No Parking: signs mean what they say
Q According to a Squeaky Wheels column from 2014: Cars will not be ticketed if snow has been removed, but the orange signs are still up. Is this still true? I got a ticket in the Sud-Ouest recently where the snow was cleared in the morning and I parked during lunch hour. The ticket I found on my windshield was written around 3 p.m. This area has a problem removing snow in a timely manner compared to the rest of the city and therefore, parking is a real hassle because of either snow or the slowness of them removing the orange signs.
Bill Hrastovich, Kirkland
A The Squeaky Wheels column you mentioned about parking tickets during a snow operation had an answer from the city saying there is a certain tolerance for people who park on a street after a snow clearing operation is complete, even though the temporary no-parking signs are still up. However, after that column was published, we received several letters from people who got tickets despite that information. We decided to clear this question up again, but a spokesperson for the city referred us to Montreal police.
According to Const. Jean-Pierre Brabant, if a temporary no-parking sign is up, it means parking restrictions can be enforced, and you risk getting a ticket even though the snow operation has been completed.
He said it is up to individual police officers and city parking attendants, affectionately known as Green Onions, to decide whether a ticket is warranted. He did not say there is a certain amount of tolerance for snow clearing operations. However, if you feel you have been ticketed unjustly, you can dispute it in court, he said.
Q Several weeks ago, an enormous amount of salt was dumped on the sidewalk and never used or picked up. It was on the southwest corner of Sherbrooke St. and St-Marc St. I assumed it was to be sprinkled on the roads or sidewalks and something happened. Because it was such a large pile, it sat there dissolving slowly for weeks. Why was it never picked up and used? It was left to simply dissolve into the water system. The city really should have a website to catch this sort of negligence. We all have cameras on hand. Joan Hopkins, Ville-Marie
A This is certainly not a standard operation for snow removal and salting trucks, said Anik de Repentigny, a spokesperson for the Ville-Marie borough. She said the borough officials don’t know how or why this may have occurred and they encourage any residents who see this in the future to take a picture and send it to the city by calling 311 and getting an email address for a supervisor in the borough.
Squeaky Wheels also contacted the Côte-des-Neiges—NotreDame-de-Grâce borough about this question because we also received reports that big piles of salt and stones were also being left on the de Maisonneuve Blvd. bike path for days or weeks at a time, making it difficult for cyclists to navigate.
Borough spokesperson Étienne Brunet said the borough was not aware of this problem.
“This can happen when trucks stop moving for a few seconds,” Brunet said. “But normally if there are piles that form, our teams either pick them up or spread them out. We are also advised when there is a problem by the N.D.G. cyclist and pedestrian association and try to act quickly when there is a problem.”