Editor:
This Bow Valley Parkway debate is turning into a great big me moment.
What about me the motorist? What about me the cyclist? What about me the hiker, walker with my kids? What about me the taxpayer? What about me the Parks Canada management team? What about me the accessibility challenged? What about me the ecologist and my expertise? What about me, the protector of wildlife?
The Bow Valley Parkway is a treasure. Everyone’s opinion should count and everyone wants to experience it their way. What is fact is the national park is marketed globally by everyone from Joe Blow with a selfie on Facebook, TikTok, etc. to websites – business or personal – including every photographer, cycling, wildlife/scenery artist, hiking, climbing, skiing, travel, camping publication on the planet, and more.
There’s a lot of responsibility for the overcrowding to be shared here. What is also fact, is in 2015, after years of expert consultations, the federal minister in charge of national parks announced $67 million in funding to repave and widen the Bow Valley Parkway. The operative word here is “widen.” The aim was to make it accessible and safe for all users.
Unfortunately, the critics considered widening the road as anathema to the integrity of protecting both the ecology and the wildlife. Then Banff National Park Superintendent Dave McDonough didn’t believe widening the road would remedy the issue of speed, which was one of his primary concerns, so the idea of widening the Bow Valley Parkway was quietly dropped in 2016.
In hindsight, it seems a great opportunity was lost. So today, we have acrimony, fractious finger-pointing, implied assertions of elitism, with the result of people turning against people. Does no one want to share? I’d like to pass along a suggestion provided by an acquaintance. Open the Bow Valley Parkway only to motorists between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. and then from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. only for cyclists, or some variation of those hours.
Another option is to dedicate one lane to everyone not in a vehicle and dedicate the other lane as one- way only for motorists from Banff to Lake Louise. For winter, it could even be track-set for cross-country skiing. A third option is to go back to the 2015 decision and widen the parkway. In my opinion, unless it’s accessible to everyone, it shouldn’t be accessible to anyone.
Paul Baumberg,
Dead Man’s Flats
