St. John’s Winter Parking Bans and Snow Clearing

Four parking restrictions, not one

The City prohibits parking by area, time of day, and operational requirement. Knowing which of the four applies to your street is the difference between an ordinary night and a ticket.

• Overnight parking bans — a seasonal overnight ban in the downtown business district and on streets outside it, running on a fixed daily schedule.
• Downtown snow removal — additional restrictions that let crews clear the downtown’s narrow streets, steep hills and dense development.
• Weather-related parking ban — a ban that can be declared on roads outside the downtown during or after adverse weather, in force 24 hours a day until it is lifted.
• No parking routes — a published list of streets where parking is prohibited around the clock through the winter season.

The overnight parking ban

The overnight parking ban is usually in place from early January until April, and the ban dates are announced in late November for the coming year. The Deputy City Manager of Public Works has the authority to modify those dates if deemed necessary.

In the Downtown Business District, the ban applies daily from 4 to 6 a.m. on Water Street from Waldegrave Street to Prescott Street, and on Duckworth Street from New Gower Street to Cochrane Street.

Outside the designated downtown area, the overnight winter parking ban applies daily between 12:30 and 7:30 a.m. The City publishes a map with a designated downtown area layer, plus a list of the streets inside it, so you can check whether your street falls in the downtown zone or the wider one.

The weather-related parking ban, and how it is announced

A parking ban may be implemented on roads outside the downtown area during or following adverse weather events. The purpose is to keep roads free of parked vehicles so crews can clear snow or debris quickly and safely. Once declared, the ban is in place 24 hours a day until it is lifted.

Details of the ban are shared through the news section of the City’s website and on the City’s social media accounts. Residents can also subscribe to receive emails stating when the ban will come into effect and when it will be lifted. The City’s Weather Hub carries weather-related service disruptions, facility closures and the parking ban status in one place.

No parking routes

From 1 December to 31 March, parking is prohibited 24 hours a day on a published list of streets across the city, regardless of snow or street conditions. The purpose is to let ice control and snow clearing equipment safely service and navigate narrow City streets. All impacted streets have signage in place, and enforcement is continuous through the period.

How snow clearing is prioritised

St. John’s clears over 1,400 lane kilometres of road and 193 kilometres of sidewalks. It uses three methods. Anti-icing applies road salt or liquid brine to designated roads and sidewalks ahead of a freezing or snowfall event, to prevent standing water freezing, delay snow accumulation and stop snow and ice bonding to the pavement. Plowing pushes snow to the sides of the street and designated sidewalks, and typically begins once there is 3 to 5 centimetres of snow on the ground; it can continue for up to 24 hours after snowfall ends. Widening happens once the event is over and all driving lanes are open, and it too follows priority order.

The published service levels are that for snowfalls of up to 25 centimetres, streets will be cleared within 24 hours following the storm, while snowfalls exceeding 25 centimetres, blizzard conditions or rapidly changing weather may require additional time. One application of ice control is completed on streets within three hours of ice conditions, and most sidewalks in the programme are cleared within five days after a winter event ends.

• Street priority 1: major and minor arterials. Priority 2: collector streets. Priority 3: local streets and cul-de-sacs. Priority 4: private lanes maintained by the City.
• Sidewalk priority 1A: school zones. Priority 1: the first side of arterial roads and the downtown business district. Priority 2: the second side of multi-lane arterials and the downtown business district, and the first side of collectors. Priorities 3 and 4 cover the remaining arterial and collector sides and the rest of the programme.
• The City publishes a street look-up so you can find your street’s priority level, and a sidewalk snow clearing map for the sidewalk programme.

Sidewalks, driveways and reporting a problem

The City clears sidewalks itself. A total of 193 kilometres of sidewalks have been prioritised for snow clearing and ice control, predominantly along collector and arterial streets where pedestrian and vehicle traffic is higher, and the programme operates in priority order with school zones first. What the City asks of residents is not to pile snow on the sidewalk, because it makes the sidewalk plows’ work very difficult and sometimes impossible, and it delays service in other areas.

Driveway shovelling is the responsibility of residents. During clearing operations, plows often make several passes to push snow towards the side of the road, which helps open catch basins, improves visibility and keeps emergency access, so some snow may end up pushed into driveways; the City publishes tips for reducing how much ends up there. Snow removal around community mailboxes is Canada Post’s responsibility, and Metrobus clears the roughly 76 bus shelters. The City does not have enough resources to clear more than 900 bus stops.

• Use the Plow Tracker to see whether a plow is in your neighbourhood, but note that plows may not appear for several reasons, and that if snow is falling, crews are clearing.
• If a plow appeared near your property but did not come up your street, service level priority is the usual explanation.
• Residents and business owners are asked to clear snow and ice away from the catch basin near their property if it is safe, to reduce flooding on their property and in the neighbourhood.