Montréal Snow Removal and Winter Parking Rules

Why Montréal removes snow rather than piling it

The scale is the first thing to grasp. The City puts the network it has to clear at roughly 10,000 kilometres of streets and sidewalks, cleared day and night through the winter, with crews spreading salt and abrasives as well as removing snow. The total length of street it clears is comparable to the distance between Montréal and Beijing, and the City makes the point that residents are not expected to clear sidewalks themselves, as they are in many other large cities.

Because the snow is hauled away rather than stored at the kerb, the operation needs the full width of the street. That is what turns parked cars into the central logistical problem of Montréal winter, and it is why loading is organised by sector rather than by individual street.

Clearing, then loading: how the operation is sequenced

Snow removal happens in two phases and they behave differently. Clearing comes first: ploughs push snow from the roadway to the kerb so the street is passable. Loading comes afterwards, when those snow banks are picked up and taken away.

The loading phase is the one that affects parked cars, and its timing depends on conditions. The City notes that collecting a given depth of snow takes a minimum number of days and nights in ideal conditions, and longer if there is more accumulation, if precipitation continues during the operation, if more vehicles than usual have to be towed, if machinery breaks down, or if crews are required to rest after working too many hours. That variability is why the schedule is published operation by operation rather than fixed for the season in advance.

Signs go up before loading begins, and daytime and night-time operations have different lead times: signs for a daytime operation appear the evening before. In LaSalle and Verdun, residents are asked to call the number shown on the signs to confirm whether they need to move their vehicles.

Finding out when your street is being cleared

The City publishes a snow removal operations map showing where loading is scheduled and when, so residents can move their vehicles in advance. The live map also shows the locations of free municipal parking made available at night during snow removal periods, in collaboration with the Agence de mobilité durable.

The map is the main tool, but it is not the only signal. Tow trucks pass through a sector sounding audible warnings before vehicles are towed, a measure the City describes as intended to reduce the number of tickets issued and to speed up the operation. Treat that warning as a last chance rather than a first notice, because operations can run ahead of the published schedule.

Winter parking rules and the signage that carries them

Winter parking restrictions in Montréal are carried by signage rather than by a single seasonal rule, and during loading operations the signs indicate no-parking periods. The City’s own guidance concentrates on a small number of habits, because they are what cause most of the problems.

• Park parallel to the kerb and close to the sidewalk, rather than at an angle, so that equipment can clear the full width of the street in one pass.
• Fold back your rear-view mirrors so that passing machinery does not clip them.
• Keep garbage, recycling and brown bins on your own property rather than in the street while operations are scheduled.
• Stay well clear of the machinery and remain visible, and avoid wearing earphones near it — the equipment is large, has limited visibility and cannot stop quickly.

If your car is towed, and where to park instead

If your vehicle has been towed, the City publishes a towed vehicle look-up. The look-up works from the vehicle and the location, so it helps to know where the car was parked and when you last saw it before you start. The City also publishes open data on vehicles towed for obstructing its operations.

Free municipal parking is available at night during snow removal periods, in collaboration with the Agence de mobilité durable, and the snow removal map shows where those spaces are. That is the intended answer for residents with nowhere off-street to put a car, and it is worth locating the nearest option before the season starts rather than during a loading operation.

The City also publishes explanatory material on how snow removal works and on common misconceptions about it, which is a useful place to check before concluding that a street has been missed. If a street genuinely appears to have been skipped, 311 is the central non-emergency route for raising it.