreaking transit operation to further become a model to be emulated by other municipalities.
This whole thing began some years ago, of course, with the Town of Banff embracing transit as an affordable and green means of moving residents and visitors within the mountain town.
Once established, that initial transit vision then expanded to the leap of faith required to grow into the now very successful Roam regional transit offering which connects our two communities. We say leap of faith because it’s one thing to conduct studies for which people indicate they would use transit and quite another to put together a system and wait and see if people would actually ante up for its use.
So, transit has grown from Banffites (R)oaming their town in buses to a ridership that takes advantage of the Roam connection between the two communities.
Obviously, the next logical step is for Canmore to create a transit system which will then seamlessly link with the Roam operation.
And that’s where the new GreenTrip funding comes in.
Yes, Banff and Canmore, which form part of the only regional transit commission in this province, will have to raise $3 million apiece in matching funding, but it will be money well spent in having an expanded transit system which will be the envy of other municipalities in future.
As it is, Roam regional has made it much easier for citizens/employees in each town to travel to work and live in the other town, if necessary. Visitors and locals alike are using transit and it’s easy to imagine further expansion to Exshaw and Lake Louise as further links.
With future planned transit routes covering the entire town of Canmore, much like the situation in Banff, ‘green’ transportation within the townsite itself will mean easy connections to Banff for a truly regional system.
Best of all, phase two transit funding doesn’t have a timeline attached to it. This is sensible, as it will allow Canmore to develop a system without the pressure of a funding deadline.
Once Canmore has a town-wide system in place, coupled with Roam regional, taking a trip from the easternmost Stewart Creek area to downtown Banff will be as simple as hopping a bus; and vice versa.
Creation of a municipal Canmore system should also be a boost for future affordable housing projects as nobody sans wheels would be stuck for a way to get to work, pick up groceries, travel to Town recreational facilities, etc. With buses circling through town, nobody would be far from a destination of their choice.
In the end, much like the work being done by both municipalities on encouraging cycling, increasing transit nicely melds with the idea of being green communities and keeping fossil fuel burning vehicles off the roads while addressing traffic and parking congestion.
