Good Afternoon BIA Members,
Some of you have been reaching out about parking on Broadview and Danforth and the ticketing that is happening for people parking their cars on these streets given that the streets have been plowed. The streets have been plowed but the snow mounds have not been removed. I've been working with Councillor Fletcher's team all this week in terms of getting updates and clarifications. Below is a detailed explanation of the situation - please take a few minutes to read.
Parking on snow routes is prohibited as long as the major snowstorm condition and significant weather event declarations are in effect. Due to provincial regulations, the City can’t ask the Toronto Police Service to refrain from enforcing existing bylaws. The Councillor's staff will be flagging this lack of flexibility to city staff when they review emergency winter maintenance procedures and with the Councillor.
Snow removal operations are underway and the Councillor's staff will check in with Transportation Services staff to see if they can share a timeline of when snow removal for these mounds will take place. Once the declarations are lifted, parking on snow routes will be allowed again and temporary orange “no parking” signage may be deployed if winter maintenance operations require vehicles to be moved.
City staff have shared that, when a Major Snowstorm Condition is declared, parking is temporarily prohibited on designated snow routes across the city, regardless of whether snow clearing (salting and plowing) and snow removal (hauling away snow piles in dump trucks) is actively occurring or already completed. This approach is required to facilitate emergency access, traffic flow, and so crews can work efficiently as weather conditions permit while avoiding repeated delays caused by parked vehicles. Unlike planned events or localized construction, major winter storms create citywide and rapidly changing conditions that make block by block or day by day scheduling impractical during the initial response period.
City staff overseeing winter operations have advised that crews are working around the clock and progressing neighbourhood by neighbourhood to improve safety and ensure access to roads across the city, especially for emergency vehicles. Snow removal operations are occurring on highway ramps and bridge decks and residential routes, including Gerrard Bridge, Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway. Snow removal is done on a priority basis which will include streetcar routes, emergency routes, school zones, business areas, and any roads that have become narrowed by snow storage to the point that they are no longer safe and passable (i.e. continuous minimum 3-meter width for one-way streets, 5-meter width for 2-way streets).
Susan