S’No Parking compliance s’no good
The city’s request that St. Catharines residents not park on the road during snowplowing wasn’t exactly met with an enthusiastic response this week.
City snowplow operators found more vehicles parked on the streets than they hoped for during the city’s first S’No Parking event of this winter season.
“We were a little disappointed in the results,” said Darrell Smith, the city’s senior operations manager, adding there have been some similar compliance issues in the past. “Last year we had seen some improvement, but it really took a step back this year, unfortunately.” The city announced Monday it was putting S’No Parking in effect from 11 p.m. Monday to 3 p.m. Wednesday. During a S’No Parking period, residents are urged not to park on the road so plows can remove snow and slush as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The program was introduced in 2016. The city uses media releases, the city website, social media, the radio and a PingStreet app to get the word out when S’No Parking is called.
“We’ll continue to do the notifications and continue to deal with it, but it does make it difficult to get equipment down a street when you have to work your way around vehicles,” Smith said.
We were a little disappointed in the results.”
Darrell Smith, the city’s senior operations manager
He said a S’No Parking event is usually called if there’s 10 centimetres or more of snow forecast because that requires clearing secondary roads where vehicles tend to be parked.
The city initiates S’No Parking after main routes are cleared.
Smith said the prime reason to get vehicles off the road is so that snowplow operators can actually clean the street properly. When there are vehicles parked, they can’t get the whole road done and it creates slippery sections.
It also allows crews to clear the roads faster. When operators are working their plows around cars, they can only go three to five kilometres an hour, he said.
“We are just creeping along,” Smith said. “If you go at any speed you’re going to throw the snow into the car area, you’re going to hit the car with the wing plow and you’ve got to be very careful.”
While operators still aren’t going to be speeding down a street without parked cars, Smith said they’ll be going about 16 km/h. The difference in those time frames is significant when clearing multiple streets.
He said he hopes there will be a better compliance rate from residents with S’No Parking when the next event happens. That may be as soon as this weekend if the forecasts are accurate.
“Co-operation as always is appreciated when this happens,” Smith said. “It’s helping us provide the level of services to the residents, that’s what it’s doing.”