Street parking is proving a challenge around Calgary lately thanks to all the holiday snow.
In the last 14 days of December, 32 centimeters of snow fell and that’s left a mess along many city streets.
Some are questioning why a parking ban wasn’t put in place to give crews a break in their efforts to clean it all up.
“There should have been a snow ban so that the cars could be moved off of the road and then they could plow the parking area as well and not plough all the cars in,” Yvonne Mills said.
Her partner is in a wheelchair and she said it’s been a challenge parking the designated spot in front of her home in Mayland Heights.
“If there was an emergency to arise and my car was plowed in, I wouldn’t be able to get him out.”
The city says there are a number of reasons a snow parking ban wasn’t called, including its assessments of travel through snow routes, snow type, forecasting and timing.
“The ban would have carried on into the holiday season, and so because of that we didn’t want to inconvenience the public because a lot of public were actually home for the holidays and they had guests,” Bill Biensch with the City of Calgary said.
But some suggest an inconvenience then would have made parking a lot simpler now.
“I’ve had to call my neighbour a couple of times to push me out and I had two other men — kind men — stop, and the lady across the street. It took four of them to get me out one day,” Mills said.
The city says it’s now focusing on clearing residential areas, including bus pads, walkways and bike lanes.
It’s asking for patience, while crews continue to wade through the latest winter wallop.