Regina city council votes in favour of snow route program

Regina city council has given the green light to its snow route program for next winter.

Council voted in favour of the pilot program Monday night, which, after a snowfall event, calls for temporary parking restrictions on a portion of some of the city’s busiest streets. A total of five kilometres will be covered on the following roads:

• Victoria Avenue (Broad to Winnipeg Street)
• Winnipeg Street (Victoria to College)
• College Avenue (Winnipeg to Abbott Road)

“We’re taking a cautious approach. Sometimes we’d like to get things done a little bit quicker than they are but we want to make sure that we find the best solution for this community,” said Chris Warren, the city’s manager of winter maintenance.

“We obviously want to find something that’s going to work for this city, this community. A snow route, as we found in other municipalities, it can’t be a carbon copy. It’s got to be something that the community supports and that it accepts.”

A city report explained how permanent signs could be installed to signify a snow route and parking bans would be implemented when the city declared them, giving those affected a minimum of eight hours notice. Those vehicles remaining on the street could be ticketed $110 and towed.

The pilot program is expected to cost $85,000, which will go towards signage and communication.