Calgary snow route parking ban to be lifted on Friday morning

A citywide snow route parking ban ended Friday morning — 28 hours earlier than originally anticipated, the city said. The ban was lifted Friday morning at 6 a.m., 44 hours after it was put in place.

“We saw an overwhelming amount of snow … Who believes there was going to be a one-in-100year snow event?” said Chris McGeachy, spokesman with the City of Calgary’s roads department, who added the warmer weather helped the cause.

“The warm weather has helped us. We expect there will be more warm weather in the coming days and that’s really going to help move things along. It gives us an opportunity to remind people the melt is on, so make sure to manage the snow you have shovelled.”

Between when the parking ban started at 10 a.m. Wednesday through noon Thursday, the Calgary Parking Authority had ticketed a total of 1,527 vehicles for non-compliance.

Vehicles are not allowed to park on snow routes until the ban is lifted — even if the road has been plowed.

Designated snow routes are marked by blue signs with a white snowflake. The fine for violating the 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.

“The snow hit a lot of people unexpectedly and the number of tickets … is in line with what we normally see in a parking ban,” said McGeachy.

The snow ban marks the fourth in Calgary in 2018. Two snow bans were put in place between Feb. 5 and 7 (46-hour ban) and Feb. 10 and 12 (56-hour ban), when 2,945 and 2,051 tickets were issued respectively.

A ban between March 4 and 6 that lasted 52 hours saw 1,750 vehicles ticketed.

The City of Edmonton sent 30 plows and 60 crew members to Calgary, while another 10 pieces of snow-removal equipment were brought in from Red Deer, Okotoks and Medicine Hat.

McGeachy said those crews all returned to their respective municipalities Thursday morning, adding city officials were blown away by the outpouring of generosity seen from across the province.

“We always see it when we get a big snow. You have people helping others, whether it’s snow angels shovelling or someone getting out of their car to push someone that’s stuck,” he said.

“We also had those other municipalities really step up and we’d like to thank them for their generosity during this snow event.”

With wet roads beginning to freeze overnight, the city has been laying down anti-icing or other materials to keep the roads safe.

“Just be careful out there when you do see icy conditions,” McGeachy said. “Drive for winter conditions, especially in the morning commute when the temperatures have been cool for several hours.”

The city activated its seven-day snow-clearing plan on Wednesday morning, as this week’s recordbreaking fall snowstorm ended.

As part of that plan, the city clears Priority 1 roads — those that see about 20,000 vehicles per day, such as Glenmore, Sarcee and Macleod trails, within the first 24 hours following a snowfall.

The city also cleared Priority 2 roads, which include key bus routes such as Kensington Road and Acadia Drive, and are the focus of the parking ban. The city focuses on ramps, residential intersections and playgrounds on Day 3, while knocking down ruts and laying traction material in residential neighbourhoods in the remaining days.

With 32.8 cm falling on Tuesday alone, it was Calgary’s snowiest day since 1981. The storm also set a mark for the most snow Calgary has seen on Oct. 2 in recorded history.

Environment Canada says daily highs will stay well above zero before there’s a 60 per cent chance of more snow next Tuesday and Wednesday.