A community group in Old Montreal is frustrated with its parking regulations it says aren’t being enforced.
It’s a tale as old as time — parking in the heritage district has always been a dilemma. For one community group, it has also become a safety issue.
“If a fire truck can’t get down the street because there’s 20 cars parked illegally or cars parked in front of a fire hydrant or cars in a bus lane and therefore the bus has to stop in another lane and block traffic, it has a ripple effect,” said John Kennedy, founder of the Old Montreal Community Patrol.
That’s why the group is asking the city to do something about it. Among its demands: parking enforcement restored on weekends, which it says is a peak period for visitors. It also wants more agents patrolling and handing out tickets.
“Tickets won’t move those cars, but it’ll serve as a deterrent,” Kennedy said.
The municipal parking agency says it carried out a weekend blitz in January to evaluate if changes are needed in the area.
In a statement to CTV News, the agency says that, “For greater efficiency, it was recommended that this group of citizens transmit their requests for parking agent intervention via our phone line or web form. Our call center, set up last year, provides a dispatch service to our surveillance services.”
It also says it is planning another blitz for the next two weekends. Meanwhile, some Montrealers say they’re irritated.
“I think it’s pretty difficult for the restaurants and the stores to attract people who actually want to come with cars. I would never think to bring a car at lunchtime, it would be impossible to find a parking place,” said Norm Steinberg.
“I run and stuff like that and I walk often in the streets and sometimes it’s blocking the way,” said Sandrine D’Aragon-St-Laurent, a worker in Old Montreal.
“I don’t come in the Old Port by car. It’s traffic. First of all, traffic and also parking is so expensive,” said Montreal resident Margaret Borkowski.
According to the Old Montreal Residents Association, 6,000 people live in the historic neighbourhood and another frustration for them are drivers without residential parking permits taking up reserved street spaces. It wants the city to take action.
“You need to have human beings that are there and that they see the vehicle pool and they’re, like, move along, move along, move along and keep helping move along and having more clear indication where there’s an access point for parking,” said the association’s president, Fiona Ham.
The parking agency says it’s looking to implement automated licence plate reader technology to help further enforce parking regulations.