Advance polls open for Banff Avenue pedestrian zone vote

A group of Banff residents is bananas for Banff Avenue, encouraging neighbours to vote “yes” to an annual pedestrian-only zone on the town’s main street.

“Our message is that Banff Avenue is a better when it is a pedestrian zone than when it is open to vehicle traffic,” says Jessica Campbell, a Banff resident and member of the group.

“When it is closed there is accessibility for way more individuals and the opportunity to enjoy Banff.”

The two-block, vehicle-free section of Banff Avenue was first launched in 2020 to promote social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic and a section of the road has been closed to traffic from the May long weekend to Thanksgiving every year since.

In January, Banff town council approved the pedestrian-only zone for 2024 but a resident petition in March had council send the decision to a vote.

“We have a town that is planned and built around one arterial road which goes straight through and onto the bridge,” says Leslie Taylor, a resident who helped launch the petition.

“When you block that road, there are issues in the rest of the town. The traffic congestion moves through into the residential areas. It concerned people.”

Both sides of the debate agree the bigger question is how to manage the number of vehicles that come to the four-square-kilometre town every year. Banff has not grown outward of its roads since its incorporation in the 1990s.

Advance polls opened on Tuesday and run through the week. The vote is scheduled for Aug. 12, and the results will be binding.

If the pedestrian zone is approved, it will continue as planned until the Thanksgiving long weekend. If residents vote against it, the zone will be taken down and traffic will return to Banff Avenue within a few weeks of the decision.