Why some Calgarians are still getting tickets for parking on street after cleaning
Posted May 6, 2024 5:15 pm.
Last Updated May 10, 2024 1:42 pm.
As streetcleaners make their way around the city, residents may be wondering — can you park on the road as soon as they’re done?
Not unless it’s after 4 p.m. And some Calgarians are finding that out the hard way.
A southeast Calgary resident tells CityNews he thought it was okay to put his vehicle back on the street once the curb in front of his home was clean. He ended up getting a ticket when he did.
“The street had been swept and other cars had been returned as well,” he says. “I looked on the website and, low and behold, there is a paragraph there that says don’t return your vehicle until 4 o’clock because the enforcement people could be driving by.”
He feels he shouldn’t have had to go to the city’s website to find that out, and says his neighbours who did the same thing likely feel the same way.
“It’s kind of a cash grab as far as I’m concerned,” he says. “The enforcement officer should be able to tell that the street has been cleaned. I don’t think there is any common sense there.”
The infraction means an $80 fine, that goes up to $120 if not paid within a month.
The City of Calgary says they do their best to get the information out every season, but unfortunately it doesn’t get through to everyone. The signs placed in neighbourhoods say vehicles will be ticketed between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the day of cleaning.
“It’s a question that comes up every year,” says Todd Sullivan, the leader of Parking Patrol and Investigations for Calgary Parking. “There’s a great deal of information on the signs, but we know people are primarily driving by them, which is why the information is also detailed on the website.”
Sullivan says sweepers may need to come back after an initial round of cleaning, which is why residents are still not allowed to park after the first sweeping is done.
“They may not be done working on your block, they have that entire day to do whatever work they need to do,” he says.
The city’s spring cleanup program runs through to June, with community sweeping happening Monday through Friday.
