Winnipeg woman hit with parking ticket hours after street plowing

A Winnipeg woman is shocked and angry to find a $150 parking ticket on her car about six hours after snow plows had cleared her street last week.

"I usually don't say anything, but I just thought this is ridiculous, it's completely unfair," Kathy Marsh, who lives on Scotia Street near Polson Avenue, told CBC News on Tuesday.

"I've done everything I possibly can to get my car and keep my car out of the way, so I feel that a $150 ticket is completely unjustified."

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Marsh said she moved her car off the street Thursday night, as she knew the snow plows would be coming to her neighbourhood the next morning.

The neighbourhood was in one of eight "zones" that were under the City of Winnipeg's residential parking ban between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Friday.

She said her street was cleared by 9:30 a.m. on Friday, and she left the house two hours later.

"I came home about 3:30 and everything was completely cleared, so I parked beside my house on Polson [Avenue], as I've done for 30 years after they clear the snow or do the street cleaning," she said.

Marsh said she spotted the dreaded yellow slip of paper on her windshield when she looked out the window of her home at around 5 p.m.

"It was a parking ticket that was issued at 4:09, six hours after the plows had come," she said.

Almost 7K tickets issued

Marsh's parking ticket was one of 6,697 that were handed out during the recent residential snow-clearing ban, which was the first citywide ban of the winter.

• Nearly7KWinnipeg drivers ticketed in citywide parking ban

Some Winnipeggers said they found the city's "Know Your Zone?" parking ban system to be confusing, while others said they had problems finding their vehicles after they had been towed away.

Want to know which neighbourhoodswere the most ticketed during the ban? Look up your street with our interactive.

Polson Avenue, where Marsh's car was ticketed, had the ninth-highest number of parking tickets during that period.

Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie said while motorists should generally co-operate with snow-clearing crews during a residential parking ban, he has heard numerous complaints from constituents.

"I am getting lots of calls from people who were ticketed after the street was plowed. I think that is a ridiculous thing to do," he said.

"The parking authority should be spending their time getting the cars to move off the street so they can plow them."

Eadie added that in his ward, there are a lot of churches and schools with not many places to park.

City officials say sometimes crews return to streets they have already plowed if there were issues or missed areas that need to be addressed.

"The only problems that I know of usually are the ones where cars didnt move," said Eadie.

"And usually, because the zones are fairly big, [the city] never gets back to it during the 'Know Your Zone?' period anyway. So the excuses I am hearing are not right."

Both Marsh and Eadie agree that the city should cancel parking tickets that are issued after a street has been cleared.