User-pay parking plebicite outcome ecological disaster

March 10, 2000
Source: Digital Banff news service

By Jim Swanson

Thursday was a bleak day for the environment in Banff, as voters expressed their unwillingness to go along with a small step in the direction of ecological responsibility.

The vote was 263 in support of utilizing funds from user-pay parking to support environmentally responsible transportation initiatives, and 1138 against.

Voters demonstrated the Canadian propensity for socialism, that the public purse should look after the necessities of life, but the subsidy in this case, that of providing parking for the clients of downtown businesses, is misguided: for it is a subsidy to the rich and to the consumer, and goes against the vision of a sustainable planet.

Taxpayers now face additional business subsidies on their municipal tax bill if they want to implement components of the town’s transportation plan, such as better public transit, the construction of intercept parking lots to keep large motor homes out of downtown, and efforts to reduce the blatant traffic violations that are commonplace in town.

Banff currently has no traffic control, other than the occasional flashing light. Pedestrian crosswalks, even in playground zones, are corridors of grave danger.

Nostalgia for the supposed small-town atmosphere of Banff also played a part in the defeat of user-pay parking.

Banff may have a small town mentality, but it does not enjoy the corresponding atmosphere: a walk along the Bow River, which the town currently utilizes as an RV parking lot, in the summer, when the air conditioners are running, and the tour busses are idling, might put you on the scent, that this is not a small town, it’s becoming an industrial wasteland.

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