Revised, more relaxed winter parking ban takes effect
Posted Dec 15, 2011 04:54:21 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The city’s overnight parking ban is officially in effect today, although it seems likely it will have less of an impact on drivers this year.
Unlike last year, drivers will be allowed to park on the street overnight unless the city declares a snow or ice event.
Traffic services supervisor, Taso Koutroulakis, said the city will look at a number of factors when deciding whether or not to enforce the ban.
“Depending on the nature of the event, how many centimeters of snow, whether it’s going to be an ice event. It all depends on several factors,” Koutroulakis told News 95.7. “The onus is going to be on the residents to ensure to know when the ban is going to on.”
The change is part of a one-year pilot project under which the city will issue public advisories about snow events ahead of time so drivers know to get their cars off the road.
The message will be recorded on HRM’s call centre service at 490-4000, on its Twitter feed at @hfxgov and the website at Halifax.ca.
Koutroulakis says once the ban is being enforced, tickets will be issued day or night to any driver whose car is blocking plow.
He says he doesn’t know if the new rules will result in more tickets or not.
“I guess it all depends on the public’s respect for the winter parking ban regulation,” he said.
The ban lasts from Dec. 15 until March 31 and is in effect nightly from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m.
The new regulations follow those of the provincial Motor Vehicle Act, which is in effect all year long.
“You can be ticketed and towed at any time regardless of the time of year if you are interfering with snow removal operation,” said Koutroulakis, pointing out that several cars were towed during a snowstorm that dropped 30 cm of snow on Halifax in November. “That could have resulted in a winter ban for three days to allow for snow crews to clean up post storm.”
News 95.7 meteorologist Richard Zurawski is predicting a brown Christmas and a warmer than usual winter season which means drivers may be able to leave their vehicles on the street more often than not.
