BANFF – Visitors to Banff National Park for the August long weekend – typically one of the busiest weekends of the year – are being urged to use a park-and-ride lot on the Lake Minnewanka scenic drive to avoid congestion in the Banff townsite.
From the park-and-ride lot, a Roam bus can take visitors into town and onto other population tourist hotspots in the park.
“Banff National Park is a very popular destination and parking spots can be especially hard to come by in the townsite during peak summer months,” said Kelly Veillette, a spokesperson for Banff National Park in an email.
“The potential for congestion and delays at key attractions, day-use areas, parking lots, and on access roads should be expected, especially when the weather is good.”
According to Environment Canada, the temperatures will stay warm for most of the weekend at 25 Celsius on Saturday, Aug. 3, and 23 C on Sunday, Aug. 4, with a 60 per cent chance of showers. Monday’s temperature drops off to 19 C, with a 70 per cent chance of showers.
The Town of Banff also operates a free intercept lot at the train station on the western entrance to the townsite.
The municipality monitors traffic and manually implements green light overrides of traffic signals to move more vehicles through intersections when backups occur.
There are also traffic counters at the entrances to town and at several key locations to track volume and average travel time across town.
