Snow parking ban lifted, next may be days away
As Calgary lifted its snow route parking ban at 7 a.m. Wednesday, plans were already in the works for the next, with another severe snowstorm forecast to arrive later the same day.
Since the parking ban began Monday at 9a.m., 2,274 tickets had been issued as of 4 p.m. Tuesday to drivers whose vehicles remained parked along a snow route.
And with more significant snowfall expected Wednesday and Thursday throughout the city, a second ban could come into effect this weekend.
“This (past) weekend we had kind of an extreme accumulation of snow, somewhere between 10 and 15 centimetres (in) under 24 hours.
“Crews were out there for the previous 48 hours applying antiicing materials and abrasives to the roads,” said Chris McGeachy, a spokesman for the city’s roads department.
“It’s a different situation every time. We did also have a significant snowfall in the winter during the holidays, but we didn’t call a parking ban because of logistical issues with the holiday time.”
Environment Canada has issued a winter storm watch for Calgary, with a long period of heavy snowfall expected.
Upwards of 25 to 35 centimetres could fall, beginning Wednesday evening and lasting into Friday.
Snow route parking bans can last up to 72 hours, a window that allows city workers to clear heavy accumulations of snow, but the current ban will end more than a full day earlier than anticipated as a result of “significant progress” that crews made in clearing the snow from Priority 2 roads, the city stated.
By Tuesday morning, crews had finished salting and sanding Priority 1 routes, those that see about 20,000 vehicles per day, such as Glenmore, Sarcee and Macleod trails, and had moved on to Priority 2 routes, such as Kensington Road and Fairmount Drive.
Priority 2 roads generally coincide with the city’s snow routes, which are marked throughout the city by blue signs with a white snowflake. Calgarians can also visit Calgary.ca/ snow to view a snow route map.
McGeachy said the city was using its maximum-resources to clear the roads.
The fine for violating the snow route parking ban is $75. However, this falls to $40 if the ticket is paid within 10 days. It costs $50 if the ticket is paid within 30 days.
But Kevin Bulmer, enforcement co-ordinator for the Calgary Parking Authority, cautioned that the same vehicle can be ticketed more than once if it’s not moved off the road for more than a day.
“Even if you have gotten a ticket, you still need to move your vehicle until the parking ban had been lifted so that the crews can get back down the routes,” he said.
Bulmer added that the ban is still in effect on roads that have already been cleared until it formally ends city-wide.
All revenue generated from tickets goes back to the city.
“Our entire aim is to have compliance to the parking regulations, so we would like if everybody moved their cars and we didn’t issue any tickets and then the streets could get cleared a lot quicker,” Bulmer said.
The last snow route parking ban, which lasted a full 72 hours and resulted in about 2,700 tickets issued, began exactly one year ago on Feb. 6, 2017.
McGeachy said it’s something that Calgarians should expect to happen more often in the future.
“With significant accumulations in the forecast, we do expect that there may be another ban called next weekend,” he said. “These things are sporadic and people are getting used to them, but with the change in weather patterns we might be advised to get a little more used to them.”