Parking ban will continue for Tuesday, 597 tickets handed out on weekend
Posted Jan 18, 2016 09:23:10 AM.
Last Updated Jan 18, 2016 12:18:38 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – The overnight parking ban will be in effect in Halifax Regional Municipality again overnight Monday with five centimetres of snow in the forecast, but it appears some drivers aren’t getting the message.
HRM said after Saturday’s snowfall led to two consecutive overnight parking bans, the city’s parking enforcement contractor doled out 597 tickets and towed 12 cars that were blocking snow clearing operations.
Halifax Regional Police towed an additional five vehicles for violating the ban.
Jennifer Stairs, spokesperson for HRM, asked on Monday that drivers think before they park; The city’s motto as they step enforcement on such parking bans.
“People are certainly co-operating, but of course we’re still seeing people parking [on the street] despite the ban,” Stairs said.
Depending on the timing of storms, according to Stairs, the majority of the snow clearing is done in the overnight hours, meaning that cars parked on the street between 12 a.m and 6 a.m. are impeding progress.
“If operators are tied up having to call in to have vehicles removed or if they have to skip streets to come back to them, it’s going to complicate clearing,” Stairs said.
This year, the city said it would be stepping up enforcement on the winter bans after problems with last year’s snow clearing operations.
“Our officers are out there, police are out there looking for those vehicles, particularly on streets that are around hospital and schools, areas where we know if they’re narrowed by snow they pose problems for emergency vehicles and busses,” Stairs said.
The average number of tickets handed out per parking ban this year has been in the range of 250-300.
At this time last year, the parking ban had only been enforced twice, but the city would declare 47 before the snow left for good.
The city handed handed out 11,952 tickets in 2014-2015 and seized 87 vehicles.
