As time goes by here in our Bow Valley, it’s becoming more and more clear that transit has become an integral component of not only reducing traffic congestion and parking problems, but increasing sense of community.
Transit, as a means of getting people around in our busy tourist towns, is already very successful. Initial transit service within Banff itself successfully advanced in popularity with the addition of Roam regional.
As ridership increases and the Bow Valley Regional Transit Services Commission (BVRTSC) adjusts service with additional trips, commuters between our towns are happy and tourists have found that one visit to the valley is easily turned into trips to two different mountain towns.
In the future, as Canmore looks to incorporate a local route that will hook up with Roam regional, transit will take another leap in popularity as it further connects both towns and allows those in Canmore to access all parts of town.
And, as of our country’s birthday party tomorrow (July 1), public transit is again being looked at as a solution to parking congestion in the Lake Louise area as shuttles will be relied upon to carry visitors, rather than vehicles clogging the roads.
Indeed, transit is clearly the answer to so many issues (it even helps address affordable housing by making access to worksites easier in both communities) that we will dub it as possibly the most successful collaboration ever between Banff and Canmore.
Each day, you see staffers at bus stops waiting to bus to and from work and thus cutting down on vehicular commuting; in Banff you see people who are clearly tourists at stops waiting to catch a ride to the wide variety of tourist-oriented venues in town and this fall Canmore buses will put rubber on the road on a circuit that embraces the whole town.
No doubt other communities eye our towns with some level of jealousy as transit is, and continues to be, a jewel in the crowns of both towns (sorry, that term, we realize, has often been used to describe other municipal facilities such as libraries).
Further, transit in the form of shuttle buses has already proven popular and an obvious answer to congestion caused by the many special events our valley welcomes. The former dragon boat races in Banff relied on shuttles to reduce congestion at Minnewanka, buses are used at marathons, cycling events and at numerous competitions at the Canmore Nordic Centre where there is simply not enough parking to allow everyone to arrive in their own ride.
Tourists arriving to view colourful fall larch trees as part of a tourism campaign in the Lake Louise area quickly caused parking and road safety issues a couple of years ago.
The answer? As in so many cases in our valley, the answer was shuttle buses.
We’re looking forward to Canmore’s incorporation of an in-town transit service, a run to Lake Louise makes sense, particularly in tourism high seasons, and can a bus to Exshaw, say, be far off? A bus to Exshaw would simply be another way to interconnect our communities.
About all that’s left, we feel, will be incorporation of intercept parking lots, particularly in Banff, where rubber tire visitors can park their vehicles and tour the area with a Roam driver at the wheel.
