Banff politicians are investigating ways to increase the frequency of Roam transit locally, as well as the regional route between Banff and Canmore, to help with the national park tourist town’s traffic and parking woes.
Council asked administration to do up cost estimates and implementation options for increasing the frequency of Roam to give residents, commuters and visitors more options for using the public bus system.
The move would require approval of the Bow Valley Regional Transit Services Commission.
“One way to reduce the number of cars in town is to improve transit, locally and regionally,” said Mayor Karen Sorensen. “I assume more people from Canmore don’t use it because it doesn’t fit with their schedule.”
Increasing the frequency of Roam transit to every 30 minutes during peak times is estimated to cost about $565,000 in capital costs and $82,500 in operating costs. All costs with this option would be split 50-50 between Banff and Canmore.
Increasing the frequency of the two local Banff routes to every 20 minutes between 6 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. would be in the range of $1.4 million in capital costs and $750,000 in operating costs.
Shannon O’Donovan-Zirnhelt, the Town of Banff’s engineering coordinator, said the frequency of the Roam regional transit could be doubled during times when commuters between Canmore and Banff most need the service to get to and from work.
“Increased frequency to every 30 minutes between from 7-9 a.m. and 3-6 p.m. times Monday through Friday should meet the majority of commuters’ needs,” she said.
As for the local Banff service, O’Donovan-Zirnhelt said the frequency of buses could be doubled from a 40-minute service to a 20-minute service from 6 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily.
“This option would require the purchase of two additional hybrid buses that meet the Roam standard brand,” she said.
“The costs for these additions, being entirely on the Banff local service, would be provided by the Town of Banff, but would still require approval of the BVRTC.”
Council also asked administration to look into using under-used private stalls in the downtown core, following a letter from Banff Lake Louise Hotel Motel Association that indicated some hotels would be interested in allowing public use of under-used stalls.
The group believes there is an easy way to start capitalizing on potential parking at hotels using banffparking.ca. The Town could create a parking inventory profile and map for each property willing to participate and hotels could log on to banffparking.ca to activate parking inventory.
“I think it’s a great option for hundreds of under-utilized stalls,” said Councillor Brian Standish. “It’s perfect for commuters because they know where the stalls are.”
Council has also given the green light to looking into longer-term tactics to reduce congestion and improve parking over the next one to three years.
They’ve asked administration to come up with a cost estimate and funding options for the design and construction of a new parkade in 2015-16. Current price tag is the $18 million range.
Council already dismissed this as an option during budget deliberations because of the high costs, saying they would prefer to convince the Alberta government to help fund some of Banff’s infrastructure projects needed to serve Banff’s visitors.
“I don’t know if building a parkade is the answer, but I do know a lot of people who were surveyed said it was,” said Sorensen.
