Editor:
Innovative ideas are a good thing. Before spending too much money on them, though, healthy debate looking at pros and cons usually either pays off or saves money.
The idea of a gondola in Banff may have come from other mountain towns in the world. In many cases, these gondolas, cable cars, cog trains, etc. normally access upper mountain areas in a similar way that the gondola on Sulphur Mountain does.
Regardless of the areas they access, the base area needs to have a very large parking lot, just like at Sulphur Mountain. In Zermatt, you won’t find parking lots at the base of cable cars, but in that mountain town, they took a pretty progressive approach and simply banned all personal vehicles.
It is a very nice place to wander the streets. I expect that businesses benefit greatly from the fact that visitors can walk to their door. The cable cars in the Chamonix Valley have large parking lots at their bases and during busy times, they are full.
The base of the proposed Banff gondola is adjacent to the high school. Do we really need to spend $70,000 to point out the need for extensive parking at its base? Is the plan to level the high school to make space for parking?
This is not a parking or traffic solution.
Marc Ledwidge,
Banff
