Banff Recorded 128,000 Vehicles Over the August Long Weekend

More vehicles entered Banff over the August long weekend than last year, but once they arrived, a growing number appear to have left their cars behind.

Traffic counters at Banff's two main entrances recorded 128,084 vehicles from Friday through Monday, a 2 percent increase over the 2025 August long weekend and 5 percent above pre-pandemic 2019 levels, according to new data from the Town of Banff.

The busiest day came Sunday, when approximately 36,700 vehicles passed through Banff's two main entrances. That's more than 12,000 vehicles above the roughly 24,000-per-day threshold the town considers the point when congestion and delays begin, and about 4,000 more vehicles than the same Sunday last year.

The increase continues a busy summer. Nearly 900,000 vehicles entered Banff in July alone, up 4 percent from last July.

But beneath those headline numbers is a shift town officials say may be more significant: while more vehicles are arriving in Banff, fewer are travelling into some of its most congestion-prone areas.

More Cars Arrived, Fewer Crossed the River

Traffic across the Bow River Bridge on Banff Avenue totalled 56,888 vehicles over the long weekend, down 7 percent from 2025 and 19 percent from 2019.

The decline was even sharper on Mountain Avenue, the main route toward the Banff Gondola, Upper Hot Springs and Rimrock Resort Hotel. Counters there recorded 16,910 vehicles, down 13 percent from last year and 35 percent from 2019.

Jason Darrah, communications director for the Town of Banff, said the divergence is an important part of the weekend's traffic story.

"While vehicles coming into town are on the increase, we still see very significant drops in total vehicles driving to the south side and out of town to the Gondola," Darrah said.

That matters because the Bow River Bridge and Mountain Avenue have historically been vulnerable to congestion, with traffic to major attractions sharing the road with residents travelling to and from neighbourhoods on Banff's south side.

The town attributes the decline to a combination of measures introduced over recent years, including an express bus lane, free Roam transit for residents, free shuttle services, increased e-bike use, the additional pedestrian bridge and campaigns discouraging visitors from driving to the south side.

Also, a new $17.50 daily parking fee took effect this summer at the Parks Canada lots serving the Banff Gondola and Upper Hot Springs. The three-year pilot was introduced specifically to discourage private vehicle trips to Sulphur Mountain and encourage visitors to use transit and shuttles instead. The change is particularly notable because town data has previously shown that, during peak periods, as many as half of the vehicles crossing the Bow River toward Sulphur Mountain could be turned around by full parking lots, sending them back toward downtown and contributing to congestion on Mountain Avenue.

Transit Ridership Continued to Climb

At the same time, transit use surged.

Roam Public Transit recorded 39,631 riders on Banff's local Routes 1, 2 and 4 over the long weekend, an 11 percent increase from 2025.

The longer-term trend is even more pronounced. Routes 1 and 2 carried 313,032 passengers during July, up 20 percent from July 2025 and 46 percent from July 2024.

For town officials, those numbers offer evidence that increasing visitation does not necessarily have to translate into an equivalent increase in vehicles circulating through Banff's busiest areas.

Still, congestion did not disappear.

The town aims to keep maximum travel times below 15 minutes. Over the long weekend, the longest recorded trip from the Banff Avenue entrance to downtown was 21 minutes and 31 seconds. From the Norquay entrance, the maximum was 14 minutes and 38 seconds, while the longest northbound trip from the Rimrock to downtown was 18 minutes and 45 seconds.

July Was Also Busier

The long weekend followed a particularly busy July.

Banff's two entrance counters recorded 899,191 vehicles during the month, 4 percent more than July 2025 and 7 percent above July 2019.

Despite that increase, Banff remains slightly behind last year's record-setting pace overall. Through the end of July, the town recorded 3,946,325 vehicles, down 1 percent from the same period in 2025 but 4 percent above 2019.

Darrah said weather may help explain the difference.

"I think the lower traffic numbers for the first part of the year, and the jump for July show that weather continues to be a major impact on vehicle visitation," he said.

July 2026 was substantially warmer and drier than the previous July. The average daily high reached 25.4 C, compared with 21.5 C in July 2025, while just 5.9 millimetres of precipitation was recorded compared with 98.7 millimetres last July.

Darrah said that reinforces the importance of regional day-trippers, particularly people from Calgary and elsewhere in Alberta who can make last-minute decisions to visit based on the forecast.

He also pointed to the federal Canada Strong Pass as a likely contributor to visitation this summer, while the timing of Canada Day on a Wednesday effectively eliminated what might otherwise have been another long weekend.

Overall, Darrah said visitation remains strong enough that Banff could be headed toward another record year, provided favourable conditions continue.

That comes with a significant caveat: wildfire smoke drifting into the region from elsewhere in Western Canada or the United States could quickly discourage visitors later this summer.

Police Issued 27 Tickets

The busy weekend also kept police active.

Banff RCMP and the Alberta RCMP Traffic Section issued 27 tickets over the long weekend, according to Staff Sgt. Mike Buxton-Carr, commander of the Banff detachment.

Speeding was the most common offence, accounting for 14 violations, more than half of all tickets issued.

Police also processed one impaired driver through immediate roadside sanctions.

RCMP were unable to provide comparable enforcement statistics from the 2025 August long weekend before publication, making it unclear whether enforcement activity increased or decreased year over year.

Banff Looks Beyond the Car

With vehicle volumes continuing to climb, town officials are increasingly looking beyond road improvements to move growing numbers of visitors.

Darrah said Banff is eager to participate in the Alberta government's three-year planning process for potential passenger rail between Calgary and Banff, a corridor that received the highest feasibility rating among the routes examined by the province.

But with passenger rail still a long-term prospect, the town wants a more immediate option.

"Because passenger rail is still decades away, we want to fast-track the much needed mass transit from Calgary," Darrah said, pointing to discussions the town hopes to have with the province and Parks Canada about establishing a daily summer bus service.