BANFF NATIONAL PARK – A significant amount of traffic on the August long weekend led to Lake Louise being temporarily shut down to most vehicle traffic Sunday (Aug. 6) evening.
For nearly two hours, all incoming traffic to the popular visitation spot was halted with the exception of residents and guests at hotels in the village.
The rare move was deemed necessary by the Lake Louise, Kootenay and Yoho field unit after there were concerns of the ability to get emergency vehicles into and around the village.
“Parks Canada, with RCMP assistance, implemented a temporary traffic diversion to reduce the number of vehicles on Lake Louise Drive,” said Suzanne White, a public relations and communications officer with the Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay field unit.
“This is a pre-planned procedure that gets triggered when congestion reaches a pre-identified threshold that risks hindering emergency vehicle access to Lake Louise and creating congestion on the Trans-Canada Highway.”
White said it was the second time this summer the diversion has been used.
In Banff, the townsite saw another busy long weekend with 118,600 vehicles between Aug. 4-7 for an increase from 113,466 from July 29 to Aug. 1.
The Town of Banff has continued to see a return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic vehicle traffic with increases from 2022 statistics.
Jason Darrah, the Town of Banff’s director of communications and marketing, said it’s unclear what impact the Lake Louise closure had on traffic congestion in Banff, but noted there were more than 210 vehicles in town per hour throughout the closure period.
“Data shows we had very heavy congestion and gridlock from about 2 to 5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday due to high volume coming into town in a short period of time,” he said. “When that concentration of vehicles happens, rather than being spread out through the day, we do get very high congestion and traffic delays.”
From July 5-10, the townsite went from 152,945 vehicles in 2022 to 163,252 from July 4-9, 2023. Traffic volume for July 11-17, 2022 was 178,445 and 182,326 July 10-16, 2023, while it was 178,057 from July 18-24, 2022 to 191,658 in July 17-23, 2023. July 24-30, 2023 had 188,724 vehicles in Banff townsite.
Darrah noted the townsite has limited parking and road capacity, so when Banff hits more than 24,000 vehicles in the townsite in a day, it means there’s likely to be traffic delays in the municipal borders. He added the majority of July and August vehicle traffic is more than 24,000 a day.
“In the morning, when we’re tracking how many vehicles are coming in and we hit a threshold, we can actually forecast how many vehicles we’ll have that day … We were well over 30,000 for periods of time over the weekend,” Darrah said.
While traffic has continued to reach pre-COVID-19 levels, he said more people are using public transit, walking and cycling to get to popular spots such as the Banff gondola and hot springs.
He added ridership for public transit has increased and vehicle traffic going across the Bow River bridge – the lone path to the Banff gondola and hot springs – has decreased.
“Transit use is rising dramatically. Last summer, for instance, we saw a decrease in the amount of vehicles going over the bridge because of our transit campaigns and parking signs, by about 19 per cent,” said Darrah.
“At the same time, Roam transit ridership increased about the same amount. So that’s a really clear indication that people are shifting their mode of transportation in and around town.”
When the Sulphur Mountain parking lot is full, Parks Canada triggers its digital parking signs at the bottom of the hill and sends a text to the Town, which flips its static signs on two routes toward the bridge, encouraging people not to cross it with notices stating parking lots are full.
Darrah said it’s a good example of how the Town and Parks Canada are working together to manage traffic in the town and national park.
Darrah said the national park, like the town of Banff, is at a point where there’s too many personal vehicles coming in and out. He said continued messaging around encouraging public transit use is key to reducing traffic levels.
“I think we really need to step up our game communicating to visitors, especially the regional day visitors to know that they need to expect to have full parking lots at certain times of the day,” he said. “We’re keeping our advocacy up for pursuing mass transit connecting Banff and Calgary. I think that’s the real solution in the future.”
From 2010-19, there was a 29 per cent increase in visitation in Banff National Park. The last decade has seen a 71 per cent increase in traffic to Lake Louise, which is one of the most sought-after tourist areas in Canada.
A key goal of the Banff National Park management plan is to improve visitor experience throughout the Lake Louise area through development of an integrated public transportation system, with one or more centrally located staging areas and an intercept parking lot.
The plan noted the permanent relocation of the park-and-ride lot at the Lake Louise ski area was trialed last year. The ski hill parking lot currently has space for 1,800 vehicles, but will be expanded to accommodate 3,100 vehicles under the ski resort’s approved long-range plan.
The Parks Canada expert advisory panel said eliminating personal vehicle access combined with an effective public transit option in these two areas would be a significant step toward reducing congestion, improving the visitor experience and protecting these “environmentally and ecologically sensitive areas.”
“This concept has applicability in other areas of the park and may become necessary in more areas as time passes,” states the report.
The Parks Canada-struck expert advisory panel on moving people more sustainably in the national park recommended both Moraine Lake Road and Upper Lake Louise ban personal vehicles.
Parks Canada made the decision to close the roughly 14-kilometre scenic Moraine Lake Road to personal vehicles beginning this year.
Roam transit, commercial buses, vehicles with handicap permits and Parks Canada park-and-ride are allowed between June and mid-October.
While the Moraine Lake lot would have about 900 vehicles a day last summer, roughly 5,000 vehicles were turned away. Last summer, the shuttle bus system to Moraine Lake and Lake Louise brought about 2,500 people a day to the popular visitor spots.
Another key objective of the Banff National Park management plan is to maintain and restore ecological integrity and ensure wildlife can safely use and move through the Whitehorn wildlife corridor on the northeast side of the valley and Fairview wildlife corridor on the southwest side.
These corridors provide vital movement pathways for wildlife in an area otherwise constrained by development and steep mountain terrain. In addition, the Lake Louise area is part of a core reproductive range for grizzly bears, so maintaining secure habitat for bears and reducing potential for human-wildlife conflict are key objectives for Parks Canada in the management plan.
On July 22, Parks Canada closed the popular Minnewanka Loop for two hours in the afternoon due to overcrowding and congestion.
At the time, a spokesperson for Banff National Park said the decision was made after traffic was backed up throughout the area and vehicles were parked illegally in multiple locations.
The area has a plan and strategic environmental assessment underway that will look at potentially mitigating human use in the busy location. It could be completed as early as next year.
Roughly one million people visit the Lake Minnewanka area each year and traffic volumes have increased about 50 per cent in the last decade. The bulk of the traffic – 75 per cent – takes place between May and September.
“Subject to environmental review of the plan, some reconfiguration of facilities and services within the area may be considered if it serves to address environmental and public safety issues, while improving visitor experience,” states the 2022 park management plan.