Written by The snow and ice will soon be upon us, and in past years, cars parked on both sides of the street have narrowed the road making it difficult for emergency vehicles, snow plows, school buses, and local traffic to get through safely. To improve traffic flow and safety, we ask that you and your visitors park only on one side of the street during winter months (Dec 1 – March 31).
Which side of the street, you ask? The side that can accommodate the most parked cars without blocking community mail boxes, fire hydrants and laneways. Perhaps a car is already parked on your street. Follow that person’s lead and park on the same side.
The goal is to eliminate cars parked beside each other on both sides of the street, making it difficult or impossible for larger vehicles to get through. This initiative is in response to the many concerns raised by Heron Park residents about snow banks narrowing the streets, parked cars not allowing snow plows to fully clear the streets, emergency and city vehicles having to find different routes to get to their destination, and pedestrian ‘close encounters’ with cars on streets without sidewalks.
As part of this initiative, the Heron Park Community Association is working with Councillor Menard’s office to pilot one-sided parking on three streets in the neighbourhood – Gregg St. from Junction Ave. to Carlsen Ave., Aldéa Ave. from Clémentine Blvd. to Clover St., and Clémentine Blvd. from Brookfield Rd. E. to Heron Road. These streets were identified in our community survey on one-sided street parking as high traffic areas that would benefit the most from one-sided parking.
You may already know that in parts of our neighbourhood (eg. Clover St. from Brookfield to Heron, and Brulé Ave.) residents have stated that one-sided parking restrictions have greatly improved the flow of both vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
We don’t have to wait for the pilot to start, or limit this initiative. We can all participate by parking, and asking our visitors to only park, on one side of the street to help create a safer community.
Lives may depend on it.
Heron Park 