Editor:
I'm aware access to downtown Canmore is an ongoing issue, so I thought I'd share my two cents as an out-of-town visitor. I live in Golden and pass through often, bound for Calgary.
My partner and I stopped in last week, planning to enjoy a bagel. We attempted to use the parking machines, but I was surprised to find they didn't accept coins, nor did tapping a digital credit card on the phone seem to work. That might have been user error or perhaps at -25 Celsius the meters struggle. We came prepared with two different payment methods and the machine didn't seem to want either.
On the return trip from Calgary, I elected to park a few blocks away to avoid the issue. Here I encountered abundant available 'resident's only' parking but nothing I could legally use, even briefly. I gave up and drove to a business where I could park more easily.
I fully appreciate the Town of Canmore is balancing complex needs for a finite resource but this all feels very heavy-handed. I'm happy to pay for parking, but it should be easy.
Not everyone lives in town and wants to install the app. Not accepting coins seems very exclusionary and in a town that puts up with some pretty severe weather, requiring me to tap cards and type in my licence plate isn't the smoothest method either.
I'm also all for residents' permits, but what about making the street parking 2 hours for non-residents? It seems crazy that if someone wants to visit a house downtown, they need to park blocks away from their destination in the paid parking area just to park legally.
Hopefully this situation is a bit of a work in progress.
Jed Coppa,
Golden, British Columbia
