Calgary

Calgary councillor has possible solution to cul-de-sac parking woes

Coun. Shane Keating says he'll look at proposing a solution to make it legal to angle park on some city culs-de-sac.

Coun. Shane Keating says parking rules should be like speed limits, so the city can alter when needed

Parking at an angle in a cul-de-sac is illegal under provincial law. (Google Maps)

Legal angle parking could be coming to some Calgary culs-de-sac.

Under provincial law, vehicles can only be parked parallel to the curb. However, for spatial reasons, many cul-de-sac residents opt to angle park so all neighbours have a space in front of their homes.

City parking officials say they only enforce the parallel parking law on a complaint basis.

But Keating says he has a possible solution to help angle parkers so Calgarians avoid nasty surprise tickets on their windshields, like the ones some Woodbine residents discovered back in October.

Keating says angle parking is not a problem on culs-de-sac if they are wide enough. 

Calgary Coun. Shane Keating says he will look at proposing a solution to make it legal to angle park on some culs-de-sac. (Shane Keating)

He's suggesting on those streets, the parking rules should be like speed limits, where the city can opt to alter the rules if appropriate.

"We can change the speed limit as long as it's signed, so if we had something like a local improvement petition by the local residents, if we had a cost for putting up signs that you could angle park between these signs, it would remove [the problem] not only from ours, but from the media and from the disputes between the neighbourhood."

The city says it would take a motion from city council to allow residents to circulate a petition, so they could pay to post signs allowing angle parking.