Plenty of vehicles ticketed despite little snow

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This article was published 25/03/2024 (535 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Not much “white stuff” fell on Winnipeg this winter, but drivers who parked on the city’s designated snow routes had to shell out a lot of green anyway.

In total, 5,046 drivers who failed to obey the bylaw, which bans parking on marked streets from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m., were both ticketed and towed, the City of Winnipeg said.

The ban, which is imposed annually in the fall, was lifted by the city on March 20.

Each driver was on the hook for a $100 ticket ($75 if paid withing 14 days) and a $130 towing bill.

“Oh my god, that’s ridiculous,” said Ashton Zorn, who got up one morning in February and saw an empty space on the street where his vehicle had been parked.

“I’d like to know why so many times people were towed with so little snow this year.”

This winter marked the second year the municipal government ran a campaign to warn drivers their vehicles would be ticketed and towed if they parked overnight on snow/winter routes. The city wants streets free of vehicles so snow-clearing can be conducted. The number of cars ticketed and towed dropped from the previous year, when 5,558 were removed.

City statistics also show 2,326 vehicles were ticketed (but not towed) because they had been parked on residential streets slated to be cleared after a snowfall.

In total, it amounts to $655,980 in towing bills and $737,200 in tickets ($552,900 if all were paid within 14 days).

Michael Cantor, the city’s manager of street maintenance, said snow clearing is just one reason for the parking ban.

“It is operationally driven,” he said. “We have to do snow clearing, but we also have to do ice control. We need to put salt and sand on the street and it has to be across the entire lane.”

Cantor said, although not ideal, salt can be spread on a road with parked vehicles, but it’s tough to spread sand, which won’t cover the entire street if cars are in the way.

“If the pavement is bare and there’s no precipitation, there is no need for salt or sand,” he said, adding if there is ice, crews need to get to it.

As for how many vehicles are ticketed and towed each winter, Cantor said a major factor is the number of available Winnipeg Parking Authority officers.

“There are many variables,” he said. “It’s not the same time frame each winter and it also depends on how many units the (authority) has on a given night.”

The bylaw changed after the winter of 2021-22, when just two vehicles were towed. In 2020-21, 18 cars were towed, while five were removed in 2019-20.

The change meant the snow route ban was no longer automatic and didn’t necessarily begin Dec. 1 and end March 31.

In the winter of 2022-23, 5,558 tickets were handed out and 10,866 vehicles were towed. It was also the first winter the city started the ban when snow was in the forecast and took it down when no more snow was expected in the spring.

The snow route ban that winter began Nov. 25, 2022, and ended March 17, 2023. This winter’s ban came late, not beginning until Jan. 15 and ending on March 20.

As for Zorn, he admits that even after being ticketed he rolled the dice and continued to park on the street overnight.

“I was playing with fire, for sure,” he said laughing.

“I was tempting fate once the snow was gone, but there would have been no reason to tow it: there was no snow.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca