Chicago drivers be warned: Check street signs because parking at your go-to spot might soon get you a ticket.
The city’s winter overnight parking ban goes into effect in the predawn hours of Friday morning, the Department of Streets and Sanitation said.
The ban prohibits all parking from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. — regardless of snow — on 107 miles of the city’s main streets, the department wrote in a news release. The ban runs from Dec. 1 through April 1.
The annual inconvenience for drivers allows emergency vehicles and public transportation to move freely, making roads safer, Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Cole Stallard said in the news release.
“Having this consistent rule for overnight parking allows snow removal crews to plan and execute their operations more effectively, and we ask residents and visitors to please follow the posted parking restriction signs so critical routes can be fully salted and plowed during winter weather events,” Stallard said.
The roads affected by the ban are among the city’s top snow-removal priorities, the department said. The cars parked on the affected routes block streets from being fully plowed and salted, it added.
Violators of the parking ban face pricey consequences: a $60 ticket, a minimum $150 tow and a $25-per-day pound storage fee, the department said.
The roads affected by the ban are marked by parking restriction signs and can also be seen on chicagoshovels.org. The website also shows where the city’s snowplows are in real time during storms, according to the news release.
