Snow plows are working around the clock to clear Winnipeg streets. The city is divided in to letter zones, and each zone is scheduled to be plowed on a specific day or night. But one resident says his street was cleared ahead of time, and residents weren’t warned.
Rick Fickes first thought the sidewalk near his house was being cleared. When a second machine went by, he got curious.
“I jumped up and looked out the window just in time to see the second grater going around my truck and heading down the street,” he says.
Fickes moved his truck before snow plows piled snow around it, but he says other car owners were not so lucky.
“They did a full plow around the cars, burying a couple of them, and then came back down the street and did the other side,” Fickes says.
He asked the city of an explanation, and was surprised by its response.
“I called 311 and asked them why we had a crew here a day early and the response I got was that it was actually quite common for that to happen.”
The city of Winnipeg urges people to “Know Their Zone” in a campaign designed to tell residents when to expect plows on their streets.
It says there have been no changes to the snow plowing operation. But it says plows may go off schedule as they work to clear streets.
“What’s the point of having a ‘Know Your Zone’ rule if the crews are going to show up, you know, whenever they can,” questions Fickes.
The city says plows try to avoid parked vehicles, but any snow they leave is the car owner’s responsibility to clean.
The residential parking ban is in place until Wednesday.
