With visitation numbers at an all time high, Jasper鈥檚 highways and roads are struggling to accommodate the influx of traffic creating bottlenecks and unsafe intersections in the park.
On several occasions this summer traffic at the east gates has been backed up along Highway 16 past the Overlander Hotel for up to 40 minutes, according to the Trans Canada Yellowhead Highway Association (TCYHA).
Closer to town, traffic control personnel have also been seen on weekends directing traffic at the intersection of Highway 16 and Maligne Lake Road.
To improve safety and ease congestion, TCYHA recently sent a letter to Catherine McKenna, the minister of environment and climate change, and Marc Garneau, minister of transportation, asking the federal government to consider four resolutions to improve Highway 16 in Jasper National Park.
鈥淧art of our mandate as an association is to bring forward our member鈥檚 concerns and to promote solutions and these are four resolutions that really need to be high on the radar,鈥� said Paul Smith, Alberta vice president for TCYHA.
To improve wait times at the east gate, the highway organization would like Parks Canada to create an express lane for pass holders and thru traffic, similar to what is used in Banff National Park, according to Smith.
Parks Canada did not return a request for comment, however in 2010 extra tollbooths were installed at the east gate to cut wait times by about 30 minutes.
TCYHA would also like to see Parks Canada redesign the intersection at Highway 16 and Maligne Road using traffic calming measures. The organization was non-committal about what type of traffic calming measures it had in mind.
According to the organization, 70 per cent of visitors to Jasper National Park use the intersection at Highway 16 and Maligne Lake Road to get to the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and other recreational areas on the other side of the Athabasca River.
Again, Parks Canada did not return a request for comment, however the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge welcomed the news.
鈥淥ver the summer months we see a significant increase in traffic at the intersections of Highway 16 and Maligne Lake Road and are in favour of the safest solution for visitors and Jasper residents,鈥� wrote Teresa Marshall, manager of public relations for the hotel.
Among the other resolutions put forward by the highway organization, it would like the federal government to improve a dangerous stretch of Highway 16 from Jasper to Tete Jaune Cache, in B.C.
According to the organization, in the summer of 2015 there were at least 10 fatalities on that part of the highway.
The organization would also like the government to make it safer for cyclists biking on the highway by providing bike lanes.
Paul Clarke
[email protected]
