Can Banff Ban Cars From Entering the Town?

Banff, Alberta — The idea comes up every summer, as traffic backs across the bridge and out to the highway: why not cap vehicles at the town’s gates? The answer, according to the town’s own leaders and recent public testimony, is both legal and practical. Banff can influence how people move, but it cannot put up a literal stop sign for cars at the edge of town.

What the mayor says

On a recent episode of the Overheard podcast, Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno was asked directly whether the community could impose a summer cap on vehicles. Her reply was unequivocal: such a step would be a Parks Canada initiative, not a municipal one. “The Town of Banff does not have the authority to limit vehicles from entering the town site,” she said.

The mayor pointed to a different lever that already functions as a de facto constraint. “In some ways our parking capacity right now serves as a bit of a limit, because once it’s full, it’s full,” she said, arguing that the town’s energy is better spent on disincentives to driving and on shifting visitors to transit.

DiManno framed the problem as bigger than local roads. Banff incorporated in 1990 and has “the same road network” and “basically the same parking capacity,” while Calgary’s population an hour and a half away has doubled since then, pressure that shows up on Banff’s streets. Year to date, she noted, vehicle volumes are up 6 percent from last year, which was already a record.

Why a hard cap is off the table

Jurisdiction and emergency obligations are the crux. DiManno emphasized that “the town cannot limit people’s movement,” including drivers traveling on the Trans-Canada Highway who choose to stop in Banff. The town learned this in stark terms during the pandemic: even under a local state of emergency, people needed to come off the highway for essential services such as washrooms, fuel, or lodging. “You can’t tell people no,” she said.

She also underscored that Banff sits inside a national park meant for all Canadians. Any approach that edges toward exclusion runs against that mandate. The town, she argued, must find ways to manage cars without dissuading people from coming.

What residents proposed at the hearing

At a Sept. 8 public hearing on the new Community Plan, residents and officials wrestled with the same question. One speaker urged the town to “start establishing the limits for visitation to the Town of Banff,” and to turn drivers away once capacity is reached. “Sorry, the inn is full.” The idea included prominently posting when the town is at carrying capacity and stopping additional vehicles at the edge of town.

Others pushed for more granular controls. If hotel lots are full, turn cars back at the entry. Guarantee access for residents, hotel guests and registered campers, while limiting day users once parking hits a threshold. With only two entrance points, they argued, Banff could create turnaround areas and use simple technology such as resident passes or automated recognition to let permitted vehicles proceed.

Council and administration fielded those suggestions while clarifying where authority lies. Officials stressed that congestion management is recognized as a priority in the Banff National Park Management Plan, and that the Community Plan should align with that. But they also noted that new measures to address traffic inside the town would need to come back to council, and that Parks Canada has typically not implemented specific congestion controls within the town site itself.

The hearing also touched on a recurring point of confusion: provincial rules about access do not override the federal government’s authority in a national park. As one speaker put it, the province “has no jurisdiction here,” and the federal government could set different conditions if it chose.

What precedent looks like outside the town

Residents and councillors compared Banff’s situation to measures nearby. Parks Canada has taken steps to control traffic and numbers at places like Lake Louise and along the Minnewanka Loop. The analogy often cited at the hearing was straightforward: in national parks such as Glacier in the U.S., when a lot like Logan Pass is full, signs say “please keep moving.” Could Banff replicate that, scaled to a town?

Town officials were careful. They acknowledged the comparisons but reiterated that anything resembling a turn-back system at Banff’s entrances would require a level of authority and interagency agreement that the town does not possess on its own.

The strategy Banff can control

Where the town has traction is on mode shift and demand management. DiManno has consistently described the solution as “mass transit,” getting people here without their cars, paired with local disincentives for short in-town drives to popular photo-ops. She cited regional buses from Calgary and the On-It service as proof of concept but said these options still move a small share of visitors, and expansion is needed.

The Community Plan also directs the town to study a human-use management framework and to stand up a destination stewardship council, a forum to gather better data and test ideas that reduce car dependence without curtailing access to the park. Officials want to understand congestion beyond the road network, including whether sidewalks, grocery stores or restaurants are straining, before recommending structural changes.

Banff is simultaneously adjusting its own parking and housing rules to fit inside fixed boundaries. On the podcast, DiManno highlighted earlier bylaw changes that reduced minimum parking for apartments and a new car-share pilot, alongside free local Roam transit for residents, incremental shifts that, over time, make it easier to live and visit without a private vehicle.

The bottom line

Banff cannot unilaterally cap vehicles at its limits. The legal authority rests with Parks Canada, and the town’s position inside a national park and on a federal highway means it must remain an emergency rest stop for travelers. Even under a local state of emergency, the town could not block drivers from coming off the highway for essential services.

What Banff can do is meaningful, if less dramatic: align with the national park’s congestion-management priority, build out transit and regional service, remove incentives for in-town driving, and study human use across the whole system before recommending heavier measures. That is the path the Community Plan lays out, not a gate across the road, but a concerted effort to make the car the least attractive way to experience a very small town inside a very busy park.