City councillor Rodrigo Goller feels there is no longer the need for a mandatory ban on overnight on-street parking in the winter.
The Ward 2 councillor has put forth a notice of motion on Monday's meeting of Guelph City Council that asks staff to do a review of the implications of removing blanket on-street parking restriction from December to April from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. and replacing it with a notification software to let residents know when temporary parking restrictions are in effect.
The notice of motion will be voted on at a future meeting of council and if it has enough support it will appear on a future agenda for discussion and decision.
Goller reasons that the technology now exists to notify people if their cars need to be moved off the street because of a winter plow-out. That, he says, makes a blanket ban on overnight parking from December to April unecessary and would allow people to take advantage of the needed on-street parking when it does not conflict with residential plow-outs.
"The use of this new technology should allow us to do things differently and reduce a current burden on many Guelph residents. By shifting from a blanket four month long overnight on-street parking restriction, to only restricting overnight on-street parking during snowevents, the City of Guelph could help those residents who rely on overnight on-street parking," says Goller's motion.
The city already uses social media, apps and push notifications to cell phones to provide up-to-date information on a variety of city services, including what garbage needs to go out on what day.
"By shifting from a blanket four month long overnight on-street parking restriction, to only restricting overnight on-street parking during snowevents, the City of Guelph could help those residents who rely on overnight on-street parking. Whereas previously the technology was not available to reliably notify residents of snow events, the City now uses ‘App’ based and text message notifications for emergencies and waste collection. This same technology can be used to notify the community of snow events, negating the need to restrict parking during an entire four month winter period."
