Banff traffic surges 21 per cent despite transit ridership increase

Despite an increase in transit ridership, the number of cars on the roads in the Bow Valley continues to rise by leaps and bounds.

In Banff, the average number of vehicles on the roads in the small mountain town has surpassed 27,500 per day during July and August, up roughly 4,900 per day from 2014.

The increased traffic has transit officials in the Bow Valley looking for new ways to accommodate both permanent residents and all the tourists.

"We need to continue to explore other options for service," saidMartin Bean, chief administrative officer for the Bow Valley Regional Transit Services Commission.

"We are looking at potential service between Banff and Lake Louise and within Lake Louisethat we would become involved with in the next few years. And then just expanding further the frequency on our current services."

More than 1million transit riders

Local transit in Banff has seen ridership increase 25 per cent during July and August, compared with last year, and the service is expecting 700,000 passengers by the end of 2017.

Bean said more than onemillion transit riders will be carried in the Bow Valley this year, includingshuttles to and within Lake Louise provided by Parks Canada.

Looking at the year to date not just July and August transit use is up 20 per cent compared with a 3.5 per cent increase in traffic volume.

In Canmore, work is ongoing for a $4.3-million renewal of Spring Creek Drive.

The project has been a significant undertaking for the town, involving everything from sewer replacements to pedestrian and cycling pathway improvements.

'Great community streets'

A key focus of the renewal project is to mitigate congestion and environmental concerns generated by the increasing numbers of cars on the roads in the area.

"All communities where people want to be are going to have large traffic pressures, going to have parking pressures," said Andy Esarte, manager of engineering with the Town of Canmore.

"We see this throughout North America. There's an opportunity here. We have a lot of the conditions in place to allow us to build great community streets for our residents first. And if we do that and enable people to get around in other ways, our visitors will follow suit."

Construction on that project isexpected to be completelater this fall.

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