Chicago’s winter overnight parking ban will go into effect Friday morning, meaning cars parked on bus routes and main roads will be towed regardless of snow.
The citywide ban affects 107 miles of streets and will be in effect nightly from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. until April 1. Drivers can visit chicagoshovels.org to check which routes are affected.
Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Cole Stallard said the ban is a safety issue. He said it keeps routes clear for emergency vehicles, public transportation and snowplows, which are unable to fully plow and salt roads when cars are left parked.
“We have close to 500,000 people that use the CTA bus line with another 300,000 that are on our CTA trains, and we get close to a million people a week coming into the city,” Stallard said. “So that’s a whole lot of people, and we have to keep these main streets moving on top of emergency vehicles.”
Cars parked on designated streets, which have permanent signs alerting drivers of the ban, will be towed to either Pound 2 at 10301 S. Doty Ave., or Pound 6 at 701 N. Sacramento Ave. Violators will also receive a minimum $150 towing fee, a $60 ticket and a storage fee of $25 per day.
Stallard said the department is working hard to spread the word about the ban and has been putting up flyers along the routes.
About 65 vehicles are towed each day, he said.
“Those first few nights when it happens to be on a weekend per se, that’s when it’s our highest,” he said. “Be patient with us and look out for those signs and it just allows us to do our job.”
