The city is looking at its notification system after this weekend’s parking ticket blizzard

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City officials are considering ways to improve the notification system for parking bans during snow clearing after thousands of Winnipeggers got dinged with tickets last weekend.

The city issued 6,697 parking tickets to drivers illegally parked during a residential snow-clearing parking ban during the three-day period from Friday to Sunday.

During that period, an average of 1.5 tickets per minute were issued.

The tickets cost $75 if paid early and $150 if not.

Brad Sacher, director of public works, said he’s confident most residents are familiar with the Know Your Zone regulations that detail which areas of the city are subject to the parking bans. But he said more efforts will be made to alert motorists to parking situations in different parts of the city.

Initiatives being considered, Sacher said, include permanent street markings and more use of social media.

An app could also be in the works.

Sacher said it’s possible neighbourhoods will be signed, indicating their snow zone, to help visitors know when they’re not supposed to park on the street in those areas.

Sacher said more vehicles were ticketed and towed this weekend than were hit in residential snow-clearings last year, but he said he believes more motorists are complying with the parking restrictions.

The parking authority added extra staff to issue the high number of tickets during the three days.

“The Winnipeg Parking Authority works with public works to ensure enough parking officers are present in order to carry out snow-clearing operations as efficiently and effectively as possible,” said Kailey Barron, a city spokeswoman.

“In anticipation of the ban, staff was redeployed to support the weekend’s snow-clearing operation.”

Winnipeggers dealt with diligent parking enforcement officials who, in the 12-hour period between 7 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. Saturday, issued parking tickets at a rate of about 2.6 tickets per minute, according to data from the city.

This was over and above the routine parking tickets issued for other reasons such as parking incorrectly or overstaying the meter.

Streets that were particularly affected during the snow-clearing ticket blitz include Pritchard Avenue in the North End and Lipton Avenue, which passes through Daniel MacIntyre and Wolseley.

Both saw the most tickets over the weekend parking ban, at 78 tickets each.

Furby Street in West Broadway and the Spence neighbourhood saw 66 tickets. William Avenue West and Spence Street saw 64 and 62 tickets, respectively.

About 7,070 parking tickets were issued in total for all parking offences from Friday to Sunday, or about 2,350 a day. Normally, the city hands out about 400 parking tickets a day.

inayat.singh@freepress.mb.ca