Calgarians ticketed after street cleaners arrived a day early

Calgarians with vehicles parked along the 2200 block of 29 Street S.W. found something waiting for them on their vehicles last Saturday morning: $80 tickets for disobeying “no parking” signs that had gone up the night before.

The city put the “no parking” signs out along with others that clearly stated their street would be cleaned on April 3 and 4.

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When Tiffany Mitchell saw the signs, she decided to call the city.

“I wanted to clarify and make sure of when I needed to move my car,” she said.

Mitchell said the person who answered the call looked up her address and confirmed the dates on the street cleaning signs were correct.

With that, Mitchell thought she didn’t have to move her car until later Saturday night. But on Saturday, she and others who live on the street awoke to the sound of street cleaners.

As Mitchell put it, residents scrambled to “rescue their cars”.

Some were towed, and they all had tickets.

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Kurt Archer, who also lives on 29 Street, said the city is to blame for the mix-up.

“It’s frustrating,” he said.

“Now I have to pay this $80 ticket over a technicality…you don’t confuse people by coming a day early and then issue tickets to everybody.”

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The manager of road maintenance for the City of Calgary admits the signage caused some confusion.

“The City of Calgary had placed a parking ban on these particular streets which require people to actually move their vehicles or they’re towed,” Bill Biensch said.

“This was done in conjunction with out spring clean-up program, although it was done one day earlier than the community signs had indicated.”

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“We will work with the Calgary Parking Authority to take care of these tickets,” Biensch said.

Biensch also said the city will do a better job in the future of coordinating its parking bans with the street cleaning schedule.

But he also said Calgarians are expected to obey no parking signs.

If the tickets that were issued are paid within 10 days, the fine is $80.  The fine goes up to $90 if paid after 10 days but before 30 days; the cost is $120 after 30 days.