By Andrew de Souza

Council wants tougher disabled parking enforcement

Mar 15, 2011 | 1:27 PM

Council is hoping the city’s bylaw department will kick up its fight against handicap parking violations.

Earlier in the year the city had received correspondence from residents who were concerned both about the accessibility and liability associated with handicap parking spots.

On Monday, wheel chair user Karen Harder addressed council. She said since the city had pledged last year to do more to prevent violations.

“I still see people who are disobeying this bylaw and continuing to park illegally,” she said at the council meeting and in her letter.

“I am just getting really fed up with this issue.”

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Councillors expressed dismay that the problem continued and tossed around ideas for getting people to stop including higher fines and better signage.

“We’re going to continue to work on it,” said Coun. Greg Dionne.

“We do have our bylaw and ticket people doing heavy enforcement on it, we’re not going to give up.”

Coun. Ted Zurakowski agreed with Dionne and added that fines should increase to $300 from the current rate of $100.

“Compliance is the issue; do not park in handicap stalls,” he said.

“When we decide to put sigs up to notify the public of the fines, maybe that’s a good time to make the change to go from a $100 to a $300 fine. That’s taking it seriously.”

City bylaw manager Ken Hunter said increasing was probably the right way to go.

The city had changed its traffic bylaws last summer to allow for city peace officers to enforce handicap and fire route parking on private property. Hunter said that it still wasn’t enough of a deterrent and he hoped higher fines would help in that regard.

“Enforcements been good but, as we heard tonight, it’s still an area of concern,” he said.

Part of council’s referral to the bylaw department is whether or not the city should update its signs to include a fine amount and whether or not it should post them on private property.

The bylaw department will bring a report back to council with its recommendations on both fines, signage and education ideas in the near future.

adesouza@panow.com