Charlottetown police need to do a better job of telling people about temporary parking bans, a city councillor says.
During the recent Fall Flavours Festival, a parking ban notice was placed in the city's Guardian newspaper, but Kim Devine said that's not good enough.
'If you're going to ... tow their car, you have to make every reasonable effort to inform somebody'—Charlottetown Coun. Kim Devine
Several people in her ward didn't know that various streets were subject to the temporary parking ban, she said.
"If you're going to take an action where you're going to give somebody a ticket, or you're going tow their car, you have to make every reasonable effort to inform somebody of the consequences of not moving their vehicles," Devine said.
The women's international cycling event Tour de PEI sends parking ban notifications out in the mail, she said.
City may go high-tech
People get their news from many sources these days, not just the newspaper, agreed Coun. Rob Lantz, who chairs the city's police committee.
In the short term, his committee will look at possibly putting the onus on event organizers to do a better job of notifying the public, he said.
That could include mail-outs or putting up flyers around the affected neighbourhood.
Longer term, Lantz hopes to make better use of technology.
"We're not quite there yet, but there are ways to employ information technology so that you subscribe, or sign up for things that may affect you," he said.
"So you can get alerts about municipal issues that are happening in your area, and those are pushed directly to you. You don't have to go looking for them."
