The BC Parks Day-Pass Reservation System Struggles to Limit Physical Distancing, Leaves Trails Empty During Off-Peak Hours

We'll dig deep into each specific area where the program misses the mark and what we recommend as a plan going forward. It's never too late to start over! 

Let's start by taking a step back: When identifying a solution to a problem, a common practice is to look at how others have solved similar problems in the past and to leverage their learning. In terms of managing supply and demand, one can look no further than our own BC Ferries for how they manage reservations and occupancy on their vessels. There are true physical limitations on their supply -- a la the capacity of passengers their vessels can carry is truly limited at any given time. Realizing that demand is often greater than the available supply, BC Ferries offers an online reservation system. Book in advance and secure your spot. It's specific and narrowed down to the exact vessel and sailing time. You can't just show up and expect a spot is available for you. It's similar to how Grouse Mountain has rolled out there post-covid download reservation system, how many local public pools and gyms are now operating, and how restaurants have taken reservations for decades. There's a maximum amount of reservable time-slots, but as long as you reserve in advance and show up on time, you're accommodated -- and the facility can manage their supply and demand. 

Unfortunately, this is not how BC Parks has rolled out their program:

For many of their facilities, reservations can only be narrowed down to AM or PM, or in the case of Garibaldi Park, the whole day is available to be reserved. What results, is large groups arriving during peak times and empty trails during shoulder times. For example, when the Stawamus Chief is fully booked for Saturday AM, often the trail will be sparse prior to 10 AM. However, between the hours of 10 AM to 3 PM, the trail is packed with all the typical bottle necks and lack of physical distancing.

Reservation slots only become available starting from 6:00 AM of the desired day. In principle, there's merit to this. Especially if you consider the challenges campers face due to two-month in advance booking. Enabling campground visitors to book that far in advance leads to placeholder bookings and reselling, and is not practical for the casual camper. Nevertheless, only enabling reservations from 6:00 AM unintentionally prioritizes reservations to the technically savvy early-birds. Even we couldn't book the Chief only ten seconds past 6:00 AM. The clock still read 6:00 AM and yet all of the AM reservations were already booked -- seemingly by machine-fast superhumans. In haste, we booked for the PM slot for fear of missing out. Which brings us to the third issue.. 

You cannot cancel your reservation! Or at least, it's incredibly difficult. Their website does not seem to offer a straightforward way to cancel. The reservation email confirmation doesn't provide information about cancellation either. Their call center is an option, but for a $5 fee? If ultimately, we decided not to hike, there's no ability to offer our reservation to another user.

Ultimately, the BC Parks reservation system does not deter hikers from visiting parks. Rather, it unintentionally redistributes them to other smaller, less equipped provincial, regional or municipal parks. On the morning of August 8th, the Brohm Lake Interpretive Forest parking lot exceeded capacity, with multiple cars idling for vacant spots and the major trails crowded. Brohm Lake does not require day-passes and is free to use on a first-come, first-serve basis. While only twenty minutes down the road, the Sea to Summit trail was relatively quiet -- only accessible by hiking through the day-pass only Stawamus Chief trail. Occasionally a handful of uninformed hikers would reach the trailhead unaware of the day pass restrictions, only to turn away once they saw the new signage referencing the new restrictions.

After thorough debate and discussion, our recommendation is to scrap the reservation model altogether. Instead, make masks mandatory and enforce physical distancing. Quoting University of Maryland School of Medicine, "Properly fitted masks offer adequate airflow while still covering your nose and mouth." This makes the accumulation of carbon dioxide impossible." Grocery stores Walmart Canada and T&T Superstore have both implemented mandatory masks as an effective step to limiting the transmission of contagious viruses. 

If it's too late to turn back now, below are three modifications to the existing program that we recommend: