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By Shane Clausing

Bylaw Enforcement Education Program

August BEEP zoning in on unlawful parking in residential areas

Aug 7, 2020 | 12:00 PM

The City of Grande Prairie’s Enforcement Services are bringing awareness to unlawful residential parking offences throughout the month of August as part of its Bylaw Enforcement Education Program (BEEP).

Enforcement Services says they have found that many motorists misunderstand the difference between ‘no parking’ and ‘no stopping’ zones, which is why they’re deciding to educate the public on unlawful parking this month.

“No stopping means you can’t even pull in for a few seconds,” explained Sgt. Ross Gear, with Enforcement Services in Grande Prairie. “And that’s usually because those areas are reserved for transit busses and things like that, and if people are in those area’s it really disrupts the flow.”

“No parking means people can embark and disembark from a vehicle, but not beyond that, it’s not a parking stall.”

Other parking violations that the City is cracking down on includes:

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• Not being parked within five metres of a crosswalk or intersection.
• Being parked in a disabled space.
• Being parked on the wrong side of the street (on a two way street).

Sgt. Gear adds that it’s important to remind the drivers about the importance of these rules as it applies for both driver and pedestrian safety.

“You have to stay five metres back from a stop sign, a crosswalk or an intersection and that’s for sightline. We want to have that good sightline, so if there is a pedestrian in an intersection or a crosswalk other traffic can see them and there’s no conflicts.”

“We look at people using disabled parking stalls (illegally). Disabled parking stalls are very important for people, they have mobility impairment issues and whether it’s long term or short term, it’s very important to them and something that we often respect, and most people do (respect) that.”

While the City is choosing to watch for unlawful parking throughout August, Sgt. Gear says that its officers in the city already do a good job enforcing the rules and educating drivers in Grande Prairie.

“Every officer has a zone, they patrol their zone, they look for vehicles that are not parked properly, but during a few months of the year we give it extra attention. If we didn’t I would suspect it would be a problem, but we do pay enough attention to it that we keep it under control.”

The fine for most of the parking offences listed above is $68.