Banff battles heavy summer traffic

The Town of Banff is trying some new initiatives to deal with heavy vehicle traffic as it readies for what will be another busy long weekend.

The mountain park community is seeing a steady growth in the number of tourists visiting the area, with more than a 10 per cent increase in visitors over 2014.

• Banff looking at ways to cope with long weekend traffic
• Banff tourism up partly due to low loonie, say merchants

On the busiest day so far this summer, 28,000 vehicles went through the area. Mayor Karen Sorensen says anything over 20,000 can lead to traffic delays.

That's why the town isencouraging people to ditch theirvehicles and either walk or bike throughdowntown.

Other successful traffic-calming measures include controlling the lights on the main drag of Banff.

"One thing we've had a lot of success with, particularly this summer, is a green light override, and that's where we actually hold the green light longer going north and south on Banff Avenue," said Sorensen

The town has also increased the frequency of its regional Roam transit system, especially in popular spots such as Sulphur Mountain going up to the hot pools and gondola, and the roads up to the Banff Springs and Rimrock hotels.

Sorensen also said the town will be using technology linked to iPhones that allows them to count how many vehicles are in town.

Over the long Heritage Day weekend, Aug. 1 to 3, Parks Canada will offer a free shuttle service from the village of Lake Louise to Moraine Lake. It's the third year the popularservice hasbeen offered.

Visitors can catch the shuttle from the Lake Louise overflow parking lot, 5.5 kilometres east of Lake Louise and 50 kilometreswest of Banff off the Trans-Canada Highway. It runs every 20 minutes.