It might be time for Parks Canada to start charging for parking in Banff as the country's most popular park is increasingly clogged with private vehicles, says a former superintendent.

That would both cut down the number of vehicles and raise money that could be used to provide new alternatives, Kevin Van Tighem, who now works as an author and conservationist, told the Calgary Eyeopener.

"If you had to pay five bucks an hour to park your vehicle, you'd still have all the freedom in the world to use your private vehicle, but you would be paying significantly more for your visit if you chose to go by private vehicle," he said.

"That would create a new revenue stream that could be diverted into actually putting buses on the road and coming up with other systems to allow hikers to get to trail heads and people to get out in the park without having to use a private vehicle."

According to Parks Canada, there were 4,181,854 visitors to Banff park in the 2017-18 fiscal year — from April 1 to March 31 — up by three per cent over the previous fiscal year.

Jasper National Park, the country's next most-visited park, took in 2,425,878 people in 2017-18. By comparison, the third most popular park — Saguenay-St. Lawrence in Quebec — had 1,185,322 visitors in 2017-18.

Visitors wanting to catch of glimpse of golden larch trees near Moraine Lake, Alta., waited up to two hours for a shuttle bus in September, 2017. (Chris Franklin/CBC)

The seven mountain parks combined — Banff, Jasper, Yoho, Kootenay, Waterton Lakes, Mount Revelstoke, Glacier — clocked 9,207,562 visitors in 2017-18.

People not the problem

Van Tighem says the problem is that Canada's national parks have historically put the needs of the vehicle ahead the needs of people.

"I still come down to the idea that people aren't the problem. People are actually the solution. We want people in parks. That's what parks are all about," he said.

"We just don't need their vehicles. Their vehicles are what are clogging up the parks."

Van Tighem says most of the major costs and the major disturbances involved in running a park — such as building and maintaining roads and parking lots — involve accommodating private vehicles.

Having those drivers bolster the Parks Canada budget through parking fees could ultimately reduce the need for so much disturbance of the natural environment.

"Economic levers are really effective at giving people freedom but also moving their choices to different areas," he said.

Increasingly, it would shift people, I believe, to other forms of transportation because they would become available and they would be much more cost effective."

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener