Everytime I hear this I feel like defending the highway in poor driving weather.

The “Arterial” as it is called is part of the Governement of Newfoundland and Labrador’s highway infrastructure and thus it’s snowclearing is managed by the provincial government. Compared to the City of St. John’s those roads are immaculate in the snow.

Additionally the highway swurves around the turns of the hills on the southern side of St. John’s and is surrounded on both sides by thick coniferous vegetation which prevents virtually any blowing snow.

To top it off this is a popular highway where there is a lot of traffic. Even when the plows cannot keep up on the accumulation of snow the flow of traffic keeps the roads clear.

When it comes to driving in poor winter conditions I am confident there is no safer road to drive on. Outer Ring Road is a completely different story.

All the same, 300 motorists found themselves with hefty $45 snowclearing tickets the next morning.

Needless to say,  many were not happy.

You leave your vehicle on the road overnight when snowclearing is in effect and you deserve a ticket. I agree with this. Otherwise we have messy streets in the morning because plows were unable to maneuver properly through them.

But 300 tickets on a clear night? City Council is just going out looking for people to ticket needlessly. Random sweeps are fine. The odd ticket for a violator will prevent people from parking on the road overnight. Obviously if it snows, nail them with a ticket. Otherwise, frig off.

There is no need to ticket so many people on a night where there was no snowclearing and the weather forecast indicated no chance of snow.

But if the city must ticket absolutely everyone with a tire on the road, then why not put the money they make to snowclearing?

In one night of ticketing they raised $13,500.00. Take out the expenses for ticketing those violators and you have a significant profit from one night’s work. Surely this kind of cashflow could be put towards improving the city’s dismal snowclearing efforts.

If St. John’s put as much effort into actually cleaning the streets as they do ticketing parked vehicles we’d have wonderfully clean streets.

Last night there was street cleaning on the street (and there will be again tonight). Most people on the street continued to park as they normally do, unaware of the ticket they were about to receive.

It absolutely kills me that the city does not provide more notification about street cleaning. If everyone is still parked in their usual spots, the street isn’t going to get cleaned, so why bother?

No other reason I can think of than money.

From GregPike.ca: Street Cleaning – St. John’s Biggest Money-Making Scam

But most people don’t.

In fact, I don’t think the city really cares about actually cleaning the streets. They send the street cleaners down the streets still lined with parked cars and put tickets on everyone’s windsheild. The streets don’t get cleaned. The city just gets paid.

If they were really concerned they would provide some kind of notice to residents and I am sure people would move their cars.

I know there is a mailing list, but I can’t say I blame the people who aren’t on the mailing list. They send an email every day and list every single street that gets cleaned. It’s a mess. You should be able to receive emails ONLY when the cleaning affects streets you are interested in.

I have said this before (about potholes and snow removal and sidewalk clearing) and I’ll say it again. I wish this city was more progressive instead of just reacting to each situation thrown its way.

Signs, flyers, or e-mails would be a great first step to getting our streets clean.